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Massachusetts · Plymouth · South Shore · #300 Most Populous County in the US
Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Plymouth - where the Pilgrims landed in 1620 and where American history as conventionally told begins. The South Shore from Hingham to Duxbury, Plymouth's working waterfront, Pilgrim Hall Museum, and the Mayflower II in its harbor. Property tax, courts, public records, probate, and senior services for Plymouth County residents.
Affiliate disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of these relationships.
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Plymouth County's assessment ratio means effective tax rates are low — but incorrect appraisals still cost money. Ownwell manages the appeal with no upfront cost.
Office: Plymouth County Emergency Management – a division of the Sheriff’s Office; mission is to save lives and protect property through mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery programs developed in partnership with local governments and private-sector organizations countywide.
Sheriff: Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office – Administration Building, 24 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360 | (508) 830-6200; Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. – first elected November 2004, sworn in by then-Governor Mitt Romney, the 30th High Sheriff of Plymouth County (an office dating to 1692); lifelong Plymouth County resident (grew up in Marshfield, now resides in Kingston); UMass Amherst BA, Suffolk University Law School JD; nearly nine years as a Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney before becoming Sheriff; received the FBI Trilogy Award in 2017. Operates the Plymouth County Correctional Facility (opened 1994, capacity 1,140 – the largest prison in Plymouth), a Civil Process office, an Aquaponics program, a working Farm, K9 unit, Mobile Command unit, and Victim Services division.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: MA-3 and I-495 serve Plymouth, the county seat, on Cape Cod Bay.
Notes: Plymouth County includes Plymouth, Brockton, Marshfield, Kingston, and dozens of other South Shore and Southeastern Massachusetts communities.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Plymouth County Registry of Deeds – Plymouth, MA.
Notes: Plymouth is genuinely the site of the Pilgrims’ actual 1620 permanent settlement, following their initial Mayflower anchoring off Provincetown in Barnstable County – making Plymouth County home to the earliest permanent European colonial settlement in New England. Plymouth Rock and the Plimoth Patuxet Museums (a living-history recreation of the original colony and a Wampanoag homesite) remain among the county’s most visited historic sites.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Plymouth County Veterans Services – confirm current contact via mass.gov.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Confirm current Plymouth-area public library address/phone via mass.gov.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Plymouth Rock, the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, Mayflower II, and Myles Standish State Forest are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine 1620 Pilgrim settlement heritage is one of the most historically foundational local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Plymouth County Registry of Deeds – confirm current contact via mass.gov.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Plymouth Animal Shelter – a town facility in the Cedarville section of Plymouth, MA; provides shelter for homeless and abandoned cats and dogs. Hours: Mon-Thu 10 AM-12 PM, Fri 10-11 AM.
Animal Protection Center of Southeastern Massachusetts (APCSM) – 1300 West Elm Street Ext., Brockton, MA 02301 | (508) 586-2053; a 501(c)(3) education/outreach shelter serving Plymouth, Norfolk, and Bristol counties, having placed over 10,000 animals into homes since 2009; intakes by appointment only. Public hours: Tue/Fri/Sat/Sun 1-5 PM, closed Mon/Wed/Thu.
Kingston Animal Control – 28 Evergreen Street, Kingston, MA; adoption fees $200 (cats/kittens), $375 (dogs/puppies); Senior, Military Family, and First Responder discounts available.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Plymouth County – routed through individual town/city public works departments; confirm current contact via mass.gov.
NOTES: Plymouth County is the fifth county in the second and final batch of the Massachusetts v2 A+ sourced redo. The genuine 1620 Pilgrim settlement heritage is one of the most historically foundational local facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Plymouth County
Plymouth County holds the most mythologized site in American history – Plymouth and the Pilgrim landing of 1620 – while also containing some of the Boston metro area’s most desirable South Shore communities.
Plymouth (population ~62,000) is the town where the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on December 21, 1620, after 66 days at sea, establishing what is conventionally described as the first permanent English settlement in New England (acknowledging the precedence of Jamestown and the short-lived Popham Colony). Plymouth Rock – a 10-ton granite boulder at the waterfront, now housed under a classical portico in Pilgrim Memorial State Park – is the traditional landing site, though historical evidence for the specific rock’s significance is largely legendary. The Mayflower II – a full-scale reproduction of the original Mayflower, built in Devon, England in 1957 and sailed across the Atlantic – is moored in Plymouth Harbor as a floating museum. The Pilgrim Hall Museum (1824, the oldest continuously operating public museum in the United States) houses an extraordinary collection of Pilgrim-era artifacts including the only surviving portrait of a Mayflower passenger (Edward Winslow, 1651).
Plimoth Patuxent (formerly Plimoth Plantation) – the living history museum recreating both the 1627 English village and the 17th-century Wampanoag homeland – is one of the most sophisticated living history museums in America, with costumed interpreters (English villagers playing specific historical persons, Wampanoag interpreters speaking in modern voice as members of a living culture) that create an unusually nuanced presentation of colonial American history.
The South Shore communities – Hingham, Duxbury, Scituate, Marshfield, Pembroke, and Kingston – are among the Boston metro area’s most desirable coastal suburbs, with long commuter rail connections to Boston’s South Station and strong school districts driving steady appreciation.
Duxbury – one of Plymouth County’s most exclusive communities – has a historic connection to the Pilgrims (several Mayflower passengers eventually settled there) and waterfront properties on Duxbury Bay that rank among the most coveted on the South Shore.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth – which operated from 1972 until 2019 – has been undergoing decommissioning. The plant’s closure ended a significant source of Plymouth County employment and tax revenue, with decommissioning costs and timeline management ongoing.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Massachusetts requires municipal assessment at 100% of full and fair cash value. Each of Plymouth County’s 27 municipalities has its own assessors.
South Shore appreciation: The Boston-area real estate market’s expansion southward – accelerated by remote work – has driven significant appreciation in communities like Hingham, Duxbury, and Scituate. Even more inland communities like Middleborough and Bridgewater have seen strong appreciation as buyers seek affordability relative to closer-in communities.
The abatement process: File an abatement application with your local board of assessors by February 1. If denied, appeal to the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board (ATB) within 3 months.
Senior exemptions: Massachusetts Clauses 41, 41B, 41C, and 17D provide various senior exemptions – apply through your local assessor.
Massachusetts estate tax: Above $2 million (2025) at rates up to 16%. South Shore waterfront properties in Duxbury or Hingham easily exceed the threshold alone. No Massachusetts inheritance tax.
OWNWELL CTA: Plymouth County February 1 abatement deadline. South Shore appreciation has been strong – Hingham, Duxbury, Scituate especially. Massachusetts estate tax at $2M affects most South Shore coastal property owners. Ownwell manages the abatement with no upfront cost.
Recommended
Plymouth County February 1 abatement deadline. South Shore appreciation has been strong - Hingham, Duxbury, Scituate especially. Massachusetts estate tax at $2M affects most South Shore coastal property owners. Ownwell manages the abatement with no upfront cost.
Courts & Legal
Courts & Legal
The Plymouth County Superior Court at 52 Obery Street, Plymouth (508-747-6911) handles major civil and criminal matters. The Plymouth County Probate and Family Court at 52 Obery Street, Plymouth (508-747-6204) handles all estate administration. The Plymouth County Registry of Deeds (508-830-9200) at 50 Obery Street, Plymouth maintains all land records – searchable online at masslandrecords.com.
Massachusetts does not recognize Transfer on Death deeds. Massachusetts estate tax is the dominant planning issue for Plymouth County property owners.
Pilgrim heritage and Massachusetts estate tax planning: The irony of Plymouth County – where American self-determination mythology began – having one of the most aggressive state estate taxes in the nation (at the $2 million threshold) is not lost on estate planners. Plymouth County’s concentration of South Shore professionals and Boston-area retirees with significant real estate equity makes the Massachusetts estate tax a central planning issue for nearly every family.
Plimoth Patuxent and colonial heritage philanthropy: The living history museum receives significant planned gifts from donors committed to presenting American history with both accuracy and nuance – its Wampanoag Homesite is one of the few American historical museums to present Indigenous history from an Indigenous perspective.
Wampanoag Nation: The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (Barnstable County) and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah (Dukes County) are the federally recognized successor nations to the Wampanoag people who met the Pilgrims in 1620. Their ongoing legal and cultural presence reminds Plymouth County communities that 1620 was not a beginning but a dramatic inflection in a much longer human history of the region.
Pilgrim Nuclear Plant decommissioning: The decommissioning of Pilgrim Nuclear Station creates specific estate planning considerations for former plant workers – Entergy pension plan status (the plant was owned by Entergy) and IBEW union benefits should be verified by retirees given corporate reorganizations.
Senior Services: The Old Colony Elder Services (508-584-1561) at 144 Main Street, Brockton serves Plymouth County with senior centers, home-delivered meals, transportation, SHINE Medicare counseling, Adult Protective Services, and connections to Massachusetts Medicaid long-term care programs.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS (Court Records)
52 Obery St., Plymouth, MA 02360
(508) 747-6765
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Plymouth Probate and Family Court (estate/probate case files – see Probate section above); Plymouth County holds some of the deepest colonial-era probate records in the country, relevant to Mayflower descendant research (Alden, Bradford, Brewster, Howland, Standish, Winslow families).
Local societies
No dedicated Plymouth County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Plymouth Probate and Family Court 52 Obery Street, Plymouth, MA 02360 (508) 747-6204
Plymouth County is in southeastern Massachusetts, seated in Plymouth, site of the Pilgrims’ 1620 landing. There is also a Brockton Probate and Family Court session serving part of the county.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Massachusetts adopted a version of the Uniform Probate Code (the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code, or MUPC), codified largely at Mass. Gen. Laws c. 190B.
Voluntary Administration – the simplest path, for estates consisting entirely of personal property valued at $25,000 or less (not counting one motor vehicle). The decedent must have been a Massachusetts resident with no real estate solely in their name, at least 30 days must have passed since death, and no formal or informal probate petition can be pending. Filed using the Voluntary Administration Statement (Form MPC 170) – the filer becomes the Voluntary Personal Representative with no court hearing required. Filing fee is $115.
Informal Probate – the standard track for most straightforward estates, whether the estate has a will or not. A Magistrate reviews the petition administratively; an informal probate order can issue within about 7 days of filing, though the full case (including the required waiting and notice periods) typically closes in roughly 9 to 14 months.
Formal Probate – required when the will is contested, there’s uncertainty about who should serve as personal representative, or other disputes require a judge’s decision after a hearing.
Summary Administration – under c. 190B §3-1203, available when the estate’s value doesn’t exceed the family allowance, exempt property, funeral expenses, and expenses of the last illness – allows the personal representative to distribute the estate immediately without notifying creditors.
Step 2: filing for probate
Determine which track fits: gather the death certificate, will (if any), and a rough inventory of assets to see whether Voluntary Administration, Informal, or Formal Probate applies.
File the appropriate petition with the Probate and Family Court in the county where the decedent resided.
For informal proceedings, the Magistrate reviews and, if in order, appoints the personal representative and issues Letters without a hearing.
The personal representative gathers assets, provides required notices, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes what remains to the heirs or beneficiaries – Massachusetts generally requires estates be probated within 3 years of death.
What it costs
Voluntary Administration filing fee: $115.
Informal and formal probate filing fees vary by estate type and are set by the Trial Court’s fee schedule.
Massachusetts does not require an attorney for probate, though many families use one for anything beyond a small, simple estate.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
24 Long Pond Rd., Plymouth, MA 02360
(508) 830-6200
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
MA Dept of Transitional Assistance
(877) 382-2363
MassHealth
(800) 841-2900
South Shore Hospital (Mass General Brigham)
southshorehospital.org (South Weymouth — major regional hospital; Level II Trauma)
Office: Plymouth County Board of Health – routed through individual town/city health departments; confirm current contact via mass.gov.
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