One of the first things you learn when you study the history of Waterbury is that the town was originally called Mattatuck, an Anglicized version of a Paugussett word. The earliest appearance of the word in Connecticut is a deed from 1657/8 in which the Tunxis agreed to sell "a tract of land called Matetucke" to two land speculators, colonists from Farmington. In 1673, when others from Farmington were interested in starting up a new settlement, the colonial government recorded the name Mattatuck as both "Mattatock" and "Matitacoocke." Spelling in this era was often phonetic, based on the scribe's hearing of the word.
The meaning of the word, however it was spelled, was not recorded at the time. Historians during the later nineteenth century determined that it meant "the place without trees" or "the badly wooded land" and was more correctly spelled "matuh'tugk" or "mat'ughtugk-ohke," depending on the precise translation. This did not mean that trees couldn't grow here: Connecticut's indigenous societies set controlled fires each year to prevent trees from growing, making it easier to hunt deer. The area may have been called "mattatuck" because it was maintained as a hunting ground.
The specific location of the original tract of land called Matetucke is unclear, but when colonists from Farmington wanted to start a new settlement in 1674, they said it would be "at Mattatuck, situate on each side of the Mattatuck river." They named their village Mattatuck and called it that until 1686, when the settlement was incorporated as the town of Waterbury.
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| Welcome to the other Mattatuck! |
Before our Mattatuck was started, the village of Mattituck was established on Long Island. In 1649, settlers of Southold purchased land on the eastern end of the island which included "Corchaug and Mattatuck and all other Tracts of land by what names soever named...." The colonists of Long Island soon started the Village of Mattituck, which still exists today as part of the Town of Southold.
