Pawcatuck

The Pawcatuck flows from the Great Swamp to Little Narragansett Bay, through a country of ponds, woods and coastal waters. Its lower banks formed part of Misquamicut, home to Narragansett people before English settlement. The river's fish drew communities to its shores, while the mouth opened onto the waters of Long Island Sound.

Thomas Stanton built a trading house on the river in 1649, and for many years controlled trade near its mouth. In 1660 a group from Newport acquired land at Misquamicut, and English settlement took root on the eastern bank the following year. Westerly was incorporated in 1669, when the surrounding area contained about thirty English families. The Pawcatuck also became a boundary between competing colonial claims, eventually marking the division between Rhode Island and Connecticut.