Chapter 1 - Geographical & Descriptive from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1915 Page 25 CHAPTER I GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE Rockingham County lies in the southeastern part of New Hampshire, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Strafford County; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by Essex County, Mass.; and on the west by Hillsborough and Merrimac counties, N. H. Rockingham is the only county in this state that borders on the Atlantic, its coast being about seventeen miles in extent. The population by the United States census of 191O was 52,188. As parts of Massachusetts Bay Colony (1641-3 to 1679) the towns of Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), Hampton and Exeter were comprised within Norfolk County, which was one of the four shires, viz. : Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk into which the Bay Colony was separated from "3d month, lOth day, 1643." The name New Hampshire was first applied to these towns in 1697, as a province separate from MassachusettS Bay Colony, but it remained under the same governor, having a lieutenant-governor of its own until 1742, when it was completely separated from Massachusetts, and Benning Wentworth was appointed governor and held the office until 1767. During Governor Wentworth's rule the territory was all one, no counties; in his quarter of a century he granted a great many townships in all parts of the province and on both sides of the Connecticut River. All the courts were held at Portsmouth during his term, so the inhabitants of these new towns had to travel long distances, over bad roads, to attend courts and transact business with the governor and council and the assembly. Of course this caused them much inconvenience and no little expense. As early as January, 1755, a proposition to divide the Province of New Hamp- shire into counties was entertained in the assembly. The Merrimac River was to be the dividing line and there were to be two counties-Portsmouth and Cumberland. The council rejected the bill Page 26 because it provided for a court at Exeter as well as Portsmouth, and they "could by no means consent to that." The two branches of the assembly continued to consider this question in various forms and failed to find grounds of agreement as to details until 1769, when the government was under control of the younger governor, John Wentworth, who had succeeded his uncle, Benning Wentworth, in 1767. The agreement as finally reached, April 29, 1769, established five counties, subject to the crown's approval of the act, which was done March 19, 1771. The county was named in honor of Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, by Governor John Wentworth. In 1776, while John Wentworth was in England, he was appointed governor of New Hampshire and surveyor of the king's wood for the whole thirteen colonies. He was paying court to the nobles Rockingham, Hillsborough and Strafford, and their English friends, for whom he afterwards in gratitude named five counties of his native province: Rockingham, Strafford, Grafton, Hillsborough and Cheshire. To these five have been added as many more by division of the older ones; Coos from Grafton in 1803; Merrimac from Rockingham and Hillsborough in 1823; Sullivan from Cheshire in 1827; Belknap and Carroll from Strafford and Grafton in 1842. There are thirty-seven towns and one city in the CoUnty, of which two were incorporated in the reign of Charles I, one in the reign of Charles II, two in the reign of William and Mary, two in the reign of Queen Anne, George I, seven, George II, thirteen, George III, eight, and three by New Hampshire. The present civil sub-divisions and their populations by the United States census of 1910 are as follows: Atkinson .............. 440 Newcastle ................ 624 Auburn ................ 637 Newfields ................ 503 Brentwood ............. 759 Newington ................ 296 Candia ................ 993 Newmarket ................ 3,348 Chester ............... 818 Newton ................... 962 Danville .............. 517 North Hampton ............ 783 Deerfield ............. 917 Northwood ................ 1,059 Derry ................. 5,123 Nottingham ............... 607 East Kingston ......... 413 Plaistow ................. 1,173 Epping ................ 1,649 Portsmouth ............... 11,269 Exeter ................ 4,897 Raymond .................. 1,203 Fremont ............... 622 Rye ...................... 1,104 Greenland ............. 575 Salem .................... 2,117 Hampton ............... 1,215 Sandown .................. 380 Hampton Falls ......... 552 Seabrook ................. 1,425 Hampstead ............. 796 South Hampton ............ 279 Kensington ............ 417 Stratham ................. 602 Kingston .............. 1,015 Windham .................. 656 Londonderry ........... 1,533 Rockingham is a shire county, courts being held alternately at Exeter and Portsmouth. Page 27 The principal rivers are the Piscataqua, Lamprey, Exeter or Squamscot and Pawtuckaway. The principal elevations are Pawtuckaway in Deerfield and Nottingham and Saddleback in Northwood and Deerfield. PISCATAQUA RIVER SYSTEM The Piscataqua River is formed by the union of the Cocheco and Salmon Falls rivers at Dover. The second, in its whole length, with the Piscataqua, constitutes a part of our eastern state boundary. The area of this basin in New Hampshire, those towns on the coast which drain directly into the ocean being also included in this measurement, is about eight hundred and twenty- five square miles, or nearly one-eleventh of the state. From East Pond, the source of Salmon Falls River, to the mouth of the Piscataqua is nearly thirty-eight miles in a straight line, the course being S 20 degrees E. By the course of the river this distance is thirty-nine miles, the length of the Salmon Falls River being twenty-eight miles, and of the Pis- cataqua, from the junction of this river with the Cocheco, eleven miles. The course of Salmon Falls River in the first twelve miles is nearly south. The next thirteen miles to Salmon Falls is nearly southeast; thence the course is south to the mouth of Great Bay, thence southeast about seven miles to the ocean, three miles below Portsmouth. This river is affected by tide to Dover and South Berwick. Between the townships of Durham and those of Greenland and Newington is a wide tidal basin, which receives the waters of several rivers. Upon Exeter or Swamscot River, the largest of these, tide extends to the Village of Exeter. The area of this estuary, southwest from Dover point, including Little and Great Bays, is about nine square miles. From Dover point to Portsmouth the Piscataqua is about half a mile wide. Below this city it contains numerous islands, the largest of which constitutes the Township of New Castle. The basin includes in New Hampshire nearly all of Strafford and half of Rockingham counties, averaging about eighteen miles in width and forty-five miles in length, measured from Wakefield to East Kingston. From the sources of the Lamprey River to the mouth of the Piscataqua is thirty miles, from which point the width of this district diminishes north- ward, being ten miles at Fannington. East Pond in Wakefield that flows into the Piscataqua River is 499 feet above the sea and Bow Lake, Strafford, 515 feet. Lovell's Pond, Wakefield, flowing into Salmon Falls River is 550 feet, Middleton reservoir supplying Cocheco River, 600 feet. Jones' Pond, Raymond, 258 feet and Pawtuccaway Pond in Nottingham, supplying Lamprey River, 258 feet and Phillips' Pond, Sandown, flowing into Exeter River is 215 feet above the ocean.