Marblehead, town (township), Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on a rocky peninsula jutting into Massachusetts Bay, 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Boston. Its deep, narrow harbour is sheltered by Marblehead Neck, a promontory of marblelike rocks about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) long. The town is known as the birthplace of the U.S. navy.
Settled in 1629 by fishermen from the Channel Islands and Cornwall, England, it was set off from Salem and incorporated as a town in 1649. It developed as a fishing and shipbuilding centre and replaced Boston as the Massachusetts Colony port of entry after passage of the Boston Port Bill of 1774. It was home port for many privateering and colonial vessels. During the American Revolution the first American warship, Hannah, was commissioned there on September 2, 1775, and the Marblehead schooner Lee captured the Nancy, a valuable British prize, in November 1775. General John Glover (1732–97) was a native of Marblehead, where he raised his famous amphibious regiment, which ferried General George Washington and his soldiers across the Delaware River in 1776 to successfully attack British-allied Hessian troops in Trenton.
Marblehead’s port declined after the War of 1812, and the community turned to the manufacture of shoes, rope, glue, and paint. The town is now mainly residential with services and trade accounting for most employment. There are some light manufacturing firms, as well as commercial lobster fishing and yachting facilities.
Many colonial buildings survive, including the Jeremiah Lee Mansion (1768), St. Michael’s Episcopal Church (1714), and King Hooper Mansion (1728; with art exhibits). Abbot Hall, the Victorian town hall, houses Archibald M. Willard’s painting The Spirit of ’76. Fort Sewall (1742) stands in a park overlooking the harbour, and Old Burial Hill has 17th- and 18th-century graves, including those of Revolutionary War soldiers. Area 5 square miles (13 square km). Pop. (2000) 20,377; (2010) 19,808.