Edgartown

Edgartown is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,067 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Dukes County. Edgartown has the largest area in the entirety of Dukes County and Martha's Vineyard.HistoryIn 1642, Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. led a group of families to start a colony on the island after its purchase by his father Thomas Mayhew. Originally called Great Harbor, it was incorporated in 1671 as Edgar Towne, and is the first of the two original towns on Martha's Vineyard, along with Tisbury. The town's current name is in honor of Edgar, the son of James II of England who died at the age of three in 1671.The younger Mayhew began his work which led to his becoming the first church planting Protestant missionary after he settled in Edgartown. A Wampanoag Indian named Hiacoomes who lived nearby became his partner in founding the churches in the Indian communities.Edgartown is well known as having been one of the primary ports for the whaling industry during the 1800s. Ships from all over the world would dock in its sheltered bay and captains would build grand mansions for their families with ornate top floor rooms called widow's walks, which overlooked the harbor. A myth developed that wives would watch for months from these tiny rooms, hoping to see the sails of ships that would bring their husbands home from the sea. There is little or no evidence that widow's walks were intended or regularly used for this purpose. They were frequently built around the chimney of the residence, thus creating an easy access route to the structure, allowing the residents of the home to pour sand down burning chimneys in the event of a chimney fire in the hopes of preventing the house from burning down.