[3][4] Yarmouth was organized and incorporated[5] as part of the Plymouth Colony on September 3, 1639, following a settlement led by John Crowe (later Crowell), Thomas Howes and Anthony Thacher, and is, together with Sandwich, the oldest town on Cape Cod.

Though none of the initial settlers hailed from that English town, the name was possibly chosen because across the North Sea from Yarmouth is the Netherlands, where a portion of the Mayflower passengers had lived in exile.

[9] In 1648, the Plymouth Colony's legislature, the General Court, appointed Myles Standish to adjudicate land disputes among the Yarmouth settlers.

[12] In the early eighteenth century, some of the Yarmouth veterans of King Philip's War were granted lands to settle in Gorham, Maine.

[15] In March 1776, Yarmouth troops served as part of George Washington's forces during the Fortification of Dorchester Heights.

[20] On July 8, 1812, the Yarmouth town meeting voted to protest the recent Congressional declaration of war with Great Britain.

[22] Although the people of Yarmouth, including its militiamen, remained intensely opposed to the War of 1812, local militia forces did participate in attempts to counter the blockade.

[26] Due to livestock pasturage, firewood collection, shipbuilding, and the construction of the Old Colony Railroad, the old-growth forests of the Wampanoag era had disappeared from Yarmouth by the end of the nineteenth century,[27] not to be replaced with stands of incipient second-growth forest until agriculture declined in the town during the twentieth century.

Although agriculture was a prominent part of Yarmouth life, the town's location led its people to make much of their living from the ocean.

[32] Captain Ebenezer Sears of Yarmouth was the first American skipper to take a merchant vessel around the Cape of Good Hope.

[33][34] In 1854, Captain Asa Eldridge of Yarmouth skippered the clipper Red Jacket, a packet ship, between New York and Liverpool in only 13 days, 1 hour, and 25 minutes, dock to dock, setting a speed record for fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a commercial sailing vessel that has remained unbroken ever since.

[35][36][37][38] In 1856, Captain Eldridge skippered the ill-fated steamship SS Pacific, which disappeared at sea on a voyage from Liverpool to New York.

In 1970, the national Christmas Tree Shops retail chain was founded at a location on Route 6A in Yarmouth Port.

[44] On August 26, 2003, Colgan Air Flight 9446 crashed into the water just off of Yarmouth, killing both crew members on board.

[46] Yarmouth is bordered by Cape Cod Bay to the north, Dennis to the east, Nantucket Sound to the south, and Barnstable to the west.

The town's southern shore is known for its beaches, from the west jetty of the Bass River to Great Island, on the east and south sides of Hyannis Harbor.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the plant hardiness zone is 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 0.6 °F (−17.4 °C).

From the nearby Hyannis station, the Cape Cod Central Railroad operates seasonal tourist excursions to Sandwich and Buzzards Bay, and the MBTA's CapeFLYER service offers seasonal weekend service to Boston, with stops in Bourne, Buzzards Bay, Wareham, and several commuter rail stations.

The team plays at Red Wilson Field and has featured dozens of players who went on to careers in Major League Baseball such as Craig Biggio, Buster Posey, and Chris Sale.