1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Weymouth (Massachusetts)

WEYMOUTH, a township of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on Weymouth harbour, a part of Boston Bay, 9 m S.E. of Boston, between Quincy and Braintree (to the W.) and Hingham to the E. Pop. (1890) 10,866, (1900) 11,324 (1845 foreign-born); (1905, state census) 11,585, (1910) 12,895. Area, 19 sq. m. Weymouth is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and is connected with Boston, Quincy, Braintree, Hingham, Nantasket and Rockland by electric lines. In the township there are several villages, including Weymouth, North Weymouth, East Weymouth and South Weymouth, and the smaller villages of Weymouth Centre, Weymouth Heights, Lovell's Corner, Nash's Corner and Old Spain, and there are also four islands, Round, Grape, Slate and Sheep. The mainland itself is largely a peninsula lying between the Weymouth Fore river and the Weymouth Back river, to the west and east respectively. The surface of the country is rough: Great Hill (at one of the narrowest parts of the peninsula) is about 140 ft. above the rivers. In the township are the Fogg Library (1898, in South Weymouth) founded by a bequest of John S. Fogg; and the Tufts Library (1879, in Weymouth village), endowed by Quincy Tufts and his sister Susan Tufts. In 1905 the township's factory products were valued at $4,921,955, of which $2,588,213, or 52.6% of the total, was the value of boots and shoes. The township owns and operates its water works; the water supply is obtained from Weymouth Great Pond in the village of South Weymouth. Weymouth was first settled in 1623 by Robert Gorges. It was known first as the Plantation of Wessaguscus or Wessagusset, was incorporated as a township in 1635, and its boundaries have been practically unchanged since 1637, when Round and Grape islands were granted to Weymouth.

See C. F. Adams, Jr., “Wessagusset and Weymouth” in No. 3 (1905) of the Publications of the Weymouth Historical Society (organized in 1879 and incorporated in 1886), and D. H. Hurd, History of Norfolk County (Boston, 1884).