Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Taunton (2.)

TAUNTON, a city of the United States, the county-seat of Bristol county, Massachusetts, lies some 31 miles nearly south from Boston. The town proper, sometimes called Taunton Green, stands on the right bank of the Taunton river, at the head of navigation, about 17 miles above its mouth. The entire area enclosed within the corporate limits is 37 square miles. Taunton is traversed by the main line of the Old Colony Railway, which connects it with Boston and Fall River, Mass., and Providence, R.I. Owing to its situation and its connexions by rail and sea, Taunton has become a supply point for the greater part of south-eastern Massachusetts. The population of the city was 18,629 in 1870, 21,213 in 1880, and 23,674 in 1885, showing an increase somewhat in excess of that of the State at large. Fully one-fourth of the population are of foreign birth, and the proportion is increasing. The State lunatic asylum is in Taunton. The leading industries are the manufacture of cotton goods, iron and steel products (particularly locomotives, machinery, nails and spikes), and silver-plated table ware. Taunton was incorporated as a town in 1639, and received a city charter in 1864.