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 ]