Bristol County Massachusetts
Bristol County Massachusetts was founded in June 2, 1685 from a Plymouth colony. Its largest city is New Bedford and its population in 2010 is 548,285. It's Eastern time zone and total land of 691 mi.² is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The county seat is Taunton. Some governmental functions are performed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Property deed records are also kept in Taunton, Attleboro, Fall River and New Bedford. Two adjacent counties are Plymouth County and Norfork County.
Bristol County was created by the Plymouth colony and named after its" Shire town". The Plymouth colony merged into the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1691. The towns of Bristol, Barrington and Warren were awarded to Rhode Island as part of a long-running boundary dispute. A County Courthouse was constructed in 1828 in the growing town of New Bedford designed as a" half Shire town". Land ceded from Rhode Island was added to Fall River and became the site of the third County Courthouse in 1877.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau the county has a total area of 691 mi². The highest point in Bristol County is sunrise Hill. Bristol, Plymouth and Taunton are all places in the southwest England. Southwest England was the focal point for sailing and discovery at the time of America's discovery. John Cabot set sail from Bristol and stumbled across mainland USA.
Bristol County in Massachusetts and Bristol County and Rhode Island are two of 22 counties and parishes in the United States with the same name to border each other across state lines.
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As a census of 2000 there are 534,678 people, 205,411 households and 140,706 families residing in the county. The population density was 962 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 90.98% white, 2.03% black, 0.24% Native American, 1.26% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander and 3.12% from other races and 3.60% Hispanic. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Bristol County as being one of two counties in the United States with a plurality of people of Portuguese ancestry. 32.6% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them. 47.5% were married couples living together. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size with 3.06. The median age was 39.8 years and the median income was 54,955.
The Bristol County Sheriff's office maintains its headquarters and jail facilities in Dartmouth. The Bristol County house of correction in jail has room for 1100 prisoners. The Carreiro jail detains individual scheduled for deportation and the Ash Street jail houses 200 pretrial prisoners.
Transportation includes public bus service and the Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit authority which serves the Fall River and New Bedford areas. Airports include the Mansfield municipal Airport, Myrick's airport, New Bedford municipal Airport, and Taunton municipal Airport. The Providence Stoughton line commuter rail provides connections to Providence in Boston.