The first permanent white settlement was established by Massachusetts at Fort Dummer (near the present Dummer, in the south-eastern part of the present town of Brattleboro) in 1724.
Plymouth was the first permanent white settlement in New England, and dates its founding from the landing here from the "Mayflower" shallop of an exploring party of twelve Pilgrims, including William Bradford, on the 21st of December (N.s.) 1620.
At Lonsdale, William Blackstone (c.1595-1675), the first permanent white settler within the present limits of Rhode Island, built his residence, "Study Hall," about 1635.
The first permanent white settlement north of the Vaal was made by a party under Potgieter's leadership. That commandant had in March 1838 gone to Natal, and had endeavoured to avenge the massacre of Piet Retief and his comrades by the Zulus.
The first permanent white settlement at Charleston was made soon after the close of the War of Independence; it was one of the places through which the streams of immigrants entered the; Ohio Valley, and it became of considerable importance as a centre of transfer and shipment, but it was not until the development of the coalmining region that it became industrially important.
