Plymouth Colony was an English settlement in what is now southeastern Massachusetts, centered on the town of New Plimoth along the western shore of Cape Cod Bay. Founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims at Patuxet — an abandoned Wampanoag village — the colony gradually expanded to occupy territory corresponding to present-day Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol Counties. It remained a largely self-governing community for more than seventy years, marked by early agreements with the Wampanoag people, the development of its religious and civic institutions, and its role in shaping New England's colonial landscape. In 1691, Plymouth Colony was formally merged into the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony, ending its independent political existence but leaving a lasting historical legacy as one of the earliest enduring English settlements in North America. - AsNotedIn