This town, a largely undisturbed agricultural community on the northern border of Cheshire County, is the prototype of a Yankee rural village.

It was granted in 1753 under the name Addison, in honor of Joseph Addison, British essayist and poet, and Secretary of State for England, who signed the appointment papers making John Wentworth Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1717.

Although there are persistent rumors that Marlow is named for the English poet, Christopher Marlowe, it seems more likely that, like many New England towns, Marlow is named after a place and the name "Marlow" recalls Marlowe, England. Perhaps some of our early settlers came from that region. A New Hampshire source supports this view: New Hampshire: A History, Resources, Attractions, and Its People volume 1 by Hobart Pillsbury. He wrote, "It was re-granted in 1761 to William Noyes and others and named Marlow after an English town" (Pillsbury, p 234). Genealogical research on the origins of Marlow's settlers might shed light on the issue.

The picturesque village center, with its white church, Odd Fellows Hall, Town Hall and lily pond is one of the region's most photographed scenes and often the subject of an artist's brush. Marlow is the site of many marks of glacial action, and minerals are still found here. A woodworking industry once used the water power of the Ashuelot River to produce tools, furniture and wooden buckets from lumber cut nearby.