Coast Path

Did an ancestor travel the Coast Path of Massachusetts? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.

The Coast Path was a 45 mile (72 kilometer) migration route between Plymouth and Boston near the shore of Massachusetts.

Background History
The Pilgrims from England and the Netherlands founded Plymouth in 1620. The Puritans from England founded Boston in 1630. The Coast Path was the earliest overland route between the two.

The Coast Path probably pre-dated both colonies as part of a much longer American Indian trail with extensions as far north as Maine and New Brunswick (see Kennebunk Road) where the English and other Europeans dried cod from the Grand Banks for markets in Europe by the early 1500s.

The Coast Path (Road) was designated a public highway in 1639; in 1803 it was made a turnpike (toll road).

Route
The Coast Path passed northwest to southeast through Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties:

Suffolk County


 * Boston (1630 )
 * Dorchester (1630 )

Norfolk County


 * Milton (settled 1640 )
 * Quincy (settled 1626 )
 * Braintree (1640 )
 * Weymouth (settled 1623 )
 * Cohasset (east side of Hingham)(settled 1670 )

Plymouth County


 * Hingham (settled 1633 )
 * Scituate (settled 1627 )
 * Marshfield (settled 1627 )
 * Duxbury (settled 1627 )
 * Kingston (settled 1620 )
 * Plymouth (1620 )

Connecting Routes Over time the Coast Path connected with half a dozen new migration routes out of the Boston end of the Coast Path:


 * Bay Road connects Boston (Massachusetts Bay) to New Bedford (Buzzards Bay).
 * Kennebunk Road links Boston along the New England coast to Augusta, Maine.
 * King's Highway also known as the Boston Post Road goes from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City, and south to Charleston, South Carolina with extensions on each end. In Massachusetts and Connecticut there were at least three competing routes for the Boston Post Road. Parts were laid out 1650 to 1735; its length remained in heavy use through 1783, and some parts are used to this day.
 * Mohawk or Iroquois Trail This trail was established in 1722 from Albany to Utica to Rome to Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. The Boston to Albany side of that route probably preceded the Albany to Oswego route by many years.
 * Old Connecticut Path a pre-historic Indian path from Boston, Massachusetts to the Connecticut River Valley at Springfield, Massachusetts and south to Hartford, Connecticut.
 * Old Roebuck Road goes from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island (Narragansett Bay).

Modern parallels. The modern road that roughly matches the old Coast Path from Boston to Plymouth is:


 * Massachusetts State Highway Route 3A between Boston and Plymouth.

Settlers and Records
The pathway from from Plymouth to Boston near the Atlantic Ocean shore was used by European settlers and traders by 1630, if not earlier. A few scattered settlers from Plymouth may have settled along the route in the decade following 1621. More concentrated European settlements along the route began after Boston was settled about 1630. There are few records mentioning specific Coast Path travelers. Letters mention that Governor Winthrop traveled the route for two days in 1631 to meet with Governor Bradford. On that trip Winthrop was carried across the streams on the backs of Indians. Also, anyone who settled near the Coast Path during the 1600s likely used the Coast Path or the ocean to reach their new home, or to reach marketplaces in Boston and Plymouth. For records of the earliest settlers (and Coast Path travelers), see resources such as:


 * Lucy Mary Kellogg, et. al., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620, 23+ vols. (Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975- ). ;.
 * Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1995). ;.


 * General Society of Mayflower Descendants
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society