Colonial County of Worcester, The Province of Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America (North America)

Worcester County (far to the west of the Cape Cod Bay) was formed from the eastern portion of colonial Hampshire County, the western portion of the original Middlesex County and the extreme western portion of the original Suffolk County

When the government of Worcester County was established on April 2, 1731, Worcester was chosen as its shire town (later known as a county seat)

From that date until the dissolution of the county government, it was the only county seat

Because of the size of the county, there were fifteen attempts over 140 years to split the county into two counties, but without success. Initially, Lancaster was proposed as the seat of the northern county; later, Petersham was proposed once and Fitchburg was proposed repeatedly, most recently in 1903. Perhaps as a concession, in August 1884 the Worcester County Registry of Deeds was split in two, with the Worcester Northern registry placed in Fitchburg

Cities in the county
Fitchburg
Gardner
Leominster
Southbridge
Worcester (traditional county seat)
Towns
Ashburnham
Athol
Auburn
Barre
Berlin
Blackstone
Bolton
Boylston
Brookfield
Charlton
Clinton
Douglas
Dudley
East Brookfield
Grafton
Hardwick
Harvard
Holden
Hopedale
Hubbardston
Lancaster
Leicester
Lunenburg
Mendon
Milford
Millbury
Millville
New Braintree
North Brookfield
Northborough
Northbridge
Oakham
Oxford
Paxton
Petersham
Phillipston
Princeton
Royalston
Rutland
Shrewsbury
Southborough
Spencer
Sterling
Sturbridge
Sutton
Templeton
Upton
Uxbridge
Warren
Webster
West Boylston
West Brookfield
Westborough
Westminster
Winchendon

[ source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_County,_Massachusetts ]