[1] Native Americans inhabited southern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas, and Lakeville is a site with significant indigenous history.

The Wampanoag Royal Cemetery is located in modern-day Lakeville on a peninsula between Little and Great Quittacas Pond.

In 1675, the body of John Sassamon, advisor to Governor Josiah Winslow, was discovered beneath the ice of Assawompset Pond.

When the sentence was carried out, Tobias, senior counselor to the Pokanoket sachem King Philip, and a second supposed accomplice died.

When the attempt was made to carry out the sentence on the third "accomplice"—Tobias's son - the rope broke and he was imprisoned, having first confessed to the killings.

The death of John Sassamon and the subsequent trial and execution of the Wampanoag men convicted of his murder is broadly acknowledged as the trigger for King Philip's War, though tensions between English colonists and indigenous groups had been building for decades.

The first recorded non-native settlement of Lakeville was in 1705 by a man named Peirce, 'whose descendants are very numerous.'

One notable resident from Lakeville who fought in the American Revolution was a Wampanoag man named Benjamin Simonds, who was an aide-de-camp to George Washington at Valley Forge, who died in either 1831 or 1836.

He ended up becoming a local celebrity, both because of his service and because he was the last fully Wampanoag person to live on Assawompset Pond.

[3] Ninety-one men from Lakeville served in the American Civil War, eighty-five in the army and six in the navy.

[5] Lakeville is irregularly shaped, bordered by Middleborough to the northeast and east, Rochester to the southeast, Freetown to the south and southwest, and Berkley and Taunton to the west.

There are also several small conservation areas, four country clubs and two parks, including the Ted Williams Camp, which was once the site of a summer baseball camp run by Boston Red Sox legend and Baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams.

[21][22] On the national level, Lakeville is a part of Massachusetts's 4th congressional district, and is currently represented by Jake Auchincloss.

The school, like several others in the region, used to use the spear logo made famous by Florida State University and the Washington Redskins for its athletics marks, but this was deemed to promote violence, so it was replaced with the "A".

Their teams compete in the South Coast Conference, and their chief rival is Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett.

Additionally, three exits of Interstate 495 are located just over the town line in Middleborough, granting access to Routes 44, 18 and 105 (from north to south in order).

This spur links the two main lines of the railroad in southeastern Massachusetts; the easternmost heads to Cape Cod via the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad, and the westernmost proceeds to split in Taunton, sending two lines towards Fall River and New Bedford, respectively.