Barnstable, Massachusetts

Founded by early branch of Plymouth_Colony pilgrims and today is the largest community on Cape Cod.

Barnstable is a city, referred to as the Town of Barnstable, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod. The town contains seven villages (one of which is also named Barnstable) within its boundaries. Its largest village, Hyannis, is the central business district of the county and home to Barnstable Municipal Airport, the airline hub of Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Early Pilgrim History
It was one of the first towns to be settled, in 1636, and was incorporated in 1639, as were the other Cape towns of Sandwich and Yarmouth. The early settlers were farmers, but soon fishing and salt works became major industries in town. By the end of the nineteenth century, there were some 800 ships harbored in the town.

After the determination of the congregation to "set down at Mattacheese," on the 26th of June a fast was held at Scituate, where this colony were residing, "that the Lord in his presence" go with them to this new land. Rev. John Lothrop, the beloved pastor of the church there, by his letters, found among Governor Winslow's papers, has furnished many facts concerning the trials of himself and associates as to where the settlement should be. Some historians assert that Joseph Hull, Thomas Dimock and their few associates had settled here during the summer, or in advance of Mr. Lothrop and his associates; and there are circumstances that substantiate that. On June 4, 1639 (June 14, N. S.), the colony court granted permission to Messrs. Hull, Dimock and others "to erect a plantation or town at or about a place called by the Indians Mattacheese;" and Rev. Mr. Lothrop, in his diary, said, that upon their arrival at Mattacheese, "After praise to God in public was ended, we divided into three companies to feast together—some at Mr. Hull's, some at Mr. Mayo's, and some at Br. Lumbard's Sr." Prior to this—sometime in 1638—Rev. Stephen Bachilor and a few associates made a fruitless attempt to settle in what is now the northeastern portion of Barnstable. The location was for a time considered as a part of Yarmouth; hence some writers make Rev. Bachilor a settler of Yarmouth.

There is no other record of the settlement of Barnstable until the arrival of Rev. John Lothrop and his associates on the 21st of October, 1639 (N. S.). The greater part of Mr. Lothrop's church accompanied him to Barnstable, leaving the remaining few "in a broken condition." Besides Joseph Hull and Thomas Dimock and their associates as mentioned in the grant, we find here in the autumn of 1639, John Lothrop, the pastor, Mr. Mayo, Mr. Lumbard, sr., Isaac Wells, Samuel Hinckley, Samuel Fuller, Robert Shelley, Edward Fitzrandal, Henry Ewell, Henry Rowley, James Cudworth, William Crocker, John Cooper, Henry Cobb, George Lewis, Robert Linnell, William Parker, Edward Caseley, William Caseley, Henry Bourne, Anthony Annable, and Isaac Robinson.