Westport is a town in Essex County, New York, United States overlooking Lake Champlain. The population was 1,312 at the 2010 census.The town is on the eastern border of the county and is south of Plattsburgh and south of Montreal. Westport is inside the Adirondack Park.Westport is the birthplace of the Adirondack chair.The Essex County Fair is held in the town. The Essex County Fairgrounds was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.HistoryEarly historyIn 1642, Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues was tortured by Iroquois at Coles Bay. He survived and was eventually saved by merchants from New Amsterdam.The town was founded by William Gilliland in 1764 who surveyed an area in the southern part of the town and was granted 2300acre; he also established the neighboring towns of Elizabethtown, named for his wife, and Willsboro. Gilliland originally called his patent "Bessboro" after his little daughter. The original settlement, which may have supplied wood to Benedict Arnold's troops, was completely destroyed during the American Revolutionary War in connection with British General John Burgoyne's march from Canada to Saratoga. The first permanent settlement was in 1785.
