Yarmouth Vacation Rentals

The History of Yarmouth

On January 7, 1639.the court record refers to the land grant to the first settlers John Crow, Thomas Howes, and Anthony Thacher as “the lands of Mattacheeset, now called Yarmouth”. This is considered the first usage of the name.

Three Englishmen, all farmers, were responsible for the first permanent settlement of Mattacheese in 1639. They were Anthony Thacher, John Crowe and Thomas Howes. (A year before, Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins was granted a leave of Plymouth Colony in August 1638 to erect a house at Mattacheese, and cut hay to winter his cattle, provided it not to withdraw him from the town of Plymouth.)

By 1640, Mattacheese had been renamed Yarmouth, probably after a seaside town in England, and 28 families made their homes here. Most were farmers, but others worked trades required by a new colonial outpost, including that of tailor, cobbler, goldsmith and carriage maker. Many descendants of the town’s first settlers still live in Yarmouth today.

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