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��COUNTIES AND TOWNS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
��moved. The church at Exeter, left with- out a minister, lost its visibility. In 1650 Rev. Samuel Dudley came to that place and a new church was formed. This is now what is called the First Church in Exeter, and is 226 years old.
Portsmouth has been named as one of two towns early settled, but a Congrega- tional church was not formed so early as the others in the three towns named. A chapel and parsonage were provided, but we have not the date, though it was be- fore 1640. About that time some effort was made for preaching a portion of the time. In 1657 a better place of worship was built by the town. It stood in what is now the south part of the compact por- tion of the city. In 1658 Rev. Joshua Moody began to preach, but a church was not organized till thirteen years later, that is, in 1671.
Thus it is seen that forty-eight years, nearly half a century, passed, from the first settlement of what is now our State, and there were four towns, and each had
��a Congregational church. And it should be said, no church of any other denomi- national name existed in the Colony, save an Episcopal Society in Portsmouth, which had a church building and a meet- ing as early as 1638.
The fifth township formed was New- Castle, formerly a part of Portsmouth, in 1693. The early records of the church have been lost, so the date of the organ- ization cannot be given. Probably it was as soon as the town was chartered, if not before, as there was a house of worship, which was taken down in 1706, and a new one erected, which was finished with much elegance.
The sixth town incorporated was Kings- ton, and a church organized in 1725.
This brings us down two years beyond the first century of operations in what is now New Hampshire. It was in some respects the day of small things in eccle- siastical and civil affairs. Soon after set- tlements and churches increased more rapidly.
��NAMES OF COUNTIES AND TOWNS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
��BY ASA MCFARLAND.
��The early inhabitants of New Hamp- shire gave to places in which their lot was cast the names of cities and towns in the mother country. This is more ob- vious in that portion of the State first settled by immigration — the lower sec- tions of Rockingham and Strafford — where nearly all the towns are only the duplicates, in name, of cities and towns in England. Thus we find Portsmouth, Brentwood, Rye, Hampton, Kingston, Exeter, Newmarket. Epping, Hampstead, Gosport, Durham, Newcastle, Madbury, Kensington, Newington, Seabrook, Not- tingham, Northwood, Plaistow, San- down, Dover and Rochester. Elsewhere in our State there is no lack of English names, but they are not found so plenti-
��fully as in that portion above spoken of. This list embraces the towns of Alton, Al- stead, Andover, Auburn, Chester, Barns- tead, Bath, Bedford, Bow, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Chiches- ter, Cornish, Claremont, Chatham, Ep- som, Errol, Marlow, Milford, Newport, Northumberland, Lancaster, Tamworth, Wakefield, Westmoreland, Plymouth, Pembroke and Surry.
NAMES OF PERSONS APPLIED TO COUN- TIES AND TOWNS.
In not a few instances the counties and towns of New Hampshire derived their names from persons. Until the year 1801 our State consisted of five counties, namely: Rockingham, Strafford, Hills- borough, Cheshire and Grafton. Proba-
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