Seekonk

English

Etymology

Possibly from an Algonquian term for skunk; compare Abenaki segôgw. Alternatively, from Algonquian for "black goose"; Roger Williams gives "Súcki" for "black" and "Hònck" for "goose".

The name is attested in various spellings since the 1600s, but for over a century the town was officially part of Rehoboth. The current town of Seekonk was only incorporated in 1812.

Proper noun

Seekonk

1. A town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States.
   • 1639–1640, William Bradford, “Of Plimoth Plantation, Book II”, in MHS Collections, series 4, volume 3, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, published 1856, →OCLC, page 372:

     […] diverce tounships established and setled in severall quarters of y^e govermente, as Plimoth, Duxberie, Sityate, Tanton, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Marchfeeld, and not longe after, Seacunke (called afterward, at y^e desire of y^e inhabitants, Rehoboth) and Nawsett […]

   • 1670, Roger Williams, “A Letter from Roger Williams to Major Mason”, in MHS Collections, series 1, volume 1, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, published 1792, →OCLC, page 276:

     I first pitch't and begun to build and plant at Secunk, now Rehoboth, but I received a letter from my antient friend Mr. Winslow, then Governour of Plymmouth, professing his oune and others love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising me, since I was fallen into the edge of their bounds and they were loth to displease the Bay, to remove but to the other side of the water, and then he said I had the country free before me, and might be as free as themselves, and wee should be loving neighbour's togeather.

   • 1679, “Letter of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New-England respecting Mount Hope”, in MHS Collections, series 1, volume 5, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, published 1798, →OCLC, page 227:

     In that the lands are indubitably within the limits and bounds of his majesty's colony of New-Plymouth, contained within the express limits of his royal charter, and therein granted, and are within the bounds of an English town of that colony, planted by them near seventy years since, called Secunke and Swansey.

   • 1765, Stephen Hopkins (ascribed), “Account of Providence, R.I.”, in MHS Collections, series 2, volume 9, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, published 1822, →OCLC, page 169:

     Without any guide but heaven they wandered southward, and came to a place called Seaconk; and thinking they were now far enough removed from their offended brethren, designed to sit down there; But it seems, the fame of their heretical opinions had reached to Plymouth, and thereupon an officer was sent from thence to order them to depart out of that colony also.

   • 1812, “An Act to establish the Town of Seekonk”, in The Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, volume 5, Boston: Adams, Rhoades, & Co., →OCLC, page 568:

     Be it enacted […] That the westerly part of Rehoboth in the county of Bristol, as described within the following bounds, with the inhabitants thereon, be, and they are hereby incorporated into a separate town, by the name of Seekonk […]

2. Ellipsis of Seekonk River.
   • 1887, A. Howard Clark, “The Fisheries of Rhode Island”, in George Brown Goode, editor, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, section 2, part 4, U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 292:

     The Seekonk has always been a favorite home of the oyster, and year by year the river contributes its quota to the tongers, through a space from the Wicksbury pier to nearly 5 miles above.

   • 2013, Robert A. Geake, “Chapter 1: The Founding of Providence”, in A History of the Providence River‎^[1], Charleston, SC: The History Press, →ISBN:

     Williams and a handful of men set out across the Seekonk to a wide cove downriver on the western bank, where they were greeted by a band of Narragansett who shouted from a rocky outcrop on the hill, “What cheer, Netop?” a phrase that was to become iconic in Rhode Island lore.

Derived terms

• Seekonk River