History of the Town Seal of Berkley, MA

The voters of Berkley, MA, at a special town meeting held on October 6, 1977, approved the custom designed seal for their town. The seal has on  its center  1735 which is the date  when Berkley was founded.  The center circle is  divided into four parts,  clockwise: on the right upper quadrant there is  the icon of Dighton Rock; next is  the icon for  the  Congregational Church with its Revere bell; next,  we see a boat which is the  symbol of shipbuilding and in  the last space there are  farm products symbols  of agriculture. 

This design was done by Ann Holck of 71 Anthony St, which had been selected in an art contest in the previous year. The final seal was executed by artist Dian Madlowski of 26 South Main St,  Berkley, MA.

History of Berkley, Massachusetts

Location:

Berkley is located in the Bristol County on the east bank of Taunton River, 40 miles south of Boston.

It is bounded on the north by the city of Taunton; on the east by Lakeville in the Plymouth County; and on the south by Freetown. The Assonet River which is a branch of Taunton River together with Assonet Bay separate it from Freetown.

The Taunton River, called the Great River by the Indians, forms the entire western boundary of Berkley. On the other side of Taunton River there are  these communities: Somerset, Dighton, ad Taunton.

Berkley covers an area of 16.4 square miles. It has a latitude of  41 degrees and 50 minutes north  and longitude of  71 degrees and 04 minutes west of Greenwich, England. It has an elevation of 76 feet above sea level.

Berkley Beginnings

In 1735 a group of residents in the southern part of Taunton and the eastern part of Dighton asked the General Court in Boston to be made into a special town because of long distance required to travel to places of public meetings  and more so of worship.

The petition was granted and signed by Governor Joanthan Belcher, on April 18, 1735 creating the new Berkley.

The choice of  ”Berkley”

This name was chosen in honor of George Berkeley (1685-1753), a noted British philosopher and later Bishop of Cloyne. Someone misspelled his name omitting a second   [e]   resulting in the name of Berkley. So it has been this way ever since.

Here is the official Act creating the Town of Berkley: