History of Berkley, Massachusetts, USA

Berkley, Massachusetts
Bristol county. Berkley lies 37 miles S. from Boston, 18 E. from Providence, and 5 S. from Taunton. Population in 1837, 878. Taken from Dighton in 1735, from which it is separated from Taunton river. Some coasting vessels belong to this place, and some ship building is carried on. Assonet village, on Taunton river, is the principal place of business. The soil is light and sandy.

This town was probably named in honor of George Berkeley, an Irish bishop, of great learning and philaathropy, who had visited this country a few years before for the purpose of benefiting the Indians.

Berkeley was once a part of Dighton and of Taunton, and contains the curious Dighton Rock, on which are many rude hieroglyphics, supposed to have been made by a people who existed before the Indian tribes that the Pilgrim Fathers found here. The meaning of the characters is as much a mystery as their origin.

The rock is on the bank of Taunton River, and is almost covered at high tide. Some have supposed that it was related to certain skeletons found at Fall River, a few miles below Berkeley.

Distance from Taunton, 5 miles; from Boston, 37.

Berkley, a post-township of Bristol county, Massachusetts, 85 miles S. of Boston, on the E. side of Taunton river. Population, 908.

Although the town of Berkeley, Mass., contains only 800 inhabitants, its female inhabitants have earned $6,000 during the past year at straw sewing.

Berkley is a small agricultural town situated in the easterly part of Bristol County, about 40 miles south of Boston, and bounded on the north and northeast by Taunton, on the south and southeast by Freetown (from which it is in part separated by Assonet Bay), and on the west by Dighton and Taunton,— from the last of which it is divided by Taunton River, here a navigable, broad and beautiful stream. It is watered in the east by Cotley and Quaker brooks, and in the west by several affluents of Taunton River. The villages and post-offices are Berkley (centre) and Myricksville; and the railway stations are the latter, in the southeast part of the town, on the New Bedford and Taunton line, and Berkley, on the Fall River Branch of the Old Colony Railroad. The termination of the town southerly is a long point of land called Assonet Neck. A little south of it lies Conspiracy Island, probably so named from its connection with King Philip's conspiracy against the English, which resulted in the ...

Berkley, a post-township of Bristol co, Mass., about 4 miles S. of Taunton, is bounded on the W. by the Taunton River. It has 2 churches. The noted Dighton Rock is in this township, Pop, in 1890, 894.