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Watertown, city, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just west of Boston. One of the four earliest Massachusetts Bay settlements, it was founded by a group led by Sir Richard Saltonstall and was incorporated as a town in 1630; it was the first inland farming town. Its name may have derived from the fact that the area was well watered and abounded with fish. Construction of gristmills (1630s) and a cloth-fulling mill...