About Us:

First known as Cochecho Township, a group of settlers from Durham petitioned the Masonian Proprietors in May of 1749 for a 45 square mile grant of land north of Rochester.  In the spring of 1750, the land was surveyed and a plan (map) of numbered lots was drawn up and lots auctioned off.  The terms of the settlement were:

There should be forty families settled within five years after peace was proclaimed between the English, French and Indians.  Each lot owner was to build a house at least 16 square feet and each family should have three acres cleared within six years and a sawmill within five.

 It is not known exactly how many people came in the years between 1750 and 1762.  The residents put in a request to the Royal Governor, Benning Wentworth, for recognition in the form of a charter, which would authorize them to have a town government of their own.  King Charles III granted the charter and the town was officially born in this wild, wooded land.  New Durham is very fortunate to still hold its original Town Charter, only one of a very few known to still exist in the state.