Lakeville, Massachusetts

A town of great ponds on the Wampanoag lands of Assawompset, settled as the western farms of Middleborough and named in 1853 after the man it wanted to honor said no.

Plymouth County · Record checked October 12, 2026

11,523Population2020 census¹

1853Became a townMay 13, set off from Middleborough²

4 sq miAssawompset Pondalmost; its page calls it the largest natural lake in Massachusetts³

105Hope Nelsonyears old when the Assawompset Neck pioneer died in 1782⁴

2National Registerplaces, all still standing⁵

Lakeville on the map

Click the map to look closer.

2026

Lakeville today

By KNOWOL

Shaded relief around Assawompset Pond, Long Pond and Cain Pond, with Bedford Street, Main Street, Myricks Street, Lakeside Avenue, Rhode Island Road and Harding Street, Anuxanon Island and Bettys Neck.⁶

See the 2026 print More about this map

The story of Lakeville

Nelson, Laketon or Bristol

When Lakeville split from Middleborough in 1853, the voters met in the schoolhouse near today's town hall site on January 29 to choose a name. Three were on the ballot. Oliver Pierce wanted Bristol, and it was said he'd give the new town its record books if it took the name. Austin J. Roberts argued for Laketon, for the beautiful ponds all around. A clear majority voted for Nelson, to thank Job Pierce Nelson, who had worked harder than anyone to get the town set off. But Nelson discouraged it, and Lakeville was the compromise. The town's 1884 historian noted that in Norfolk County, about the same time, a man gave a fortune to have a town take his name, while here a man turned the honor down for free.²

The land called Betty's Neck

Betty's Neck, the point of land on Assawompset Pond, was called Nahteawamet in the Wampanoag language. In 1673 the sachem Tuspaquin and his son gave it to a woman named Assawetough, the daughter of John Sassamon, who lived and preached there before King Philip's War. The English called her Betty, and the neck has carried her name ever since. In 1696 she left it to her daughter Mercy, and the land passed down through her family for generations. In 1884 her descendant Zerviah Gould Mitchell was still living there, and in 1878 she published a book on the history and descendants of Massasoit. Nearby, the Wampanoag Royal Cemetery holds about twenty graves, among them descendants of Massasoit.⁷⁸

Seventeen doors from Judge Oliver's house

The old Ward house began as a small garrison house of oak planks spiked to its frame. In 1778 it passed to Zebidee Sproat, who planted trees and laid out a terraced garden. He was a fierce opponent of King George and joined in sacking the house of Judge Oliver at Nemasket. Before that house burned, Sproat carried home its inside doors, and seventeen of them went into his bedrooms and upstairs hall. House tradition said a panel over one fireplace had held a picture of the King, which Sproat had painted over with vases of flowers. His wife Hannah told her side of their troubles in a broadside ballad sold for five pence. General Ephraim Ward bought the place in 1806.⁹

Through the years

19 moments from 1668 to today.

1668Pamantaquash, the Pond Sachem, leaves his lands at Assawompset to Tuspaquin, called the Black Sachem.¹⁰
1673Tuspaquin and his son give the neck called Nahteawamet to Assawetough, called Betty, the future Betty's Neck.⁷
1675John Sassamon's body is found under the ice of Assawompset Pond, the event that set off King Philip's War.¹
1705A man named Peirce makes the first recorded non-Native settlement.¹
1717Thomas Nelson builds the first settler's house on Assawompset Neck, and the area fills in as a western parish of Middleborough.⁴
1753A Baptist meeting is set up in Thomas Nelson's house.⁴
1757A Baptist church is gathered at Beech Woods, with Ebenezer Hinds ordained its pastor early the next year.¹¹
1775Capt. Abiel Peirce leads local men of Middleborough's Second Company at the Lexington alarm.¹²
1782Hope Nelson, the Neck's pioneer wife, dies at 105.⁴
1812Lydia Tuspaquin drowns in Assawompset Pond; hers is thought to be the last burial in the Wampanoag Royal Cemetery.⁸
1824The Assawomset Post Office opens; by 1831 it's called West Middleboro'.¹³
1853On January 29 voters meet in a schoolhouse to name the town, and on May 13 Lakeville is incorporated.²
1856The Town Hall is built at Precinct and Bedford Streets.¹⁴
1862A Civil War training camp in Lakeville sends the Third Regiment off on October 22.¹⁵
1878Zerviah Gould Mitchell of Betty's Neck publishes her book on the descendants of Massasoit.⁷
1884Farms that once grew grain and flax now send strawberries and daily milk to Boston.¹⁶
1952Town offices move out of the old Town Hall, which stays a meeting place.¹⁴
1959Lakeville and Freetown form a regional school district.¹
1989Ocean Spray moves its headquarters to the Lakeville-Middleborough line.⁶

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Lakeville today.

Assawompset PondNorth, shared with Middleborough. Source of the Nemasket River.
Long PondSouth, shared with Freetown. Source of the Acushnet River.
Great Quittacas PondSoutheast. One of the town's namesake lakes.
Little Quittacas PondSoutheast. Beside the Wampanoag Royal Cemetery.
Bettys NeckAssawompset Pond. Named for Sassamon's daughter Betty.
Anuxanon IslandAssawompset Pond. An island in the great pond.
Wampanoag Royal CemeteryBetween the Quittacas ponds. Graves of Massasoit's descendants.
Ted Williams CampPrecinct Street. Once Ted Williams's summer baseball camp.
Canedys CornerLakeville. A crossroads village.

On the National Register

All 2 places in Lakeville on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.⁵

Wampanoag Royal Cemetery

Listed 1975 · Bedford Street

About twenty Native American graves, including direct descendants of the sachem Massasoit through his daughter Amie, whose family lived nearby at Betty's Neck. The last known burial is thought to be Lydia Tuspaquin's in 1812. The town and the Assawompsett-Nemasket Band of Wampanoags care for it.⁸
Town Hall

Built 1856 · Listed 1976 · 2 Precinct Street, at Bedford Street

A Greek Revival town hall that was Lakeville's main civic building for nearly a century, holding town meetings, at times the library, and the selectmen's offices. Town offices moved out in 1952, and it is still used for meetings.¹⁴

In their words

“In the midst of several of the most beautiful sheets of inland waters of which the State of Massachusetts can boast.”

History of Plymouth County, 1884, on the case for naming the town Laketon²

“Formerly distinguished, as was Egypt, for its remarkable productiveness in grain.”

History of Plymouth County, 1884, on Lakeville's farms¹⁶

“The town of Lakeville is and ever has been characterized by its liberality in provisions made for the support of its public schools.”

History of Plymouth County, 1884¹⁶