This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "New England town" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Unit of government in New England, US
Town
Also known as:
New England town
This map shows the six New England states and their local political subdivisions.[image reference needed]
Category
Municipality
Location
New England
Found in
County
Created by
Various colonial agreements followed by state constitutions
Created
1620 (Plymouth)
Number
1,360
Populations
29 (Frenchboro) – 64,083 (West Hartford)
Areas
0.8 sq mi. (New Castle) – 281.3 sq mi. (Pittsburg)
Government
Town meeting
Select Board
Subdivisions
Village
Neighborhood
The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns overlay the entire area of a state, similar to civil townships in other states where they exist, but they are fully functioning municipal corporations, possessing powers similar to cities and counties in other states. New Jersey's system of equally powerful townships, boroughs, towns, and cities is the system which is most similar to that of New England. New England towns are often governed by a town meeting, an assembly of eligible town residents. The great majority of municipal corporations in New England are based on the town model; there, statutory forms based on the concept of a compact populated place are uncommon, though elsewhere in the U.S. they are prevalent. County government in New England states is typically weak at best, and in some states nonexistent. Connecticut, for example, has no county governments,[1] nor does Rhode Island.[2] Both of those states retain counties only as geographic subdivisions with no governmental authority, while Massachusetts[3] has abolished eight of fourteen county governments so far. Counties serve mostly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems and some other state services in the southern New England states, while providing varying (but generally limited) services in the more sparsely populated three northern New England states.
^"Connecticut State Register and Manual, Section VI: Counties". Connecticut Secretary of the State. Archived from the original on November 27, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010. THERE ARE NO COUNTY SEATS IN CONNECTICUT. County government was abolished effective October 1, 1960; counties continue only as geographical subdivisions.
^"Facts & History". Rhode Island Government. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010. Rhode Island has no county government. It is divided into 39 municipalities, each having its own form of local government.
^"Historical Data Relating to the Incorporation of and Abolishment of Counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six NewEngland states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct...
NewEngland is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont...
This is a list of towns in England. Historically, towns were any settlement with a charter, including market towns and ancient boroughs. The process of...
A NewEngland city and town area (NECTA) was a geographic and statistical entity defined by the U.S. federal government for use in the six-state New England...
NewEngland is the oldest clearly defined region of the United States, being settled more than 150 years before the American Revolution. The first colony...
and their assets split between local authorities and, in England, the Commission for NewTowns (later English Partnerships). The concept of the "garden...
theory. The town meeting form is used in portions of the United States, principally in NewEngland, where it has been the primary form of town government...
The NewEngland Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the...
Hampshire is organized along the NewEnglandtown model, where the state is nearly completely incorporated and divided into towns, 13 of which are designated...
NewEngland College (NEC) is a private liberal arts college in Henniker, New Hampshire. As of Fall 2020 NewEngland College's enrollment was 4,327 students...
enclosed, and through which a track must run.[citation needed] In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build...
combination of natural rugged landscape and rural, small town villages have made several areas in NewEngland iconic locations for fall color photography. The...
The NewEngland Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony...
The NewEngland road marking system was a regional system of marked numbered routes in the six-state region of NewEngland in the United States. The routes...
present day. Town hall meetings are meant to resemble the NewEnglandtown meeting that originated in the 17th century. However, participants in town hall meetings...
NewEngland French (French: français de Nouvelle-Angleterre) is a variety of French spoken in the NewEngland region of the United States. It descends...
The Dominion of NewEngland in America (1686–1689) was an administrative union of English colonies covering all of NewEngland and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies...
The culture of NewEngland comprises a shared heritage and culture primarily shaped by its indigenous peoples, early English colonists, and waves of immigration...
NewEngland has no official flag. However, there have been many historical or modern banners used to represent the region in its history. While there...
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. The country is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers roughly 62%, and over...
the cities and towns in NewEngland with population over 25,000 as of the 2020 census. Massachusetts contains the most cities and towns on the list with...
This list of town walls in England and Wales describes the fortified walls built and maintained around these towns and cities from the 1st century AD...
The literature of NewEngland has had an enduring influence on American literature in general, with themes such as religion, race, the individual versus...
Newport, New Hampshire, a NewEnglandtown Newport (CDP), New Hampshire, the main village in the town Newport, New Jersey (disambiguation) Newport, New York...
Global Information
