Lakeville, Massachusetts, United States

🇺🇸 Lakeville is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States.

History Native Americans inhabited southern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas, and Lakeville is a site with significant indigenous history.

Soewampset is listed as a noted habitation in a 1634 list of settlements in New England, suggesting that Assawompset Pond may take its name from a former Wampanoag settlement on its banks. The Wampanoag Royal Cemetery is located in modern-day Lakeville on a peninsula between Little and Great Quittacas Pond.

History: King Philip's War In 1675, the body of John Sassamon, advisor to Governor Josiah Winslow, was discovered beneath the ice of Assawompset Pond. He was believed to have been murdered, and three Native Americans were arrested. On the testimony of only one witness (contrary to English law, which required the testimony of at least two witnesses in a murder trial), the three were sentenced to death by hanging. When the sentence was carried out, Tobias, senior counselor to the Pokanoket sachem King Philip, and a second supposed accomplice died. When the attempt was made to carry out the sentence on the third "accomplice"—Tobias's son - the rope broke and he was imprisoned, having first confessed to the killings. His confession is widely believed to have been coerced.

The death of John Sassamon and the subsequent trial and execution of the Wampanoag men convicted of his murder is broadly acknowledged as the trigger for King Philip's War, though tensions between English colonists and indigenous groups had been building for decades. During part of the war, Metacomet and his forces sheltered in Lakeville at Assawompset Pond, prior to Metacomet's capture in Bristol, Rhode Island.

The Wampanoag settlement at Assawompset Pond persisted until at least the early 1800s, as attested by burials in the Wampanoag Royal Cemetery, and the biography of Benjamin Simonds.

History: 18th Century to present The first recorded non-native settlement of Lakeville was in 1705 by a man named Peirce, 'whose descendants are very numerous.' Lakeville was settled on a larger scale in 1717 as a western parish of Middleborough. It was incorporated as a separate town in 1853. One notable resident from Lakeville who fought in the American Revolution, was a Wampanoag man named Benjamin Simonds, who was an aide-de-camp to George Washington at Valley Forge, who died in either 1831 or 1836. He was likely apart of one of the two militias from Lakeville, the Pond Militia Company or the Beech Woods Company of Minutemen. They were combined into Middleborough's Fourth Company of Foot, in which he served. He ended up becoming a local celebrity, both because of his service and because he was the last fully Wampanoag person to live on Assawompset Pond.

91 men from Lakeville served in the American Civil War, 85 in the army and 6 in the navy. 3 churches have been built in the town, the first in 1725, the second in 1751 and the third one in 1835. Ocean Spray is headquartered in Lakeville.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 36.1 square miles (93.6 km²), of which 29.6 square miles (76.6 km²) is land and 6.6 square miles (17.0 km²), or 18.17%, is water. Lakeville is irregularly shaped, bordered by Middleborough to the north-east and east, Rochester to the south-east, Freetown to the south and south-west, and Berkley and Taunton to the west. Its borders with Taunton, Berkley and Freetown are also a central section of the western borders of Plymouth County. Lakeville is roughly at the centre of what is considered Southeastern Massachusetts, and is approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, 20 miles (32 km) north of New Bedford, 30 miles (48 km) east of Providence, Rhode Island, and 40 miles (64 km) south of Boston.

The town's geography is dominated by its namesake lakes, which are referred to as "ponds" in general usage. In addition to the main bodies of water and their feeder brooks and rivers, there are also several smaller ponds, as well as many brooks and swamps, including the Casual Swamp and the Cedar Swamp, which is protected as a part of the Assonet Cedar Swamp Wildlife Management Area, which is operated by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. There are also several small conservation areas, four country clubs and two parks, including the Ted Williams Camp, which was once the site of a summer baseball camp run by Boston Red Sox legend and Baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams. According to "Lakeville, Massachusetts Gravestone Inscriptions 1711–2003" by Jean Douillette, there are 31 known cemeteries in Lakeville, or almost 1 per square mile.

Transport Massachusetts Route 140, a four-lane divided highway, passes through the town on its trip between Route 24 in nearby Taunton and Interstate 195 in New Bedford. The town is also crossed by Route 18, Route 79 and Route 105, as well as a short, 0.4-mile (0.64 km) stretch of U.S. Route 44 in the far northern point of town. Route 79's eastern terminus is at its intersection with Route 105 on the town line. Additionally, three exits of Interstate 495 are located just over the town line in Middleborough, granting access to Routes 44, 18 and 105 (from north to south in order).

In addition to its highways, the terminus of the Middleborough-Lakeville Line of the MBTA's commuter rail is along the town's border (the rail itself passes along the town line; the parking lots are entirely within Lakeville). There is also a spur off that line, heading due west to Taunton, which is operated by CSX Transportation. This spur links the two main lines of the railroad in south-eastern Massachusetts; the easternmost heads to Cape Cod via the line used by the MBTA, and the westernmost proceeds to split in Taunton, sending two lines towards Fall River and New Bedford, respectively. The New Bedford line also passes through the town on its west side. The town has no air facilities of its own. The nearest private airfield is in Taunton; the nearest regional airport is in New Bedford, and the nearest national and international airport is T. F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island.