Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on a peninsula to the north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1848 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874. While it has had a substantial Irish American population since the migration of Irish people during the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, since the late 1980s the neighborhood has changed dramatically because of its proximity to downtown and its colonial... architecture. However, it still maintains a strong Irish American population and identity. Thomas and Jane Walford were the original English settlers of Mishawaum ; they settled there in 1624. They were given a grant by Sir Robert Gorges, with whom they had settled at Wessagusset in September 1623. John Endicott, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, had sent William, Richard and Ralph Sprague to Mishawaum to lay out a settlement.
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