Middlesex County is a county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of 2016, the estimated population was 1,589,774, making it the twenty-first most populous county in the United States, and the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England. As part of the 2010 national census, the Commonwealth's mean center of population for that year was geo-centered in Middlesex County, in the town of Natick at (42.272291°N 71.363370°W / 42.272291; -71.363370). (This is not to be confused with the geographic center of Massachusetts, which is in Rutland, in neighboring Worcester, County.) Middlesex County is included in the Census Bureau's Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area.
On July 11, 1997, the Massachusetts legislature voted to abolish the executive government of Middlesex County due primarily to the county's insolvency. Though Middlesex County continues to exist as a geographic boundary it's used primarily as district jurisdictions within the court system and for other administrative purposes, such as an indicator for elections. The National Weather Service weather alerts (such as severe thunderstorm warning) continue issuances based upon Massachusetts' counties.
Video Middlesex County, Massachusetts
History
The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered that "the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, Wayland, and Reading. In 1649 the first Middlesex County Registry of Deeds was created in Cambridge.
On April 19th, 1775, Middlesex was site of the first armed conflict of the American Revolutionary War.
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, Boston annexed several of its adjacent cities and towns including Charlestown and Brighton from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement and accretion toward Suffolk County.
Beginning prior to dissolution of the executive county government, the county composed of two regions with separate county seats for administrative purposes:
- The Middlesex-North District (smaller) with its county seat in Lowell: under the Registry of Deeds consisted of the city of Lowell, and its adjacent towns of Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford and Wilmington.
- Middlesex-South District (larger) with the county seat in Cambridge. 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. During 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 Country 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 14 total counties of Massachusetts, Middlesex is currently one of 8, which currently has 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 Commissioners 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 further assessed on the sales price of real estate that was also 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 was elected to a six-year term and two Registers of Deeds, (one for each the Northern District at Lowell, and another for the Southern District at Cambridge), both serve six-year terms. Besides the employees of the Sheriff's Department, and the two Registries of Deeds; the county had a Maintenance Department, a Security Department, plus some administrative staff in the Treasurer's and Commissioners' Offices; and the employees of the hospital.
The country government also owned and operated the Superior Courthouse formerly in the cities of: Cambridge (since 2008 relocated to Woburn.) and also Lowell and the defunct Middlesex County Hospital in the city of Waltham.
The legislation abolishing Middlesex County executive retained the Sheriff and Registers of Deeds as independently elected officials, and transferred the Sheriff's Department 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 became 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 of 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 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.
Maps Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 847 square miles (2,190 km2), of which 818 square miles (2,120 km2) is land and 29 square miles (75 km2) (3.5%) is water. It is the third-largest county in Massachusetts by land area.
It is bounded southeast by the Charles River, 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 (north)
- Essex County (northeast)
- Suffolk County (southeast)
- Norfolk County (south)
- Worcester County (west)
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
- Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge (part)
Demographics
As of 2006, Middlesex County was tenth in the United States on the list of most millionaires per county.
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 1,837.9 inhabitants per square mile (709.6/km2). There were 612,004 housing units at an average density of 748.3 per square mile (288.9/km2). 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:
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, including 8.0% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.
79.6% spoke English, 4.3% Spanish, 2.7% Portuguese, 1.6% Italian, 1.6% Chinese including Mandarin and other Chinese dialects and 1.5% French as their first language. Middlesex County has the largest Irish-American population of any U.S. county with a plurality of Irish ancestry.
Demographic breakdown by town
Income
The ranking of unincorporated communities that are included on the list are 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.
Politics
Communities
Most municipalities in Middlesex County have a town 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
Towns
Census-designated places
Other villages and neighborhoods
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.
See also
- Middlesex, historic county of England
- Registry of Deeds (Massachusetts)
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
- Middlesex Fells
- Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts)
- Middlesex Turnpike (Massachusetts)
- Middlesex County Sheriff's Office
Footnotes
- 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.
Further reading
- Jedidiah Morse (1797). "Middlesex". The American Gazetteer. Boston, Massachusetts: At the presses of S. Hall, and Thomas & Andrews.
- Edwin P. Conklin, Middlesex County and Its People: A History. In Four Volumes. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1927.
- Samuel Adams Drake, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts: Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County. Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1880. Volume 1 | Volume 2
- D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. In Three Volumes. Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1890. Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3
- Robert H. Rodgers, Middlesex County in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England: Records of Probate and Administration, February 1670/71-June 1676. Rockport, ME: Picton Press, 2005.
External links
- Middlesex County Sheriff's Department
- 1856 Map of Middlesex County by Henry F. Walling
- Walling & Gray. 1871 Map of Middlesex County Plate 44-45 from the 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts.
- National Register of Historic Places listing for Middlesex Co., Massachusetts
- 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 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
Source of article : Wikipedia
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