Bay Road

United States Migration  Trails and Roads  Massachusetts 

Did an ancestor travel the Bay Road of Massachusetts? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.

History
At least three routes in Massachusetts have been labelled the Bay Road: (A) the Old Connecticut Path from Boston to Hartford, (B) the Old Roebuck Road from Boston to Providence, and (C) the route from Boston to New Bedford. But this article is only about the later pathway from Boston to New Bedford.

The Bay Road followed an old Indian trail about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzard's Bay. It went from Boston to New Bedford in Massachusetts. Boston was founded in 1630; New Bedford was established in 1652. The Bay Road attracted European settlers along its route because it provided access to markets for settler goods and services.

Overlapping routes. Part of the Bay Road followed the exact same route as a part of the Old Roebuck Road  at least as far as Norwood. Moreover, that small portion of the Bay Road was also used as part of one of several main routes of the lower Boston Post Road  from Boston to Providence to New York City. In the 1760s and 1770s that same small part of the Bay Road was also part of the King's Highway  from Boston to New York City and all the way south to Charleston, South Carolina.

Stagecoach service. In the 1760s stagecoaches began to traverse these roads carrying regular mail and passengers. Inns for stagecoach passengers and other travelers often were established about the time of American Revolution. By 1800 an advertisement suggested stage service from Boston to Providence took only ten hours. Nevertheless, travel between colonial towns was more often by sea than it was over land until just before the American Revolution.

Toll roads. Massachusetts developed a turnpike (toll) system for wagon roads in the early 1800s including most of the route from Boston to New Bedford. For example, the New Bedford and Bridgewater Turnpike charged tolls from 1807 to 1847. Most of these early pathways continue as roads today. Modern freeways usually parallel the older road systems.

Decline. However, the use of early roads and turnpikes for moving settlers declined with the introduction of railroads. Settlers could travel faster, less expensively, and safer on railroads than on wagon roads. So, as railroads entered an area, the wagon-road traffic in that area declined. Railroad service from Boston to Taunton opened in 1835. The first railroad from New Bedford to Taunton was opened in 1840.

Route
The Bay Road passed through three Massachusetts counties: Suffolk, Norfolk, and Bristol on its way between Boston and New Bedford.

A partial description of the Bay Road (the northern portion) is found in Wikipedia as follows. Bay Road is a 17+ mile north-south road in southeastern Massachusetts. The road is in parts a very old road, dating to colonial times, when it was known as the King's Highway. Bay Road begins at the town line of Canton and Sharon, Norfolk County just north of an intersection with Route 27 at Cobb Corner and ends in Taunton as Bay Street. The road heads south along the Sharon side of the Sharon/Stoughton town line in Norfolk County. The road enters Bristol County in the town of Easton. Bay Road runs along the east side of Borderland State Park and passes through the intersection of Routes 106 and 123 in the neighborhood of Five Corners. The road then enters into the town of Norton. There, Bay Road runs along the eastern shore of Winnecunnet Pond just before entering the Taunton neighborhood of North Taunton, where Bay Road becomes Bay Street, and intersects Interstate 495. The street runs alongside Lake Sabbatia and Watson Pond State Park. It then enters the Whittenton section and terminates at Broadway (Route 138).

Two sections of the road, a portion in Easton (Foundry Street to the Norton town line) and the entire segment in Norton, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Norton section is listed as "Old Bay Road", while that in Easton is listed as "Bay Road".

Connecting Routes. Over time the Bay Road connected with half a dozen new migration routes out its Boston end:


 * Coast Path follows an ancient Indian path near the shoreline from Boston to Plymouth.
 * Kennebunk Road links Boston along the New England coast to Augusta, Maine.
 * King's Highway also known as the Boston Post Road goes from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City, and south to Charleston, South Carolina with extensions on each end. In Massachusetts and Connecticut there were at least three competing routes for the Boston Post Road. Parts were laid out 1650 to 1735; its length remained in heavy use through 1783, and some parts are used to this day.
 * Mohawk or Iroquois Trail This trail was established in 1722 from Albany to Utica to Rome to Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. The Boston to Albany side of that route probably preceded the Albany to Oswego route by many years.
 * Old Connecticut Path a pre-historic Indian path from Boston, Massachusetts to the Connecticut River Valley at Springfield, Massachusetts and south to Hartford, Connecticut.
 * Old Roebuck Road goes from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island (Narragansett Bay).

Modern parallels. The modern roads that roughly match the old Bay Road from Boston to New Bedford are:


 * From Boston head southwest on Washington Street bound for Dedham.
 * From Dedham go south on the Providence Highway to Norwood.
 * At Norwood transfer onto Neponsit Street bound southeast to Canton.
 * At Canton turn south onto Washington Street which shortly becomes the Bay Road or Bay Street on its way to Taunton.
 * From Taunton take Summer Street/MA-140 to the southeast. This becomes County Street or County Road bound for Clifford.
 * Near Clifford the County Road merges going south with MA-18/Acushnet Avenue/Ashley Blvd on the way into New Bedford.

Settler Records
Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan immigrants from England. New Bedford was settled in 1652 by some Pilgrim families of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who had purchased their new homeland from the Indians. The road between these two important ports attracted settlers who would be able to more easily get access to the markets which those ports provided. Many of the earliest settlers along the Bay Road would have been from Boston or New Bedford. Look at the earliest deeds along the Bay Road to learn the names of the first settlers. If you already know the name of a settler near the Bay Road, you have a good chance of finding his or her genealogy in sources like:


 * Lucy Mary Kellogg, et. al., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620, 23+ vols. (Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975- ). ;.
 * Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1995). ;.


 * General Society of Mayflower Descendants
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society