Town of Somerset, once part of Sowams

Though the Town of Somerset wasn’t incorporated until 1790, it was originally part of the 1653 Sowams purchase and part of the Town of Swansea when it was incorporated in 1667 by the Plymouth Colony Court. Somerset wasn’t named as part of Sowams because it hadn’t yet been identified.

Hundreds of Pokanoket artifacts are on display in the Indian Room at the Somerset Historical Society Museum in the former Village School at 274 High Street in Somerset, MA.

(Above) The collection of artifacts provided by  Roy Athearn, who started collecting in the 1930s, and to James Bradbury. Their notebooks detail the findings of thousands of arrowheads and other items found along the Taunton River where Pokanoket settlements, such as Peace Haven, were located.

(Above) Pokanoket Elders Donna and Roger Desrosiers have provided protection of Council Oak trees, one in Somerset and one in nearby Dighton, that served as meeting places for the Massasoit Ousamequin in the 17th century.

Click here for photos of the Friends Meeting House in Somerset.