One of the original six teams of Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the Boston Cannons were founded in 2001 by owner and president Matt Dwyer. MLL was founded by Jake Steinfeld, Dave Morrow, and Tim Robertson. From their inaugural season through 2003, the Cannons played their home games at Cawley Memorial Stadium in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 2004, they moved to Nickerson Field at Boston University where they played through the 2006 season. In 2007, they moved to historic Harvard Stadium.  The played the 2015 season at Gillette Stadium while Harvard's field was redone.  The team returned to Harvard Stadium in 2016.  In 2013, Rob Hale purchased majority ownership of the team after being a part of the ownership group since 2008.

From the league's inception in 2001 through 2005, the Cannons were in the American Division. With the MLL contraction for the 2009 season from 10 to 6 teams (due to the state of the U.S. economy), there is currently only one division/conference. Boston has qualified for the MLL playoffs 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.

The Cannons won the 2004 and 2005 American Division championships. The Cannons won their first MLL Championship in 2011 defeating the Hamilton Nationals 10-9.

General Managers

• David Gross (2001–2005)
• Jason Chandler (2006–2007)
• Mark Kastrud (2008-2010)
• Kevin Barney (2011-2017)

Head Coaches

• Mitch Whiteley (2001)
• Scott Hiller (2002–05)
• Bill Daye (2006-2011)
• Steve Duffy (2012-2013)
• John Tucker (2013-2015)
• Sean Quirk (2016-present)