Plymouth's old northern precinct on the Jones River, named for the Mayflower's captain, where shipyards built the brig Independence, a beacon burned on Monk's Hill, and Jones River Pond was renamed Silver Lake to sell its ice.

Plymouth County · Record checked October 12, 2026

13,708Population2020 census1
1726Became a townJune 16, from Plymouth's northern precinct1
313 ftMonk's Hillthe town's highest natural point1
39Bartlett shipsvessels built by one father and son on the Jones River2
4National Registerplaces, all still standing3

Kingston on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Kingston, Massachusetts in 2026, with Silver Lake, the Jones River, Kingston Bay, Rocky Nook Point and Indian Pond

2026

Kingston today

By KNOWOL

Shaded relief from Silver Lake down the Jones River to Kingston Bay, with Main Street, Summer Street, Wapping Road and Bishops Highway, Rocky Nook Point, Cooks Island, Indian Pond, the Annasnappet Brook Reservoir and Sampson Forest.4

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Kingston

The beacon on Monk's Hill

Monk's Hill rises 312 feet near the Plymouth line, and the 1884 county history says that on a clear day you could see the Blue Hills of Milton from the top, with the shores of Cape Cod out across the water. Early in the Revolution a tall mast went up there with a barrel of tar on top, ready to warn the countryside. One day Captain Manly sailed into the bay with a string of captured British ships, and people took them for the King's fleet. A man ran up Monk's Hill and fired the tar barrel. The smoke spread the alarm far and wide, armed men poured into Plymouth all night, and in the morning everyone learned the fleet was Manly's prizes.567

Ships off the Jones River

In March 1727, just months after the town was formed, Caleb Stetson launched a 41-ton sloop into the Jones River and named her Kingston. Half a century later the Kingston yards built the brig Independence, and Captain Simeon Sampson of Kingston, the first naval captain commissioned by Massachusetts, took five prizes with her in 1776. He was captured after a bloody fight, but his captor handed back his sword for gallantry, and it went to Pilgrim Hall. In 1781 the town fitted out the Shaving Mill, a narrow raider with sails and fourteen oars. Lysander Bartlett and his son later built 39 vessels at Deacon Bartlett's yard, and by 1928 a figurehead in a Main Street front yard was one of the last reminders of it all.89107211

How Jones River Pond became Silver Lake

For generations the big pond at the head of the Jones River was just Jones River Pond. About 1850 an ice company set up there and wanted a prettier name for its ice, so it became Silver Lake. The 1884 county history says the company soon quit, leaving nothing behind but the name, and the name stuck. The hamlet of Silver Lake kept busy anyway. George F. Lane made friction matches there and ran the Silver Lake Trout Farm, which by 1912 shipped millions of trout a year. The Cooperative store opened there on June 14, 1875. Today a fish ladder at Forge Pond, built in 2019, lets sea-run fish reach the lake again.1213144

Through the years

22 moments from 1620 to today.

  1. 1620The Pilgrims land at Plymouth, and settlers soon move up to this northern part of the colony.1
  2. 1637Abraham Pierce owns land on the hill that still carries his name, Abram's Hill.15
  3. 1638Between 1638 and 1640 the Mayflower passenger John Howland settles at Rocky Nook.4
  4. 1714The oldest part of the Major John Bradford Homestead on Landing Road is built about this year.16
  5. 1717Kingston becomes Plymouth's northern precinct when First Parish is formed.1
  6. 1726Kingston is incorporated on June 16, named, the county history says, on King George the First's birthday.17
  7. 1727Caleb Stetson launches a 41-ton sloop called Kingston into the Jones River.8
  8. 1768William Sever, merchant and colonial legislator, builds his house on Linden Street.18
  9. 1776Captain Simeon Sampson of Kingston takes five prizes before he is captured after a bloody fight.9
  10. 1777The tar barrel on Monk's Hill is lit when Captain Manly's prize ships are taken for a British fleet.6
  11. 1781The Shaving Mill, an oared raider with three lateen sails, is built and fitted out in Kingston.7
  12. 1815The town's minister reports 300 families, and not one farm keeping twenty head of cattle.19
  13. 1850About this year an ice company renames Jones River Pond as Silver Lake.12
  14. 1852Lysander Bartlett, Jr. builds the bark White Wings, one of 39 vessels from the Bartlett yard.2
  15. 1857Kingston annexes a small part of Duxbury, the last change to its borders.1
  16. 1874A state gazetteer calls Kingston's people the wealthiest in the county, and the town free of debt.20
  17. 1875The Cooperative store at Silver Lake opens on June 14.14
  18. 1889High school student Elroy S. Thompson starts Kingston's first newspaper, the Kingston News.21
  19. 1898The Frederic C. Adams Public Library is built on Summer Street.22
  20. 1904Brockton investors turn 30 acres at Rocky Nook into the Rocky Nook Park summer resort.4
  21. 1950sRoute 3 arrives and makes Kingston part of the Boston area.1
  22. 2019The Elm Street dam comes out and a fish ladder at Forge Pond opens Silver Lake to sea-run fish.4

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Kingston today.

  • Silver LakeNorthwest, shared with Pembroke and Plympton. Jones River Pond until the ice trade.
  • Forge PondBelow Silver Lake. Its 2019 fish ladder reopened the lake.
  • Jones RiverSilver Lake to Kingston Bay. Named for the Mayflower's captain.
  • Jones River LandingLanding Road. The old boat yard on the river.Visit their website
  • Major John Bradford HomesteadLanding Road. House museum begun about 1714.
  • First Parish KingstonTown center. The precinct church of 1717.
  • Rocky NookMouth of the Jones River. John Howland's homesite and old resort.
  • Gray's BeachRocky Nook. Beach just north of the Plymouth line.
  • Indian PondSouthwest, on the Plympton line. Shallow 66-acre pond.

On the National Register

All 4 places in Kingston on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.3

  • Bradford House (Major John Bradford Homestead)

    Built about 1714 · Listed 2006 · 50 Landing Road

    The oldest part was built about 1714 and the house was widened about 1750. George Francis Dow restored it to its 18th-century look in 1921, and the Jones River Village Historical Society runs it as a house museum.16

  • Kingston Center Historic District

    Listed 2002 · Main and Green Streets

    About 30 acres of the town center along Main Street, from the First Parish Unitarian Church to the Mayflower Congregational Church, around the Training Green of 1720 and the Town Hall.23

  • William Sever House

    Built 1768 · Listed 2019 · 2 Linden Street

    Built for William Sever, a merchant who served many years in the colonial legislature. Its gambrel roof was raised to a hip roof around 1800, and the house stayed in the Sever family until the early 1900s.18

  • Frederic C. Adams Public Library

    Built 1898 · Listed 2001 · 33 Summer Street

    Paid for by a bequest from Frederic C. Adams, a Kingston native, and designed by the Colonial Revival architect Joseph Everett Chandler. Restored as the Adams Center, it now holds the library's local history collections.22

    Visit their website

In their words

“The people are noted for their sociability, hospitality, industry, and sobriety.”

A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts, 187420

“the vast stretch of woodland, with hardly a sign of habitation, on the south side, gives a varied scene of singular beauty.”

History of Plymouth County, 1884, on the view from Monk's Hill5

“Today, few, if any families in the country can show so many pictures, spar and sail plans and models of vessels built and owned by their people so many years ago as the Holmes family of Kingston.”

Ships of Kingston, 192624

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Kingston, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  2. Ships of Kingston: Good-bye, fare ye well (1926), on the Bartlett yard, Internet Archive
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  4. Map of Kingston, Massachusetts in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  5. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on Monk's Hill, Internet Archive
  6. History of the town of Plymouth (1832), on the Monk's Hill beacon, Internet Archive
  7. Historic Duxbury in Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1910), Internet Archive
  8. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on Caleb Stetson's sloop, Internet Archive
  9. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on Simeon Sampson, Internet Archive
  10. Ancient landmarks of Plymouth (1887), on Simeon Sampson's sword, Internet Archive
  11. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on Kingston shipbuilding, Internet Archive
  12. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on Silver Lake, Internet Archive
  13. Representative men and old families of southeastern Massachusetts (1912), on George F. Lane, Internet Archive
  14. Representative men and old families of southeastern Massachusetts (1912), on the Silver Lake Cooperative store, Internet Archive
  15. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on Kingston's hills, Internet Archive
  16. Bradford House (Kingston, Massachusetts), Wikipedia
  17. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on naming the town, Internet Archive
  18. William Sever House, Wikipedia
  19. The civic progress of Kingston (1926), on the 1815 sketch of the town, Internet Archive
  20. A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts (1874), Internet Archive
  21. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on Kingston newspapers, Internet Archive
  22. Frederic C. Adams Public Library, Wikipedia
  23. Kingston Center Historic District, Wikipedia
  24. Ships of Kingston: Good-bye, fare ye well (1926), on the Holmes family, Internet Archive