Washington County, Rhode Island

Washington County, Rhode Island
Former Washington County Courthouse in West Kingston
Location in the U.S. state of Rhode Island
Rhode Island's location in the U.S.
Founded	June 3, 1729
Seat	South Kingstown
Largest town	South Kingstown
Area
• Total	563 sq mi (1,458 km2)
• Land	329 sq mi (852 km2)
• Water	234 sq mi (606 km2), 41%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	126,517
• Density	1,000/sq mi (386/km²)
Congressional district	2nd
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4

Washington County, known locally as South County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 126,979.Rhode Island counties, including Washington County, have no governmental functions other than as court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries, which are part of the state government.

Washington County is included in the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area.

Washington County was created from Providence Plantations in 1729 as Kings County. It was renamed Washington County on October 29, 1781, in honor of General and President Washington.

At the earliest stage of colonial settlement, the area was called "The Narragansett Country", named after the Algonquin tribe of the same name and its tributary tribe the (Eastern) Niantics, whose territory it was, and these held power in the area long after the Wampanoags to the east had lost most of their territory to the Plymouth Colony. (The Algonquin Nipmucs may have held a piece of what is today the westernmost part of the town of Hopkinton.)

Early land purchases in the Narragansett Country were effected by Dutch and English settlers after the establishment of Indian trading posts at Fort Neck, today's town of Charlestown by the Dutch, and at "Smith's Castle", Cocumcussoc, now Wickford, in today's North Kingstown, and these were most notably the so-called "Atherton Purchases" North Kingstown, Quidnesset, and of the Boston Neck area of Narragansett; and the somewhat-conflicting "Pettaquamscutt Purchase" of the rest of North and South Kingstown, Narragansett, and parts of Exeter. Subsequent purchases including the "Misquamicut Purchase" brought in area now part of Richmond, Hopkinton and Westerly. A series of conflicts involving the Manisseans on Block Island gave that island to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for a number of years, before being transferred to the Rhode Island Colony under Newport County, and then finally to Washington County in 1959.