This town was incorporated as Gorham on October 30, 1764. It was one of the seven townships granted by the General Court in 1732 to the Narragansett settlers. When the property was divided among the original grantees, the town was assigned to Captain John Gorham and one hundred nineteen others and was then called Narragansett, No. 7. Captain John Phinney began the first settlement here in May 1736, an event celebrated on May 26, 1836, and again on May 26, 1886.