Formed June 22, 1703 (1st county)
Newport County (85,652), Newport (25,170)
The brick structure was erected in 1926. There was a 1734 courthouse earlier. The courthouse is on Washington Square at Meeting Street. Rhode Island State Highway 138 passes six blocks to the north of the site. Appleton and Stearns designed the building. The county was created on June 22, 1703 as an original county. Newport County and its county seat are named for Newport, England. Newport County is the birthplace of 6 Rhode Island governors, John Collins, Isaac Wilbour, William Jones, William C. Gibbs, William C. Cozzens, and Charles C. Van Zandt.
Newport County has a sheriff but doesn’t have a unified government as each township governs. Twenty-six Superior Court Judges and Fourteen District Court Judges serve the entire state. The county is in the southeast corner of the state. It borders both Massachusetts and the Atlantic Ocean. Providence, Rhode Island is northwest and New Bedford, Massachusetts is east of the county. The county center is 6 miles Northeast of Newport near Portsmouth. The county is surrounded clockwise by Bristol County and Massachusetts and the Atlantic Ocean and Washington and Kent counties.
The area of the county is 102 square miles. It is 4 out of 5 in the state. It ranks 4 out of 5 in population in the state. It has a density of 839.7 persons per square mile making it 4 out of 5 in the state. Newport County has 29.4% of its population in its incorporated areas since there are no incorporated cities. There are no Interstates or U.S. Highways in the county. The overall county including land and water looks like a cowboy boot but the actual land is a series of peninsulas and islands. The City of Newport is in the southwest quarter of the county. Newport is the county seat and as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 29.4% of the county population. This county is in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Newport
