A Place of Resting. A Town Worth Fighting For.
Four Hundred Ships Were Built Here
Incorporated 1857
The name is Wampanoag for “a place of resting” — but for a century this harbor never rested. Mattapoisett’s yards launched some four hundred ships, the whaler Acushnet among them. We’re the Republicans of that town: recruiting, promoting, and electing leaders who defend the values that built it, for the families and future of Mattapoisett.
The people who built four hundred ships did not wait for permission. We’re fighting to keep Mattapoisett a place where the people — not the bureaucracy — still decide.
Country & Heritage
A strong sense of pride in our country and our heritage, and America’s enduring role as leader of the free world.
Government Closest to the People
Government “of, by, and for the people” that minimizes its intervention in citizens’ lives — promoting individual responsibility, initiative, and free enterprise.
Family, Character & Integrity
The strengthening and defense of the family, and government grounded in good character and personal integrity.
Read our full Mission, Vision, and the Republican Oath that guides the committee.
We are the Mattapoisett Republican Town Committee. Our members come from every walk of life — varied careers, backgrounds, and ages — united in our commitment to the Constitution and to electing Republican candidates for local, county, state, and national office. All Republicans and Independents are welcome. Our upcoming meetings are listed above and on our Meetings page. Want to know what’s happening in Town government this week? See our Town Meetings page.
Some 400 ships were built in the town’s shipyards from 1740 until the 1870s, including the Acushnet, the ship that Herman Melville sailed on.
— Mattapoisett’s shipbuilding century, as the public record tells it. Settled in 1750 and set off from Rochester as its own town in 1857, Mattapoisett supplied whalers to the whole East Coast until the last of them, the Wanderer, slid down the ways in 1878. The people who built them governed themselves by open town meeting, and still do. Self-government isn’t an abstraction here — it’s the family business.