Hampden County - 200th Birthday

Hampden County Massachusetts celebrates it's 200th anniversary August 1, 2012.  It was created by an Act of Congress on February 25, 1912 and became effective August 1, 1812. 

Prior to its incorporation, Hampden County had been part of Hampshire County since 1662, of which the three original towns were Springfield (1641) purchased from the Agawam Indians in 1636, Northampton or Nonotuck (1653) and Hadley (1659).  Westfield, formerly Woronoco, was annexed in 1647 and became a town in 1669.  Massachusetts Bay Colony organized counties in 1643.  Earlier areas were vast territories, called 'civil divisions'.

 

On April 2, 1663, a Hampshire County Committee was formed.  The members were Captain John Pynchon, Henry Clarke, Captain Aaron Cook, Lieutenant  David Milton and Elizur Holyoke.  They conducted all of the legal business of the county including maintaining the land records.  Meetings were held March 1st annually and alternated between Northampton and Springfield.  The book of court records was transported between the two locations.

Springfield's population grew from 1790, pop. 1,574, to 1810, pop. 2,767.  The City was represented in the State Senate by Moses Chapin, Jacob Bliss, Oliver B. Morris and Edmund Dwight. This growth indicated the economic dominance taking place in Springfield and thus the Massachusetts congress created Hampden County in 1812.

The original members of the Hampden County Committee in 1812 were George Bliss, John Hooker and John Ingersoll.  On November 12, 1812 they made an agreement of Settlement between Hampden and Hampshire Counties.  The Committee from Hampshire County included Joseph Lyman, Thomas Shepard and Daniel Wright.  This document can be found in Court of Sessions Record Book 1, pages 5-6 located in the Archives of the Hampden County Registry of Deeds.  A typed version of this document is available.

Edward Pynchon, a descendant of the founder of Springfield, William Pynchon served as the first Register of Deeds of  Hampden County in 1812.  Two hundred years later, the governing body of the county, the commission, is no longer in existence.  However, Hampden County is a geographical entity within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Donald E. Ashe serving as guardian of the real estate records as Register of Deeds.