Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, one of fourteen in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 20th most populous county in the United States. This makes the county the most populous county on the East Coast outside of New York or Florida. Middlesex County is one of two U.S. counties (along with Santa Clara County, California) to be amongst the top 25 counties with the highest household income and the 25 most populated counties. It is included in the Census Bureau's Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area. As part of the 2020 United States census, the Commonwealth's mean center of population for that year was geo-centered in Middlesex County, in the town of Natick (this is not to be confused with the geographic center of Massachusetts, which is in Rutland, Worcester County).
On July 11, 1997, Massachusetts abolished the executive government of Middlesex County primarily due to the county's insolvency. Middlesex County continues to exist as a geographic boundary and is used primarily as district jurisdictions within the court system and for other administrative purposes; for example, as an election district. The National Weather Service weather alerts (such as severe thunderstorm warnings) continue to localize based on Massachusetts's counties.
History The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered that "the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading.Davis, William T. Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, p. 44. The Boston History Company, 1895. In 1649 the first Middlesex County Registry of Deeds was created in Cambridge.
On April 19, 1775, Middlesex was the site of the first armed conflict of the American Revolutionary War.
In 1855, the Massachusetts State Legislature created a minor Registry of Deeds for the Northern District of Middlesex County in Lowell.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Boston annexed several of its adjacent cities and towns including Charlestown and Brighton from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement and accretion toward Suffolk County.
Beginning prior to the dissolution of the executive county government, the county comprised two regions with separate county seats for administrative purposes: The Middlesex-North District (smaller) with its county seat in Lowell under the Registry of Deeds consisted of the city of Lowell, and its adjacent towns of Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford and Wilmington. The Middlesex-South District (larger) with the county seat in Cambridge consisted of the remaining 44 cities and towns of Middlesex County.
Since the start of the 21st century, much of the current and former county offices have physically decentralized from the Cambridge seat, with the sole exceptions being the Registry of Deeds and the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, which both retain locations in Cambridge and Lowell. Since the first quarter of 2008, the Superior Courthouse has been seated in the city of Woburn; the Sheriff's Office is now administratively seated in the city of Medford and the Cambridge-based County Jail has since been amalgamated with another county jail facility in Billerica. The Cambridge District Court (which has jurisdiction for Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge); along with the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office, although not a part of the Middlesex County government, was also relatedly forced to relocate to Medford at the time of the closure of the Superior Courthouse building in Cambridge.
Government and politics Of the fourteen counties of Massachusetts, Middlesex is one of eight which have had no county government or county commissioners since July 1, 1998, when county functions were assumed by state agencies at local option following a change in state law. Immediately prior to its dissolution, the executive branch consisted of three County Commissioners elected at-large to staggered four-year terms. There was a County Treasurer elected to a six-year term. The county derived its revenue primarily from document filing fees at the Registries of Deeds and from a Deeds Excise Tax; also a transfer tax was assessed on the sale price of real estate and collected by the Registries of Deeds.Middlesex County Directory: 1993-1995, (Cambridge: Middlesex County Commissioners Office, 1995)
Budgets as proposed by the County Commissioners were approved by a County Advisory Board that consisted of a single representative of each of the 54 cities and towns in Middlesex County. The votes of the individual members of the advisory board were weighted based on the overall valuation of property in their respective communities.
The County Sheriff and two Registers of Deeds (one for the Northern District at Lowell and another for the Southern District at Cambridge) are each elected to serve six-year terms. Besides the employees of the Sheriff's Office and the two Registries of Deeds, the county had a Maintenance Department, a Security Department, some administrative staff in the Treasurer's and Commissioners' Offices, and the employees of the hospital.
The county government also owned and operated the Superior Courthouse, one of which was formerly in Cambridge (since 2008 relocated to Woburn.) and one in Lowell; and the defunct Middlesex County Hospital in the city of Waltham.
The legislation abolishing the Middlesex County executive retained the Sheriff and Registers of Deeds as independently elected officials, and transferred the Sheriff's Office under the state Department of Public Safety and the two Registry of Deeds offices to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office. Additionally, all county maintenance and security employees were absorbed into the corresponding staffs of the Massachusetts Trial Court. The legislation also transferred ownership of the two Superior Courthouses to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The hospital was closed. Finally, the office of County Commissioner was immediately abolished and the office of County Treasurer was abolished as of December 31, 2002. Any county roads transferred to the Commonwealth as part of the dissolution. The other administrative duties (such as Sheriff, Department of Deeds and court system, etc.) and all supporting staff were transferred under the Commonwealth as well.
District attorneys of Middlesex County District attorney TermSamuel Dana1807–1811Timothy Fuller1811–1812Asahel Stearns1813–1832Asahel Huntington1832–1845Albert H. Nelson1845–1848Charles R. Train1848–1851Asa W. Farr1851–1853Charles R. Train1853–1855Isaac S. Morse1855–1872John B. Goodrich1872–1874George Stevens1874–1879John Wilkes Hammond1879–1880William Burnham Stevens1880–1890Patrick H. Cooney1890–1893Fred N. Wier1893–1902George A. Sanderson1902–1907Hugh Bancroft1907–1908John J. Higgins1908–1913William J. Corcoran1913–1917Nathan A. Tufts1917–1921Endicott Peabody Saltonstall1921–1922Arthur Kenneth Reading1922–1927Robert T. Bushnell1927–1931Warren L. Bishop1931–1938William G. Andrew1938–1939Robert F. Bradford1939–1945George E. Thompson1945–1956Ephraim Martin1956–1957James O'Dea Jr.1957–1959John J. Droney1959–1983Scott Harshbarger1983–1991Thomas Reilly1991–1999Martha Coakley1999–2007Gerard Leone2007–2013Marian T. Ryan2013–present
Sheriffs of Middlesex County Sheriff Term Capt. Timothy Phillips 1692–1702 Capt. Samuel Gookin 1702–1714 Col. Edmund Goffe 1714–1717 Samuel Gookin(2nd term) 1717–1729 Daniel Foster 1729–1731 Richard Foster, Jr. 1731–1764 Col. David Phips 1764–1775 Col. James Prescott 1775–1781 Col. Loammi Baldwin 1781–1794 Maj. Joseph Hosmer 1794–1808 Gen. William Hildreth, Jr. 1808–1813 Gen. Nathaniel Austin, Jr. 1813–1831 Benjamin Franklin Varnum 1831–1841 Col. Samuel Chandler 1841–1851 Fisher Ames Hildreth 1851–1853 John Sheppard Keyes 1853–1859 Charles Kimball 1859–1879 Eben Winslow Fiske 1879–1883 Henry Greenwood Cushing 1883–1899 John Robert Fairbain 1899–1934 Joseph M. McElroy 1934–1947 Loring R. Kew 1947-1947 Louis E. Boutwell 1948–1949 Howard W. Fitzpatrick 1949–1970 John J. Buckley 1970–1980 Edward Henneberry 1980–1984 William Quealy (acting) 1984–1985 John P. McGonigle 1985–1994 Robert C. Krekorian (acting) 1994 Anthony M. Sasso (acting) 1994 R. Bradford Bailey 1994–1996 James DiPaola 1996–2010 John Granara (Special) 2010–2011 Peter Koutoujian 2011–Present
Administrative structure today Records of land ownership in Middlesex County continue to be maintained at the two Registries of Deeds. Besides the Sheriff and the two Registers of Deeds, the Middlesex District Attorney, the Middlesex Register of Probate and the Middlesex Clerk of Courts (which were already part of state government before the abolition of Middlesex County government) are all elected countywide to six-year terms.
In Middlesex County (as in the entirety of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), the governmental functions such as property tax assessment and collection, public education, road repair and maintenance, and elections were all conducted at the municipal city and town level and not by the county government.
In 2012 the 22-story Superior Court Building in Cambridge which was transferred from the abolished Executive County government was sold by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Due to its transfer from state control, many local residents had tried to force the private developers to reduce the overall height of the structure.
Even following the abolition of the executive branch for county government in Middlesex, communities are still granted a right by the Massachusetts state legislature to form their own regional compacts for sharing of services and costs thereof.
+ County government: Middlesex County Clerk of Courts: Michael A. Sullivan District Attorney: Marian T. Ryan Register of Deeds: Richard P. Howe, Jr. (North at Lowell) Maria C. Curtatone (South at Cambridge) Register of Probate: Tara E. DeCristofaro County Sheriff: Peter J. Koutoujian State government State Representative(s): 37 Representatives State Senator(s): 16 Senators Governor's Councilor(s): Robert L. Jubinville (D-2nd district)Marilyn M. Petitto (D-3rd district)Eileen R. Duff (D-5th district)Terrence W. Kennedy (D-6th district)Paul DePalo (D-7th district) Federal government U.S. Representative(s): Jake Auchincloss (D-) Lori Trahan (D-) Seth Moulton (D-) Katherine Clark (D-) Ayanna Pressley (D-) U.S. Senators: Elizabeth Warren (D), Ed Markey (D)
Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.5%) is water. It is the third-largest county in Massachusetts by land area.
It is bounded southeast by the Charles River and drained by the Merrimack, Nashua, and Concord rivers, and other streams.
The MetroWest region comprises much of the southern portion of the county.
Adjacent counties Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (north) Essex County (northeast) Suffolk County (southeast) Norfolk County (south) Worcester County (west)
Transportation These routes pass through Middlesex County , From Hopkinton to Newton , From Somerville to Tewksbury , From Newton to Wakefield , In Marlboro , From Hopkinton to Tewksbury , From Cambridge to Malden /Route 3, From Cambridge to Tyngsborough , From Marlborough to Watertown , From Littleton to Cambridge , From Shirley to Cambridge , From Burlington to Tyngsborough , From Lexington-Arlington line to Chelmsford , From Framingham to Newton , In Townsend , From Holliston to Everett , From Sherborn to Chelmsford , From Cambridge to North Reading , From Framingham to Newton , In Ashby , From Somerville to Dracut , From Groton to Chelmsford , From Waltham to Malden , From Hudson to North Reading