Economic Development in Rochester, N.H. — Colonial Period, 1722–1799

The Charter of 1722

On May 22, 1722, Gov. Samuel Shute chartered the town of Rochester, NH. The charter was granted to 125 Proprietor/Investors with a responsibility to establish a town and obtain settlers. The proprietors obtained their property through draws wherein the Proprietor Number and the Property Number were matched. The 64,000-acre, 10-mile-square property was divided in four divisions between 1723 and 1762.

Division Drawings

• Division I — 125 home lots of 60 acres, drawn December 13–14, 1723
• Division II — the largest grant, wood lots of 250 acres each, drawn December 14, 1730
• Division III — the northern-most lots, drawn August 28, 1753 and August 18, 1754
• Division IV — mostly remnant lots, drawn November 29, 1762

Once lots were drawn, the more difficult task was ahead: to lay out [survey] the detail location within the division and record the results on the master record. These notations provided the earliest recorded "deeds" to property in Rochester, N.H.

Rochester Population I

Top ten ratable estates in 1742: Timothy Roberts, John Downing, William Chamberlin, Joseph Richards, Joseph Tibbets, Paul Tebbets, John Mackafe, Aaron Tibbets, James Rogers, Eliazer Ham.

Economic Wealth I

The top ten rates indicated the same group in 1749. These represented a combined acreage under cultivation of 93 acres of 283 — 32.86% of total acreage.

Rochester Population II

Rochester Population II

In 1777, Rochester's population was the largest in the county: at 341 polls, estimated population was 1,705 in total. In 1786, Rochester reported a population nearly double any other town in the county: at 492 polls, estimated population was 2,456 in total.

Rochester Population III

Proprietorship Meetings

First proprietor meeting held July 9, 1722. Col. Richard Waldron served as moderator; Paul Gerrish was named town and proprietor clerk. A committee was named to see that lots were laid out, to determine the location of the training field, and to see that houses required by the charter were erected.

The Treaty of Casco Bay ended Dummer's War, a period of interruption that delayed town development. The second meeting was held April 24, 1727.

The proprietorship — the land management group — was responsible for the township land from its inception in 1722 until all land had been drawn and assigned. This ended with the completion of land distribution and, finally, with the presentation of proprietorship records to the town clerk of Rochester in 1785.

The proprietors settled sixty families by 1736 and petitioned the General Court in Portsmouth for authority to form a legal township. Speedily approved, the Proprietorship and Township operated in parallel from 1736 to 1785, when the town assumed sole responsibility.

First Settled Family

In November 1728, Samuel Twombly, a cooper, and his brother John, a yeoman, both of Dover, deeded to Timothy Roberts, husbandman of Dover, two of three parts of their grant in the Town of Rochester.

History records that in December 1728, Roberts became the first settler to move his family into the frontier township of Rochester, N.H.

Before Town Formation

Prior to town formation in 1736, town leadership consisted of: moderator, clerk, selectmen, fence viewer, deer reeve, and committees — to manage the laying out of Divisions I & II, to protect timber on the undivided lots, to prosecute trespassers, and to grant leases for mills on the rivers.

First Town Meeting

• Moderator: Timothy Roberts
• Town Clerk: Amos Main
• Selectmen: Timothy Roberts, Stephen Berry, John Bickford
• Commissioners: John Jennes, Samuel Twombly, John Allen
• Constable: John MacFee
• Tythingman: John Allen
• Surveyors of Highways: John Layton, Solomon Clarke, Eleazer Ham
• Poundkeeper: Benjamin Foss
• Committee: Timothy Roberts, Stephen Berry, John Bickford

Growth of Major Town Functions I

March 5, 1739/40 [March 5, 1740, in current dating]: Selectmen 3 · Assessors 2 · Surveyors of Highways 6 · Field Drivers 4 · Pound Keeper 3 · Constable 1

March 12, 1749/50 [March 12, 1750, in current dating]: Selectmen 5 · Assessors 2 · Surveyors of Highways 4 · Field Drivers 3 · Tythingmen 3

Growth of Town Functions II

1760: Selectmen 3 · Assessors 2 · Constables 2 · Surveyors of Highway 10 · Tythingmen 3 · Hogreeves 4 · Parish Wardens 2 · Field Drivers 6 · Fence Viewers 5

1770: Selectmen 3 · Assessors 2 · Constables 2 · Surveyors of Highway 10 · Tythingmen 3 · Hogreeves 4 · Field Drivers 2 · Fence Viewers 6 · Counsellors 5

Growth of Town Functions III

1780: Selectmen 5 · Assessors 1 · Constables 2 · Surveyors of Highway 16 · Tythingmen 6 · Hogreeves 2 · Field Drivers 4 · Fence Viewers 2 · Counsellors 2

1790: Selectmen 3 · Assessors 2 · Constables 2 · Surveyors of Highway 25 · Tythingmen 5 · Surveyors of Boards 4 · Hogreeves 2 · Field Drivers 7 · Fence Viewers 2 · Commissioners 2 · Lot Layers 3 · Surveyor of Staves 1

1795 Trades Represented

• Blacksmiths: Jacob Hansen, Peter Horn, Josiah Wentworth
• Tanners: Caleb Jackson, Jabez Dame Esq., Anthony Whitehouse, Elijah Varney, Simon Torr
• Stock: Hatevil Knight, Maj. Silvanus S. Pratt, Parker Hopkinson, John Rindge, Joshua Lane
• Saddlers: John Kerr, John Odiorne

1795 Doomage Sources

On the Squamanagonick River: Upper Sawmill · Corn Mill · Lower Sawmill

On Norway Plains: Upper Sawmill · Cushing's Sawmill · Cushing's Cornmill · Nathaniel Horn's Cornmill · McDuffee and Dame's Flushing Mill · Garland's Sawmill

In Their Own Words, Vol. II — Chapter IV

• Key Proprietorship Functions and Officers 1722–1785 — pp. 414–418
• Town Officers and Terms Served 1737–1800 — pp. 423–425
• Rochester Town Officers 1737–1799 — pp. 425–473

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