Dunstable (/ˈdʌnstəbəl/ DUN-stə-bəl) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.

In one version, legend tells that the lawlessness of the time was personified in a thief called Dun.

Wishing to capture Dun, the King stapled his ring to a post daring the robber to steal it.

Her son, the robber, was taken and hanged to the final satisfaction that the new community bore his name.

[2][3] A third version is that the name is derived from Dunum, or Dun, a hill, and Staple, a marketplace.

Increases in population leading to subsections becoming independent towns and the delineation of the northern boundary of Massachusetts in 1740 placed the northern part of Dunstable (present day Nashua) in New Hampshire, so the southern part remains the Dunstable of today.

Today, Dunstable, in the face of urban sprawl, has held onto a largely rural character.

Dunstable is bordered by Pepperell to the west, Groton to the south, Tyngsborough to the east, and Nashua and Hollis, New Hampshire, to the north.