History
Scituate split off from Plymouth in 1636, founded by English settlers who chose the protected harbor at the mouth of the North River for its shipbuilding stands of white oak and pine. By the early 19th century the town had a working fleet of mackerel schooners and a new stone lighthouse — Scituate Light, raised in 1811 — guiding them home. The light is most famous for the "American Army of Two": in September 1814, sisters Abigail and Rebecca Bates, the lightkeeper's daughters, frightened off a British landing party with a fife and drum hidden behind the dunes. A wave of Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries earned Scituate its enduring nickname, the "Irish Riviera," and the town's working harbor still anchors a fleet of lobstermen and recreational sailors.