Taunton

City and administrative headquarters of Bristol County, southeastern Massachusetts, on the Taunton River, 55 km/34 mi south of Boston; population (2001 est) 56,400. Heavy manufacturing has included locomotives and printing presses. Electronics, leather, plastics, and kitchen ranges are also produced. The city has wooded rural parts containing several state parks as well as its industrial core. It was incorporated in 1639.

Colonial Taunton had a gristmill, sawmill, and ironworks (1652). In the 1800s industries include the manufacture of bricks, textiles, ships, and stoves. Iron, copper, and silver industries flourished from the 1820s. Taunton was a base of operations during King Philip's War (1675–76) involving Philip, the chief of the Wampanoag people, and centre of Revolutionary sentiment in the 1770s.