Rehoboth, County of Bristol, The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America (North America)

Rehoboth is an historic town in Bristol County, Massachusetts Established by Walter Palmer and William Sabin in 1643, it was incorporated in 1645, one of the earliest Massachusetts towns to incorporate. The town is named for the Hebrew word for "enlargement," (Broad Places) signifying the space settlers enjoyed (God has given us room) and is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts Early Rehoboth, known as "Old Rehoboth," included all of what is now Seekonk, Massachusetts, and East Providence, Rhode Island, as well as parts of the nearby communities of Attleboro, North Attleborough, Swansea, and Somerset in Massachusetts, and Barrington, Bristol, Warren, Pawtucket, Cumberland, and Woonsocket in Rhode Island. The town was (and still is) the site of a crossroads which helped to serve Taunton, Providence, Fall River and points to the north One of the founding fathers of Rehoboth was Samuel Newman, a clergyman from Weymouth, Massachusetts who moved to the Seconet area near to Little Compton in the Plymouth Colony. Samuel Newman and his followers migrated north and established a huge town common in what is now Rumford, Rhode Island. They gave the roundabout a distinctive name: "The Ring of the Green" The Newman Congregational Church (founded 1643, current building dates to 1810) still stands at the intersections of Pawtucket Ave, Newman Ave and Ferris Ave Somewhat of a celebrity, Newman's famous bible concordance (the third ever printed in English) had just been published in London. He spent the next few years revising the concordance with a second edition published in 1650 that includes on the title page, "By Samuel Newman, now teacher of the Church at Rehoboth in New England." According to legend, he worked on the revisions by burning pine knots instead of candles. The concordance, later called the Cambridge Concordance, was reprinted as late as 1889, almost 250 years after it was first published by the founder of Rehoboth Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony formally surrendered his patent rights to the "Body of Freemen" of the Plymouth Colony to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He however retained 3 previously reserved lands: "...from Sowamsett River to Pawtucket River, with Cawsumsett Neck…extending into the land eight miles through the whole breadth thereof." This tract comprised the present Swansea, Rehoboth, Seekonk and Attleboro, MA, and East Providence, Cumberland and Pawtucket, RI [ source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehoboth,_Massachusetts ]