COUNTIES AND TOWNS IN" NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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��bly all these, except Cheshire, were named for distinguished Englishmen. Lord Bockingham was a member of the Cabinet of George the Third ; was a man of unostentatious integrity, and a safe counsellor, although neither an orator nor a statesman, in the proper significa- tion of the word. It was he through whose influence the stamp act was re- pealed. Thomas Wentworth Strafford, at the commencement of the reign of Charles the First, and during the arbi- trary administration of Buckingham, stood up for the rights of the people, and sustained imprisonment, deprivation of bis offices and exclusion from Parlia- ment. He was by the king abondoned to his fate, and died upon the scaffold (beheaded) May 12, 1641. The name of the Duke of Grafton occurs with much frequency in the celebrated Letters of Junius, which made a great stir in Eng- land about the year 1770, of which Sir Philip Francis was probably the author. The presumption may be reasonably entertained that this nobleman was in the minds of members of the Legislature when the County of Grafton was formed. The County of Cheshire has its name- sake in England, which is a county cele- brated for its cheese. The word Coos is thought to be of Indian origin, although there is an island of that name in the Grecian Archipelago. Since the incor- poration of the County of Coos in the year 1S01, four others have been consti- tuted, namely: Merrimack, Sullivan, Belknap and Carroll. No intelligent in- habitant of the State need be at a loss for the reasons which induced the Legisla- ture to bestow the names Merrimack, Sullivan, Belknap and Carroll upon these territorial divisions of New Hampshire.
TOWNS NAMED FOR PERSONS.
The towns are many which were named for persons ; some, like Gilmanton and Sanbornton, because many of the first settlers were Gilmans and Sanborns. The following are of" this class : Atkin- son, Fremont, Newton, Windham, Mil- ton, Rollinsford, Strafford, Centre Har- bor, Tilton, Bartlett, Conway, Madison, Moultonborough, Sandwich, Tuftonbor- ough, Wolfeborough, Allenstowu, Frank- lin, Webster, Wilmot, Amherst, Goffs-
��town, Hancock, Mason, Temple, Weare, Jaffrey, Jackson, Langdon, Monroe, Marlborough, Nelson, Harrisville, Wal- pole, Winchester, Washington, Littleton, Thornton, Warren, Wentworth, Jeffer- son, Carroll, Randolph, Stark and Strat- ford. Boscawen and Hawke are names borne by admirals in the English navy, we think during the reign of George the Third. In 1836 Hawke was changed to Danville— theinhabitants supposing their town bore the name of a bird, instead of an admiral of the blue or the red.
NAMES CHANGED FOR POLITICAL REA- SONS.
In a few instances, and but a few, the Legislature changed the names of towns for political considerations. Thus Ad- ams, like Mount Adams, named for John Adams, second President of the United States, was changed in 1829 to Jackson, for Gen. Andrew Jackson, then in the first year of his Presidency. From its incorporation in 1764, to 1841, Ben- ton, in Grafton County, was known as Coventry. Thomas H. Benton, thirty years a Senator from Missouri, was a favorite in the Democratic party at that time. New Chester was changed to Hill in 1856, in compliment to Hon. Isaac Hill, then Governor of New Hampshire.
TOWNS FORMED IN THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.
Bockingham County. — Auburn, 1845 ; South Newmarket, 1849.
Strafford.— Strafford, 1820 ; Rollinsford, 1849.
Belknap— Laconia, 1855 ; Belmont, 1859. Tilton, 1869.
Carroll.— Freedom, 1831; Madison, 1853.
Merrimack. — Hooksett, 1822; Franklin, 1828; Webster, 1860.
Hillsborough. — Bennington and Green- ville.
Cheshire. — Harrisville.
Grafton. — Ashland, Bristol, Monroe, Waterville, Easton and Livermore.
Coos. — Berlin. Carroll, Clarksville, Er- rol, Gorham, Milan, Pittsburg, Randolph and Shelburne.
TOWNS THE NAMES OF WHICH HAVE BEEN CHANGED.
The towns are many which do not re-
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