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Town Histories

• Nahum Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater, in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, including an extensive Family Register (Boston, 1840; rep. Bridgewater, Mass., 1897).
  This is an important early work on town history and genealogy. The latter is three-quarters of the 400-page book. Digital versions at Internet Archive, Google Books, and on Ancestry ($).
  WorldCat (Other Libraries); FHL film 599265 Item 4 (orig. book) or FHL book 974.482/B2 D2m (var. rep.).
  

The family sketches include the families: Alden, Aldrich, Alger, Allen, Ames, Angiers, Bacon, Bailey, Barber, Barrell, Barrett, Bartlett, Bass, Bassett, Bates, Battles, Beal, Bearce, Belcher, Benson, Bessee, Bicknell, Bisbee, Blanchard, Blossom, Bolton, Bonney, Bowditch, Bosworth, Bradley, Brett, Brown, Bryant, Buck, Bowker, Burr, Butterfield, Byram, Carr, Carver, Cary, Caswell, Chamberlain, Chandler, Cheesman, Chipman, Churchill, Cleveland, Clift, Cobb, Cole, Colwell, Conant, Cook, Copeland, Corthrell, Cowing, Crafts, Crane, Crocker, Crooker, Cross, Curtis, Daniels, Davenport, Dawes, Dickerman, Dike, Downie, Drake, Dumphrey, Dunbar, Dyer, Eaton, Eddy, Edson, Egerton, Erskin, Faxon, Fearing, Field, Fillebrown, Fitzgerald, Flynn, Fobes, Freelove, French, Fuller, Fullerton, Gannett, Gay, Gilbert, Gilmore, Godfrey, Gould, Groves, Gurney, Haines, Hale, Hall, Hanks, Hamlin, Hanmer, Harden, Hamlin, Harlow, Harris, Hartwell, Harvey, Hatch, Hathaway, Hayden, Hayford, Hayward, Hearsey, Heiford, Hegene, Henry, Hewett, Higgins, Hill, Hobart, Holden, Holloway, Holman, Holmes, Hooper, Horton, How, Howard, Hudson, Hyde, Inglee, Jackson, Jacob, Jameson, Jenkins, Jennings, Johnson, Jones, Joslyn, Keen, Keith, Keyser, Kiff, King, Kingman, Kinsley, Knapp, Knowlton, Landers, Latham, Lathrop / Lothrop, Lawrence, Lawson, Lasell / Lazell, Leach, Lendall, Leonard, Lincoln, Lindsay, Littlefield, Loring, Lovell, Loveridge, Lowden, Manly, May, McBride, Mehurin, Mitchell, Monro / Munroe, Moore, Morse, Morton, Muxam / Maxim, Nash, Newbury, Newell, Newhall, Niles, Norton, Noyes, Orcutt, Orr, Osborne, Packard, Parris, Perkins, Perry, Pettingill, Phillips, Phinney, Pierce, Pinson / Pincin, Pool, Pope, Porter, Powers, Pratt, Price, Prior / Pryor, Ramsdell, Ratchford, Rathburn, Read / Reed, Rea, Reynolds, Richards, Richardson, Rickard, Rider / Ryder, Ripley, Robbins, Robinson, Rogers, Russell, Ryon, Sanger, Sawin, Seabury, Sealy / Seeley, Sears, Sever, Shaw, Shelly, Sherman, Shepard, Shurtliff, Silvester / Sylvester, Skinner, Smith, Snell, Snow, Soper, Sorein, Soule, Southworth, Sprague, Standish, Staples, Starr, Stetson, Storrs, Sturtevant, Swift, Taylor, Thaxter, Thayer, Thomas, Thompson, Tilden, Tilson, Tirrell, Tolman, Tompkins, Torrey, Trask, Tribou, Trow, Turner, Vail, Vaughn, Vickery, Vinton, Wade, Waldo, Wales, Ward, Warren, Washburn, Waterman, Wentworth, Wesley, West, Weston, Wharton, White, Whiting, Whitman, Whitmarsh, Wilbor, Williams, Willis, Wilmarth, Winslow, Wood, Woodward, Woodwiss, Wormal, and Young.
Next is more brief family sketches of some original proprietors of Bridgewater, but were never residents. These sketches include Allerton, Barnes, Bartlett, Bonney, Bradford, Brewster, Brown, Carver, Chandler, Church, Clark, Collier, Cushing, Cushman, Delano, Eaton, Faunce, Ford, Hall, Hobart, Howland, Hunt, Irish, Loring, Merrick, Morton, Nash, Partridge, Paybody / Peabody, Pierce, Prince, Sampson, Simmons, Soule, Wadsworth, West, Weston, and Winslow.

• Records of John Cary, the first town clerk of Bridgewter, Mass., from 1656 to 1681 (Brockton, Mass., 1889), 14 pp.
  Digital version at Internet Archive.
  
• Bridgewater Normal Association, Brief Sketch of the Pioneers in Establishing the First State Normal School in America [and] A Brief Sketch of the First Principals of the State Normal Schools, 1839-'40 (S.l., 1907), unpaginated.
  No digital version.
  
• A Coppying Out of ye Olde Recordes Beginning With ye 4th Chh of Christ in Bridgewater - 1740 ([Brockton, Mass.], 1980), 837 + [80] pp.
  WorldCat (Other Libraries); FHL book 974.482/B1 K2c.
  These are the verbatim transcript of the Fourth Parish Church of Bridgewater that became the First Parish Church of North Bridgewater in 1821 when that part of town broken off to form a separate town and that town was renamed Brockton in 1874.
• Bridgewater Wikipedia page.

Vital Records

The town's vital records are available in many locations:

• Bridgewater Town Clerk's Office
  64 Central Square
  Bridgewater MA 02324
  Phone 508-697-0921
  
• Microfilm of the originals created by the Family History Library, 1656-1853, FHL films 910359-910364; 1843-1905, FHL film 2079745.
• Microfiche of the originals created by Archive Publishing covering town records that included vital records and a few other town records, 1641-1908, on 176 fiche. Part of Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620–1988 at Ancestry ($); Index
• Official state copy of vital records started in 1841. See the guide to the state for more information here.

• Vital Records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, 1916), 2 v.
  These volumes were microfilmed by the Family History Library, FHL films 164691-164692; abstracted online at Ray's Place; and in digital versions at Internet Archive (v. 1 and v. 2) and Google books (v. 1 and v. 2).
  WorldCat (Other Libraries); FHL book 974.482/B2 V2v.
  

This includes, in part, church records from the Unitarian Church (C.R.1), Trinity Church (C.R.2), Central Square Congregational Church (C.R.3), Scotland Trinitarian Congregational Church (C.R.4), and Church of the New Jerusalem (C.R.5). Deaths are included from Mt. Prospect Cem. (G.R.1), Pratt-town Cem. (G.R.2), Cherry Street or Harlow Cem. (G.R.3), Conant Street Cem. (G.R.4), Hillside Cem. (G.R.5), Scotland Graveyard (G.R.6), Old Graveyard (G.R.7), Alden or Vernon Street Graveyard in Titicut (G.R.8), Keith or South Street Graveyard in Titicut (G.R.9), Trinity Church Graveyard (G.R.10), Japan Graveyard (G.R.11), Great Woods Graveyard (G.R.12), and Small Pox Graveyards (G.R. 13).

Cemeteries

The following is a list of cemeteries in present-day Bridgewater. Remember that the "old" town included present-day East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and Brockton. For more details regarding these cemeteries, see the state guide under cemeteries for books on the subject.

1. Alden's Bridge Cemetery, 18th century.
2. Auburn Street Cemetery, 18th century.
3. Benson Town Cemetery, 19th century.
4. Cherry Street / Harlow Cemetery, 1826. (B)
5. Conant Street Cemetery, 1821. (B)
6. First / South Parish Cemetery, 1716. (A)
7. Hillside Cemetery, 1813. (B)
8. Japan Graveyard, 1766. (B)
9. Jennings Hill Cemetery, 1750. (A, B [as Old Graveyard])
10. Mount Prospect Cemetery, 1842. (B)
11. Orange Street Cemetery, n.d.
12. Pine Street Cemetery, 1833.
13. Pratt Town Burial Ground, 1828. (B)
14. Roman Catholic Cemetery, 1867.
15. St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Burial Ground, 1854.
16. Scotland Burial Ground, 1753. (A, B)
17. Small Pox Cemetery, 1785. (A, B)
18. South Street / Keith Cemetery, 1756. (A, B)
19. Titicut / Great Woods Cemetery, 1793. (A, B)
20. Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, 1748. (A, B)
21. Vernon Street / Alden Cemetery, 1751. (A, B)

Abstracts of the cemeteries above are marked and keyed to:
(A). William Latham, Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts (Bridgewater, Mass., 1882) -- a digital version at Google Books.
(B). Vital Records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, 1916) [see links above under Vital Records].

Churches

The following is a list of churches established in town in order of organization date (if known) and condition of records in the 1889 survey if listed.

1. First Congregational Church (now First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church), 1716, records good.
2. Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, 1747, records good.
3. Bridgewater Congregational Church (now [www.csccuccbridgewaterma.org Central Square Congregational Church] [United Church of Christ]), 1821, records good.
4. New Jerusalem Church [Swedenborgian], 1833, records good.
5. Scotland Congregational Church (now Scotland Trinitian Church), 1836, records good.
6. Saint Thomas Aquinas's Roman Catholic Church, 1855, older records to 1908 at Archdiocese of Boston Archives.
7. Methodist Episcopal Church (now Gammons Memorial United Methodist Church), 1874, records good.
8. Christian Science Church, no date.
9. Faith Chapel Assemblies of God, no date.
10. First Baptist Church, no date.
11. South Shore Community Church, 1994.
12. Trinity Covenant Church, 1983.

Newspapers

1. Plymouth County Republican (first as We, the People and Old Colony Press, then Bridgewater Republican and Old Colony Press), 1832-1837.
2. Bridgewater Banner, 1862-aft. 1866.
3. Bridgewater Independent, 1884-present, available at NewsLibrary ($) from 13 June 2007 to present (search free, pay for articles).
4. Bridgewater Townsman, 1985-present.

Libraries and Historical Societies

The following is list of research facilities in town:

Bridgewater Public Library
15 South St.
Bridgewater MA 02324
Phone 508-697-3331

Maxwell Library
Bridgewater State College
10 Shaw Rd.
Bridgewater MA 02324
Phone 508-531-1394

Old Bridgewater Historical Society
162 Howard St.
West Bridgewater MA 02379
Phone 508-559-1510

References

v • d • e Towns in Plymouth County in Massachusetts articles Abington · Bridgewater · Brockton · Carver · Duxbury · East Bridgewater · Halifax · Hanover · Hanson · Hingham · Hull · Kingston · Lakeville · Marion · Marshfield · Mattapoisett · Middleborough · Norwell · Pembroke · Plymouth · Plympton · Rochester · Rockland · Scituate · Wareham · West Bridgewater · Whitman

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