Cavendish is a town in Windsor County of the "Southern Windsor County" region. The town was named after William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire. The main village in Cavendish is also known by the same name, because that name was used for the first post office in town. However, for many years the village was known locally as Duttonsville.

Cavendish was one of thirteen Vermont towns isolated by flooding caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Some notable people from the area include: Phineas Gage, a well known neurological case study in brain injury; John Martyn Harlow, a physician, known for his work with Phineas Gage; Redfield Proctor, governor of Vermont, senator, & US Secretary of War; Colonel Thomas O. Seaver, a Civil War era Medal of Honor recipient; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian writer, historian, & Nobel prize winner.