List of people from Taunton, Massachusetts

The following is a list of notable people from Taunton, Massachusetts, USA. These individuals were born in Taunton, were long-time residents of the city, or were buried within the city limits.


 * Isaac Babbitt (1799–1862), inventor, manufactured the first tableware made of Britannia metal; made the first brass cannon cast in the U.S.; patented the Babbitt metal
 * David Cobb (1748–1830), State court judge in Massachusetts, 1784; member of Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1789; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts 3rd District, 1793–1795; member of Massachusetts Senate, 1802; lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, 1809–1810
 * Darius N. Couch (1822–1897), U.S. Army officer, naturalist, and a Union army general in the American Civil War
 * Samuel Leonard Crocker (1804–1883), politician; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts 2nd District, 1853–1855
 * Stephanie Cutter (born 1968), Deputy Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
 * Richard De Wert (1931–1951), soldier (Korean War), Medal of Honor recipient; a guided missile frigate, the USS De Wert was named in honor of his heroics
 * Eric DeCosta, Executive Vice President and general manager for the Baltimore Ravens (2003–present)
 * William Z. Foster (1881–1961), American Communist Party's presidential candidate in 1924, 1928, and 1932; also, party chairman from 1945 to 1956
 * Adam Gaudette (born 1996), professional ice hockey player
 * Alan Gifford (1911–1989), actor
 * Scott Hemond (born 1965), baseball player; former infielder for the Oakland Athletics
 * James Leonard Hodges (1790–1846), politician; member of Massachusetts General Court; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts 12th District, 1827–1833
 * Leon Kamin (1927–2017), psychologist, co-authored the book Not in Our Genes (1974)
 * William Standish Knowles (1917–2012), chemist, 2001 Nobel Prize laureate winner in Chemistry for his and his colleagues' work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions
 * Steven Laffoley (born 1965), author of creative-nonfiction and fiction works, including the award-winning Shadowboxing: the Rise and Fall of George Dixon (2012)
 * Robert Milton Leach (1879–1952), politician; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts 15th District, 1924–1925; alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Massachusetts, 1928
 * Emily Levesque, Assistant Professor in Astronomy at University of Washington
 * William Croad Lovering (1835–1910), politician; Member of Massachusetts Senate, 1874–1875; delegate to Republican National Convention from Massachusetts, 1880; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, 1897–1910 (12th District 1897–1903, 14th District 1903–1910); died in office in 1910
 * Frank G. Mahady, Vermont attorney and judge who served on the Vermont Supreme Court
 * William Mason (1808–1883), engine builder; machinist; manufacturer of locomotives and cotton machinery; pioneer in the building of locomotives; patented the "self-acting mule" and "Mason's Self-acting Mule," founder of the Mason Machine Works in 1873; built engine that carried Abraham Lincoln to his grave
 * Joseph R. N. Maxwell, Jesuit priest and academic, President of the College of the Holy Cross and Boston College
 * Barry McCaffrey (born 1942), military officer, politician, youngest 4-star general in the army at any time, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) under President Bill Clinton (1996–2001), drug czar
 * Catherine Anna McKenna (1875–?), lawyer; first woman admitted to practice law in California
 * Toby Morse (born 1970), musician; lead singer of hardcore punk band H2O
 * Marcus Morton (1784–1864), lawyer, jurist, politician, U.S. House member (Massachusetts), Governor of Massachusetts (two terms)
 * Joseph P. Murphy, politician; delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Massachusetts, 1936; presumed deceased
 * Gordon O'Brien (c. 1947–2008), career criminal; associate of the Providence-based Patriarca crime family; involved in the failed kidnapping of bookmaker Blaise Marfeo in 1990
 * Basil O'Connor (1892–1972), lawyer and aide of Franklin D. Roosevelt; President of the American Red Cross; Chairman of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
 * Marc R. Pacheco, politician; presidential elector for Massachusetts, 1996; delegate to Democratic National Convention from Massachusetts, 2000, 2004
 * Edward Padelford (1799–1870), businessman, Confederate officer in the Civil War
 * Seth Padelford (1807–1878), politician; lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, 1863–1865; presidential elector for Rhode Island, 1868; governor of Rhode Island, 1869–1873
 * Robert Treat Paine (1731–1814), politician; Supreme Court Judge of Massachusetts (1796–1804); signer of the Declaration of Independence
 * John F. Parker, Mayor of Taunton, 1953
 * Emily Elizabeth Parsons, writer; Civil War nurse; founder of Mt. Auburn Hospital in Massachusetts
 * Nicholas Pedro, contestant on Season 6 of American Idol
 * Elizabeth Poole (1588–1654), English woman, Puritan, foundress of the present-day city of Taunton, and the first woman to have founded a town in the Americas in 1637
 * John "Beans" Reardon (1897–1984), film actor, Major League Baseball umpire, officiated in five World Series games
 * Corelli C. W. Simpson (1837–?), American poet, cookbook author, painter
 * Sterry Robinson Waterman (1901–1984), lawyer; delegate to Republican National Convention from Vermont, 1936; Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 1955–1970; member of American Bar Association and American Judicature Society
 * Louis G. Whitcomb (1903–1984), United States Attorney for Vermont
 * Henry Williams (1805–1887), politician; member of Massachusetts state legislature; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, 1839–1841, 1843–1845 (10th District 1839–1841, 9th District 1843–1845)