Norfolk County, Massachusetts Colony

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Norfolk County, Massachusetts Colony was one of the original four counties created in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 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 sheires". Norfolk County contained Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, and Portsmouth.^[1] In 1680 the towns of this county were divided between Essex County, Massachusetts (Salisbury and Haverhill) and the newly formed Province of New Hampshire (Hampton, Exeter, Dover, and Portsmouth) so that the county ceased to exist.

The former Norfolk County is often referred to as "Old Norfolk County."

A new, unrelated county was established as Norfolk County, Massachusetts from most of the southern portion of Suffolk County in 1793.

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