Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire by Mary P. Thompson, 
Durham, N.H. ©1892, Printed by the Republican Press Association, 
Concord, N.H. 


LANDMARKS:Durham

NAMES: ADAMS, Rev. Hugh; CHARLES I; MASON, Capt. John; GORGES, Sir
	 Ferdinando; CECILIUS; 	

	 This name was given to the Oyster River parish when it was in- 
corporated as a town May 15, 1732.  It included the present township of Lee
till the latter was incorporated Jan. 16, 1766, and a part of Newmarket,
ceded to the town July 2, 1870.  The name of Durham was apparently given at
the request of the Rev. Hugh Adams, then the minister at Oyster River.  In
his address to the General Court in 1738, he says this parish "was chartered
into the township of Durham" in answer to his petition "for its privileges
and said name, as therein pleaded for." (See N.H. Prov. Papers, V:35.)  The
name of Durham may have been chosen in order to commemorate the palatine
form of government originally accorded to the New Hampshire settlement, if
credit is to be given to the so-called Charter of Charles I to Capt. John 
Mason, Aug. 19, 1635, granting him the province of New Hampshire, "with 
power of government and as ample jurisdiction and prerogatives as used by
the bishop of Durham."  (Ibid, 1: 37.)  The Bishops of Durham, England, it
will be remembered, formerly exercised the semi-regal powers of a count 
palatine.  It does not appear, however, that Capt. Mason or his heirs ever
attempted to exercise such prerogatives in New Hampshire.
	Similar powers were also conferred on Sir Ferdinando Gorges in the 
Royal Charter of April 3, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Charles I, 
granting him the Province of Maine, with "all the Powers, Rights, Fran- 
chisses, Immunities, Royalties, & Priviledges wch are enjoyed or ought
to be enjoyed by the Bishop of Dureseme in the county Palatine of Duresme."
  (See Baxter's Sir Ferdinando Gorges. 3: 304.)                    
	The first government established in Maryland was also palatinate, 
according to the charter from Charles I to Cecilius, the second Lord 
Baltimore, June 20, 1632, conferring on him prerogatives as ample as those 
exercised by the Bishop of Durham, which, as implied above, fell little 
short of royalty inself.						

PG 67





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