North Kingstown

North Kingstown, town (township), Washington county, south-central Rhode Island, U.S., on Narragansett Bay. The area, settled in 1641 as Kings Towne, was incorporated in 1674; in 1686–89 it was called Rochester. In 1722–23 it was divided into North Kingstown and South Kingstown. North Kingstown includes the villages of Allenton, Davisville, Hamilton, Lafayette, Quonset Point, Saunderstown, Slocum, and Wickford (the administrative centre). Early economic activities were textile milling, fishing, farming, and boatbuilding. Industrial tools and machinery...