Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

and the 22nd most populous county in the United States. This makes the county the most populous county on the East Coast outside of New York or Florida. Middlesex County is one of two U.S. counties (along with Santa Clara County, California) to be amongst the top 25 counties with the highest household income and the 25 most populated counties. It is included in the Census Bureau's

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

–

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

– Newton, MA– NH Metropolitan Statistical Area. As part of the 2020 United States census, the Commonwealth's mean center of population for that year was geo-centered in Middlesex County, in the town of Natick (this is not to be confused with the geographic center of Massachusetts, which is in

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

, Worcester County). On July 11, 1997, Massachusetts abolished the executive government of Middlesex County primarily due to the county's

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

. Middlesex County continues to exist as a geographic boundary and is used primarily as district jurisdictions within the court system and for other administrative purposes; for example, as an

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

district. The

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weather alerts (such as severe thunderstorm warning) continue to localize based on Massachusetts's counties.

History

The county was created by the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...

on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered that "the whole

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Middlesex initially contained Charlestown,

, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

.Davis, William T. ''Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts'', p. 44. The Boston History Company, 1895. In 1649 the first Middlesex County Registry of Deeds was created in Cambridge. On April 19, 1775, Middlesex was the site of the first armed conflict of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. In 1855, the Massachusetts State Legislature created a minor Registry of Deeds for the Northern District of Middlesex County in Lowell. In the late 19th century and early 20th century,

annexed several of its adjacent cities and towns including Charlestown and

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement and accretion toward Suffolk County. Beginning prior to the dissolution of the executive county government, the county comprised two regions with separate county seats for administrative purposes: *The Middlesex-North District (smaller) with its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

in Lowell under the Registry of Deeds consisted of the city of Lowell, and its adjacent towns of Billerica,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, Dracut, Dunstable, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford and Wilmington. *The Middlesex-South District (larger) with the county seat in

consisted of the remaining 44 cities and towns of Middlesex County. Since the start of the 21st century, much of the current and former county offices have physically decentralized from the Cambridge seat, with the sole exceptions being the Registry of Deeds and the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, which both retain locations in Cambridge and Lowell. Since the first quarter of 2008, the Superior Courthouse has been seated in the city of Woburn; the Sheriff's Office is now administratively seated in the city of Medford and the Cambridge-based County Jail has since been amalgamated with another county jail facility in Billerica. The Cambridge District Court (which has jurisdiction for Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge); along with the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office, although not a part of the Middlesex County government, was also relatedly forced to relocate to Medford at the time of the closure of the Superior Courthouse building in Cambridge.

Law and government

Of the fourteen counties of Massachusetts, Middlesex is one of eight which have had no county government or county commissioners since July 1, 1998, when county functions were assumed by state agencies at local option following a change in state law. Immediately prior to its dissolution, the executive branch consisted of three

County Commissioner A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the County (United States)#County government, county government in some U.S. state, states of ...

s elected at-large to staggered four-year terms. There was a County Treasurer elected to a six-year term. The county derived its revenue primarily from document filing fees at the Registries of Deeds and from a Deeds Excise Tax; also a transfer tax was assessed on the sale price of real estate and collected by the Registries of Deeds. Budgets as proposed by the County Commissioners were approved by a County Advisory Board that consisted of a single representative of each of the 54 cities and towns in Middlesex County. The votes of the individual members of the advisory board were weighted based on the overall valuation of property in their respective communities. The County Sheriff and two Registers of Deeds (one for the Northern District at Lowell and another for the Southern District at Cambridge) are each elected to serve six-year terms. Besides the employees of the Sheriff's Office and the two Registries of Deeds, the county had a Maintenance Department, a Security Department, some administrative staff in the Treasurer's and Commissioners' Offices, and the employees of the hospital. The county government also owned and operated the Superior Courthouse, one of which was formerly in Cambridge (since 2008 relocated to Woburn.) and one in Lowell; and the defunct Middlesex County Hospital in the city of Waltham. The legislation abolishing the Middlesex County executive retained the Sheriff and Registers of Deeds as independently elected officials, and transferred the Sheriff's Office under the state Department of Public Safety and the two Registry of Deeds offices to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office. Additionally, all county maintenance and security employees were absorbed into the corresponding staffs of the Massachusetts Trial Court. The legislation also transferred ownership of the two Superior Courthouses to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The hospital was closed. Finally, the office of County Commissioner was immediately abolished and the office of County Treasurer was abolished as of December 31, 2002. Any county roads transferred to the Commonwealth as part of the dissolution. The other administrative duties (such as Sheriff, Department of Deeds and court system, etc.) and all supporting staff were transferred under the Commonwealth as well.

Administrative structure today

Records of land ownership in Middlesex County continue to be maintained at the two Registries of Deeds. Besides the Sheriff and the two Registers of Deeds, the Middlesex District Attorney, the Middlesex Register of Probate and the Middlesex Clerk of Courts (which were already part of state government before the abolition of Middlesex County government) are all elected countywide to six-year terms. In Middlesex County (as in the entirety of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), the governmental functions such as property tax assessment and collection, public education, road repair and maintenance, and elections were all conducted at the municipal city and town level and not by the county government. In 2012 the 22-story Superior Court Building in Cambridge which was transferred from the abolished Executive County government was sold by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Due to its transfer from state control, many local residents had tried to force the private developers to reduce the overall height of the structure. Even following the abolition of the executive branch for county government in Middlesex, communities are still granted a right by the Massachusetts state legislature to form their own regional compacts for sharing of services and costs thereof.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.5%) is water. It is the third-largest county in Massachusetts by land area. It is bounded southeast by the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

and drained by the Merrimack, Nashua, and Concord rivers, and other streams. The MetroWest region comprises much of the southern portion of the county.

Adjacent counties

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Hillsborough County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 422,937, almost one-third the population of the entire state. Its c ...

(north) * Essex County (northeast) * Suffolk County (southeast) * Norfolk County (south) * Worcester County (west)

Transportation

These routes pass through Middlesex County *, From Hopkinton to Newton *, From Somerville to Tewksbury *, From Newton to Wakefield *, In Marlboro *, From Hopkinton to Tewksbury *, From Cambridge to Malden */ Route 3, From Cambridge to Tyngsborough *, From Marlborough to Watertown *, From Littleton to Cambridge *, From Shirley to Cambridge *, From Burlington to Tyngsborough *, From Lexington-Arlington line to Chelmsford *, From Framingham to Newton *, In Townsend *, From Holliston to Everett *, From Sherborn to Chelmsford *, From Cambridge to North Reading *, From Framingham to Newton *, In Ashby *, From Somerville to Dracut *, From Groton to Chelmsford *, From Waltham to Malden *, From Hudson to North Reading *, From Hopkinton to Hudson *, From Everett to Melrose *, From Ayer to Dracut *, From Concord to Pepperell *, From Pepperell to Dracut *, In Sherborn *, From Stow to Waltham *, From Concord to Ashby *, From Wilmington to North Reading *, From Holliston to Concord *, From Newton to Wakefield *, From Chelmsford to Wakefield *, From Lowell to Tewksbury *, From Hopkinton to Natick *, From Shirley to Lexington

National protected areas

* Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge * Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge * Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site * Lowell National Historical Park *

Minute Man National Historical Park Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. It also includes the Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors. The National Historical Park is under the jurisdiction of the N ...

* Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

In 2006, Middlesex County contained the tenth most millionaires of any county in the United States. As of the 2010 United States census, there were 1,503,085 people, 580,688 households, and 366,656 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 612,004 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 80.0% white, 9.3% Asian, 4.7% black or African American, 0.2% American Indian, 3.3% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 6.5% of the population. The largest ancestry groups were: *23.5% Irish *16.2% Italian *11.2% English *7.1% German *5.6% French *4.0% Polish *3.6%

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

*3.2% Chinese *3.1% Portuguese *2.9% American *2.7% Scottish *2.6% Russian *2.5% Indian *2.4% Brazilian *2.0% Scotch-Irish *2.0% Puerto Rican *1.7% Swedish *1.6%

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

*1.2%

Sub-Saharan African Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

*1.2% Haitian *1.2%

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

*1.1%

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

*1.0% Cambodian *1.0%

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Of the 580,688 households, 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.9% were non-families, and 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.10. The median age was 38.5 years. The median income for a household in the county was $77,377 and the median income for a family was $97,382. Males had a median income of $64,722 versus $50,538 for females. The per capita income for the county was $40,139. About 5.1% of families and 7.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 8.0% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over. 79.6% spoke only English at home, while 4.3% spoke Spanish, 2.7% Portuguese, 1.6% Italian, 1.6% Chinese including

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and other Chinese dialects, and 1.5% spoke French. Middlesex County has the largest Irish-American population of any U.S. county with a plurality of Irish ancestry. Middlesex County MA population density

Demographic breakdown by town

Income

The ranking of unincorporated communities that are included on the list is reflective if the census-designated locations and villages were included as cities or towns. Data is from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

Law enforcement

The primary responsibility of the Middlesex Sheriff's Office is oversight of the Middlesex House of Correction and Jail in Billerica. It formerly ran the Middlesex Jail in

, which closed on June 28, 2014. In addition, the Sheriff's Office operates the Office of Civil Process and, the Lowell Community Counseling Centers, and crime prevention and community service programs. The office of sheriff was created in 1692, making it one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United States. The sheriff is elected to a 6-year term. Notable sheriffs include: * Col. James Prescott (1775–1781) * Col. Loammi Baldwin (1781–1794) * Col. Samuel Chandler (1841–1851) * Charles Kimball (1859–1879) * John J. Buckley (1970–1980) * John P. McGonigle (1985–1994) * James DiPaola (1996–2010) * John Granara ''(Special)'' (2010–2011) * Peter Koutoujian (2011–Present)

Politics

Prior to 1960, Middlesex County was a Republican Party stronghold, backing only two Democratic Party presidential candidates from 1876 to 1956. From the 1960 election the trend reversed; the county has exclusively supported Democratic presidential candidates. This has intensified in recent decades, as

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

in 1988 was the most recent Republican presidential candidate to receive over 40 percent of the county's votes and

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

in 2012 the last Republican to receive over 30 percent. In 2020,

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

won 71% of the county’s votes, the highest share for any presidential candidate since 1964.

Communities

Most municipalities in Middlesex County have a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

form of government; the remainder are cities, and are so designated on this list. Villages listed below are census or postal divisions but have no separate corporate or statutory existence from the cities and towns in which they are located.

Cities

(traditional county seat)

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...

* Everett * Framingham * Lowell (traditional county seat) * Malden * Marlborough * Medford * Melrose * Newton * Somerville * Waltham * Watertown * Woburn

Towns

* Acton * Arlington * Ashby * Ashland * Ayer *

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

* Belmont * Billerica * Boxborough * Burlington *

* Concord * Dracut * Dunstable * Groton * Holliston * Hopkinton * Hudson * Lexington * Lincoln * Littleton * Maynard * Natick * North Reading * Pepperell *

* Sherborn * Shirley * Stoneham * Stow * Sudbury * Tewksbury * Townsend * Tyngsborough *

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

* Wayland * Westford *

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

* Wilmington *

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

Census-designated places

* Ayer * Cochituate * Devens * East Pepperell * Groton * Hanscom AFB * Hopkinton * Littleton Common * Pepperell * Pinehurst * Shirley * Townsend * West Concord

Other villages and neighborhoods

* Auburndale * Chestnut Hill * East Lexington * Felchville * Forge Village * Gleasondale * Graniteville * Greenwood * Melrose Highlands * Nabnasset * Newton Centre * Newton Highlands * Newton Lower Falls * Newton Upper Falls * Newtonville * Nonantum * North Billerica * North Chelmsford * North Woburn * Pingryville * Saxonville * Thompsonville *

Waban Waban ( – ) was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American of the Nipmuc group and was thought to be the first Native American convert to Christianity in Massachusetts. Early life and first contact with the English Little is known ...

* West Newton

Education

School districts include:
Text list
K-12: * Ayer-Shirley School District * Acton-Boxborough Regional School District * Arlington School District * Ashland School District * Bedford School District * Belmont School District * Billerica School District * Burlington School District * Cambridge Public School District * Chelmsford School District * Dracut School District * Everett School District * Framingham School District * Groton-Dunstable School District * Holliston School District * Hopkinton School District * Hudson School District * Lexington School District * Littleton School District * Lowell Public Schools * Malden School District * Marlborough School District * Maynard School District * Medford Public Schools * Melrose School District * Nashoba School District * Natick School District * Newton School District * North Middlesex School District * North Reading School District *

Reading Public Schools Reading Public Schools is the school district that manages the public schools in Reading, Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Nort ...

* Somerville School District * Stoneham School District * Tewksbury School District * Tyngsborough School District * Wakefield School District * Waltham School District * Watertown School District * Wayland School District * Westford School District * Weston School District * Wilmington School District * Winchester School District * Woburn School District Secondary: * Concord-Carlisle School District * Dover-Sherborn School District * Lincoln-Sudbury School District Elementary: * Carlisle School District * Concord School District * Lincoln School District * Sherborn School District * Sudbury School District Tertiary institutions include: *

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(Cambridge) *

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) (Cambridge) * Framingham State University (Framingham)

Culture

Middlesex County is home to the Middlesex County Volunteers, a fife and drum corps that plays music from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Founded in 1982 at the end of the United States Bicentennial celebration, the group performs extensively throughout New England. They have also performed at the Boston Pops, throughout the British Isles and Western Europe, and at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo's Salute to Australia in Sydney, Australia.

Explanatory notes

References

Bibliography

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1 (A-H) Volume 2 (L-W)
by Samuel Adams Drake, published 1879 and 1880. 572 and 505 pages.
''Ancient Middlesex with Brief Biographical Sketches''.
By Levi Swanton Gould, published 1905, 366 pages.

External links

Middlesex County Sheriff's Department

US Census Bureau map
of cities, towns, Native American reservations, and census-designated places
1856 Map of Middlesex County
by Henry F. Walling * Walling & Gray
1871 Map of Middlesex County Plate 44-45
from th
1871 Atlas of Massachusetts.

* ttp://newenglandtowns.org/massachusetts/middlesex-county Middlesex County entry from Hayward's New England Gazetteer of 1839
Map of cities and towns of Massachusetts

Massachusetts County Map

History of Middlesex County
by Samual Adams Drake, 1880. Contains the histories of each town in the county.
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men
edited by Duane Hamilton Hurd. J. W. Lewis & Co., Philadelphia. 1890.
Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds

Middlesex South District Registry of Deeds

League of Women Voters, Massachusetts: County Government
{{Authority control Massachusetts counties Counties in Greater Boston 1643 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony Populated places established in 1643 1997 disestablishments in Massachusetts Populated places disestablished in 1997