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Attleboro, Massachusetts
A Short History of Attleboro
From Wampanoag homeland to colonial farm town to the “Jewelry Capital of the World,” Attleboro’s story tracks the arc of southeastern New England itself.
The Wampanoag Homeland
For thousands of years before Europeans arrived, the land that became Attleboro was home to the Wampanoag people, specifically the Pokanoket, whose great sachem Massasoit and his son Wamsutta led the confederacy that spanned much of present-day southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Ten Mile River and the area’s ponds and woodlands supported fishing, hunting, and agriculture long before any deed was written.
The North Purchase & a Town Is Founded
English settlers first reached the area in 1634 but found the rocky soil and lack of navigable water discouraging. Sustained settlement came later, along the Ten Mile River. In 1661, Captain Thomas Willett purchased a large tract known as the Rehoboth North Purchase from Wamsutta, who wrote the deed. Long part of the town of Rehoboth, the territory was set off and incorporated as the town of Attleborough in 1694, taking its name from Attleborough in Norfolk, England.
A Town Takes Shape
Early Attleborough was a farming community that once stretched well beyond today’s borders, it included what is now Cumberland, Rhode Island, until 1747, and North Attleborough until the two towns separated in 1887. The completion of the Boston & Providence Railroad in 1836 connected Attleborough to the region’s markets and set the stage for the manufacturing economy to come.
The Jewelry Capital of the World
Attleborough’s defining industry took root in the late 1700s. Local lore credits “the Frenchman”, a soldier who had come to America with Lafayette, with setting up shop in an abandoned forge and teaching residents to make gold buttons before his shop closed around 1810. Manufacturers like George W. Robinson built on that start with metal buttons and findings, and by the 1800s jewelry had become the town’s signature trade. Firms such as R.F. Simmons and, from 1913, the L.G. Balfour Company, famous for class rings and insignia, gave Attleborough an international reputation as “The Jewelry Capital of the World.”
From Town to City
As its population and industry grew, Attleborough adopted a city charter in 1914, becoming the City of Attleboro, dropping the final “-ugh” that neighboring North Attleborough kept. Through the 20th century the jewelry, silverware, and metal-stamping trades drew waves of new residents and anchored a busy downtown, even as the industry later contracted and diversified into electronics, plastics, and light manufacturing.
Modern Attleboro
Today Attleboro is a city of about 46,500 that blends its industrial heritage with its role as a Providence to Boston commuter hub. Landmarks like the La Salette Shrine, Capron Park Zoo, and the Balfour Riverwalk draw visitors, Sturdy Health anchors regional medical care, and recent investment in downtown infrastructure, arts, and housing is reshaping the historic city center for a new century.
Learn more
Preservation
Attleboro Historical Commission & the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum
Sources: City of Attleboro; Encyclopaedia Britannica; U.S. Census Bureau; local historical records.