Yarmouth ( ) is a town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,023 at the 2020 census.

The town is made up of three major villages: South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth, and Yarmouth Port.

History Wampanoag origins Prior to European settlement, Yarmouth was inhabited by the Wampanoag, an Algonquian people. In the Wôpanâak language the area was called "Mattacheese".: "The region in the vicinity of the habitations of the first comers was known by the Indian names of Mattacheese, Mattacheeset, Hockanom and Nobscusset, Mattacheese signified old lands, or planting lands, and the terminal t, was applied to places by the water, making Mattacheeset mean, old lands by the borders of the water. This general term described the region now the eastern part of Barnstable and the western portion of Yarmouth." Wampanoag tribes living in Yarmouth at the time of European settlement included the Pawkunnawkuts on both sides of the lower Bass River, the Hokanums in what is now northeastern Yarmouth, and the Cummaquids in what is now western Yarmouth.: "From near White's brook to Dennis, was known as Hockanom; beyond which, to Brewster, the region was called Nobscusset. The Pawkunnawkuts occupied the vicinity of South Yarmouth and South Dennis, on both sides of Bass River."

Plymouth Colony settlement Yarmouth was organized and incorporated: "When the scattered communities which composed the Plymouth colony took upon themselves a quasi legislative form of government, Yarmouth, with the others, joined the association and sent her deputies to the colonial legislature. From that circumstance her incorporation—for she never had any other—is usually dated as September 3, 1639, when she became one of the represented towns in the colony court." as part of the Plymouth Colony on September 3, 1639, following a settlement led by John Crowe (later Crowell), Thomas Howes and Anthony Thacher, and is, together with Sandwich, the oldest town on Cape Cod.: "The permanent and authorized settlement of the town commenced early in 1639. The grantees of the court were, Anthony Thacher, John Crow, and Thomas Howes, who had surveyed the lands, preparatory to occupation." Yarmouth originally included what is now the town of Dennis, which was incorporated as a separate community on June 19, 1793.: "One of the peculiarities of the civil economy of Old Yarmouth may appropriately be noted in connection with the events preceding the division of the town. During the [Revolutionary] war it was customary to transact the public business by parishes. The people became so used to transacting public business in this way, that it was thought best to make two townships of Old Yarmouth, and by a vote of eighty-six to four, they decided to divide the town. The act of separation passed June 19, 1793, and took effect in February following."

Yarmouth is named after Great Yarmouth, a town in the county of Norfolk, on the east coast of England, which is itself at the mouth of the River Yare. Though none of the initial settlers hailed from that English town, the name was possibly chosen because across the North Sea from Yarmouth is the Netherlands, where a portion of the Mayflower passengers had lived in exile. This group of pilgrims arrived back in England via the port of Yarmouth before heading to the New World.

In 1642 and 1645, Yarmouth furnished soldiers for the Plymouth Colony's expeditions against the Narragansett.: "Expeditions against the Indians were sent out by the colony court in 1642 and again in 1645, the dreaded Narragansetts causing much uneasiness by their unfriendly attitude. The first year Yarmouth furnished two soldiers, and of the second expedition, she furnished five. They were absent fourteen days and saw but little service. This 'war' cost Yarmouth £7, 2s., 6d." In 1648, the Plymouth Colony's legislature, the General Court, appointed Myles Standish to adjudicate land disputes among the Yarmouth settlers.: "From the beginning of the settlement, there had been a great deal of bitter feeling in relation to the division of the lands…. Captain Standish alone was appointed in 1648, by the court, to 'have a hearing and put an end to all differences' on this subject." Yarmouth soldiers served the Plymouth Colony in King Philip's War: fifteen Yarmouth men participated in the Great Swamp Fight without casualties, but the town did lose five men at Rehoboth.: "The new book of records opens with a list of the soldiers of Yarmouth who were pressed into the service in Philip's war, together with their wages. The quotas of men required were promptly filled. Fifteen men from this town were in the Narragansett swamp fight, but none were killed. Five men from this town were killed at Rehoboth, in the fight in which Captain Pierce's company was annihilated." Yarmouth troops also saw service in the early years of King William's War.: "Philip's war did not, by any means, finish the troubles connected with the Indian question. The seat of hostilities was transferred to Maine and New Hampshire, and in 1689 Yarmouth was obliged to pay forty-one pounds as her proportion of the war against the Eastern Indians. In 1690 she furnished at one time four, and at another ten men, and paid £104, 2s., 9d., of the debt of what was styled William and Mary's War." In the early eighteenth century, some of the Yarmouth veterans of King Philip's War were granted lands to settle in Gorham, Maine.: "About 1726 commenced a movement from the Cape to seek new homes—this time toward the province of Maine. The division of the common lands had not satisfied the desires of the landless classes, and the legislature of 1727 having granted the heirs of each of the 120 soldiers in the Narragansett expedition during Philip's war, a township in Maine, about forty heirs and their families in 1736 settled the town of Gorham, Me."

American Revolution Yarmouth was the site of an active group of the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution.: "There was a patriotic body, here as elsewhere, called the Sons of Liberty, who met usually in the night time and made the few loyalists and those suspected of being such, very unhappy. Two 'liberty poles' were erected…. Anyone found guilty of drinking taxed tea, or of making impudent remarks, was required to dance around these liberty poles and make a solemn recantation of their errors and promises of amendment." The town's militia mustered to provide assistance to the minutemen at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, but the militia returned home upon news that the rebels had already triumphed on the field.: "When the alarm of the country was sounded by the demonstration upon Lexington and Concord, the town's militia started out for the scene of operations, the western company under Captain Jonathan Crowell mustering sixty officers and men. They had not proceeded far before intelligence of the rout and retreat of the British troops reached them and they returned home." In March 1776, Yarmouth troops served as part of George Washington's forces during the Fortification of Dorchester Heights.: "General Washington, having early in 1776 determined upon the expulsion of the British from Boston, wrote to the council of Massachusetts Bay, submitting to their wisdom 'whether it may not be best to direct the militia of certain towns, contiguous to Dorchester and Roxbury to repair to the line at those places with arms, ammunition, and accoutrements, instantly, upon a given signal,' and the suggestion was favorably received. Yarmouth was one of the towns called upon. Captain Joshua Gray, who commanded the militia, at once set forth, accompanied by a drummer, to call for volunteers. Everyone was ready and willing to go. The night was spent in preparation. In the chamber of the ancient house now standing at the corner of Hallet and Wharf streets, the mothers and daughters spent the night in molding bullets and making cartridges, and at early dawn eighty-one men, under the command of Captain Gray, were on the march for Dorchester." A meeting of Yarmouth citizens declared the town's independence from Great Britain on June 20, 1776.: "A meeting was held June 20, 1776, in which it was unanimously 'Voted, that the inhabitants of Yarmouth do declare a state of independence of the king of Great Britain, agreeably to a late resolve of the General Court, if in case the wisdom of Congress should see proper to do it.' This resolve they did their part to carry out, so far as lay in their power. Their men nearly all joined the patriot army." As a coastal community, Yarmouth was subject to blockade by the Royal Navy throughout the Revolutionary War.: "Their commerce and fisheries were destroyed, and they suffered untold hardships and privations for seven long years."

War of 1812 In the early years of the Republic, Yarmouth shared with the rest of New England a strong support for the Federalist Party.: "Yarmouth was an intensely Federal town, and the adherents of Mr. Jefferson were regarded as Jacobins and infidels. It was fortunate for the peace of the town that there was so few of them here.... The vote of the town for governor in April 1813, was 265 for Caleb Strong, the anti-war, federal candidate, and twenty-three for Joseph B. Varnum, the war, administration candidate." The economy of Yarmouth was centered on maritime industries, and the townspeople were consequently opposed to the Jefferson Administration's Embargo Act of 1807 and Non-Intercourse Act of 1809.: "The position of the administration on the subject of our commercial policy was very obnoxious to our people, who felt that it was destroying their shipping interests and sapping the foundations of their prosperity. The embargo, the non-intercourse act, and all the measures adopted by the government, under the pretext of vindicating our rights as a commercial community, seemed to them to have an exactly opposite influence and tendency. The ships were rotting at their docks and the men out of employment. Individuals, and the town as a corporate body, protested against the policy adopted. A town meeting, held August 29, 1808, petitioned Congress to suspend the embargo; and the town repeated the action in February 1809."

On July 8, 1812, the Yarmouth town meeting voted to protest the recent Congressional declaration of war with Great Britain.: "July 8, 1812, twenty days after the declaration of war, the town put on record a protest against the act." Along with much of the rest of coastal New England, Yarmouth was subject to blockade by the Royal Navy beginning in 1814.: "In 1814, Great Britain, being freed from her continental embarrassments, sent a large fleet to the New England coast, which kept our coasting and fishing vessels within their harbors, and nearly destroyed the remaining industries of the town." Although the people of Yarmouth, including its militiamen, remained intensely opposed to the War of 1812, local militia forces did participate in attempts to counter the blockade.: "Alarms were frequent, and the militia were constantly liable to be called out. On one occasion the Yarmouth company was a day and night in Barnstable, which was supposed to be threatened with an attack, and bivouacked in the courthouse. It was once or twice, under the same circumstances, marched to the south side, which was threatened by a visit from the invaders. Party spirit ran high, and the people of the town refused to take any other part in the hostilities, than to repel invasion. Many of those who had fought and suffered in the revolutionary war, utterly refused to engage in the struggle then going on. The opposition to the war was at no time abated in this town, and the treaty of peace was a welcome relief to the people."

Early economic endeavors