The indigenous Wampanoag inhabited the area that is now Dartmouth for up to a thousand years before European colonization, and their ancestors had been there longer. English colonist Bartholomew Gosnold is recorded as having explored this area, later developed as Old Dartmouth, in 1602. Elders of the Plymouth Colony purchased the territory of Old Dartmouth from Wampanoag chiefs Massasoit and Wamsutta around March 7, 1652 for "30 yards of cloth, eight moose skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pair of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, £2 in wampum, eight pair stockings, eight pair shoes, one iron pot and 10 shillings in another commoditie ."