Concord NH Historical Timeline 1765-1814

  • Royal Charter

    The provincial government grants Concord a royal charter. Since 1733, the town had been called Rumford, and before that, under a 1725 Massachusetts charter, Penny-Cook.

  • First Town Meeting

    At Concord’s first legal town meeting, Lieutenant Richard Hasseltine is elected moderator. Among the other elected town officials are tythingmen, a sealer of leather and a scaler of lumber.

  • Royal Governor Takes Office

    With pomp and circumstance, John Wentworth assumes the office of royal governor in Portsmouth. As such, he will lead an agrarian and mercantile colony of 98 towns totaling 52,000 people. The population of Concord, characterized by one historian as “an outpost of radical republicanism,” is 752.

  • Provincial Congress Meet in Exeter

    The 144 delegates to the second Provincial Congress meet in Exeter. They name delegates to the next Continental Congress and issue a series of requests to the populace: Maintain law and order. Respect private property. Support the boycott on British goods. Increase local manufacture.

  • We Must Fight

    Concord’s Rev. Timothy Walker says to a neighbor: “We must fight, John, we must fight. There is no longer any alternative.” Captain Andrew McClary, meanwhile, leads 34 men on the 70-mile march to Cambridge, Mass., to oppose the British. By the end of the month, more than 2,000 New Hampshire Minutemen will be fighting under Col. John Stark.

  • The Association Test

    Concerned about Tories in their midst, New Hampshire’s Committee of Safety prepares “the Association Test,” a pledge of allegiance to the patriot cause. Signers promise “to the utmost of our Power, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms, (to) oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United American Colonies.” All sane white males 21 and older are required to sign or reject this oath. In ensuing months, 8,567 men will sign and 781 will refuse. Many who refuse flee the state, leaving their possessions behind.

  • Vote to Break Off Dealings

    Concord’s town meeting votes to “break off all dealings” with attorney Peter Green, Dr. Phillip Carrigain and merchants John Stevens and Nathaniel Green. Although the four are among 156 area men who have signed the Association Test, an oath of loyalty to the Patriot cause, they are suspected of being Tories.

  • Gen. John Stark…Needs More Men

    After riding all night from Exeter, Lt. Col. Gordon Hutchins, Concord’s legislative representative, bursts into the Sunday service at Concord’s meeting house to say that Gen. John Stark is marching west but needs more men. “Those of you who are willing to go had better go at once,” Rev. Timothy Walker tells his congregation. All men present leave.

  • NH Legislature Meets for First Time

    The Legislature meets in Concord for the first time. The site is “the Old North,” the First Congregational Church. The building will burn in 1870. It was on the site of the current Walker School.

  • Rev. Timothy Walker Dies

    The Rev. Timothy Walker, who has served as Concord’s Puritan minister from around the time of its settlement in 1730, collapses while preparing for a service and dies. He is 77 years old.

  • Concord Officially Becomes a Town

    The Legislature grants Concord official townhood.

  • Main Street Concord

    A committee is appointed to lay out Main Street in Concord.  A final report won’t be drafted until 1798.

  • Lobby for New County Creation

    At Concord’s town meeting, townspeople commission Timothy Walker Jr. to lobby the Legislature and neighboring towns for the creation of a new county.

  • U.S. Constitution Considered

    New Hampshire delegates convene to consider the proposed U.S. Constitution. About two-thirds oppose it, and only after cajoling by Dr. Josiah Bartlett and other supporters do the delegates agree to reconvene in Concord in four months.

  • NH Ratifies U.S. Constitution

    At a meeting house near the present-day Walker School, delegates from around the state vote 57-47 in favor of the new U.S. Constitution. This makes New Hampshire the ninth and deciding state to ratify. Hopkinton’s delegate votes in favor; Concord’s delegate, the burly Capt. Ben Emery, votes no, as do representatives of Warner, Salisbury and Loudon.

  • Rev. Israel Evans Ordained

    The Rev. Israel Evans is ordained as Concord’s second Congregationalist minister, succeeding the Rev. Timothy Walker. The town still pays the minister’s salary and living expenses. Walker, the first minister, served more than 58 years from his ordination in 1730.

  • Building of “Town House” Approved

    A town meeting approves spending 100 pounds to build a “town house” on land near Main and Court streets. The town house will be a meeting place for townspeople and the General Court.

  • Legislature Gathers in New “Town House”

    The Legislature gathers in Concord’s new “town house” near Main and Court streets. The Legislature still moves its meeting site from town to town but will often convene at the town house until the granite State House is finished in 1819.

  • Constitutional Convention Called in Concord

    A constitutional convention is called to order in Concord. In 36 days in session, it will propose the creation of the Executive Council, the sizes of the bicameral legislature and a change in the name of the state’s top elected official from “president” to “governor.” Voters will approve these changes in 1792.

  • Concord Bridge Opens

    Concord Bridge, the town’s first span across the Merrimack, opens with a party and parade. It is near the site of today’s Manchester Street bridge. A second toll bridge will be built to East Concord in 1796.

  • Concord’s First Fire Recorded

    Concord’s first accidental fire is recorded at 10 p.m. in David George’s hat shop on North Main Street. “Let this, fellow citizens, excite everyone to vigilance,” writes the Concord Mirrour. “Query – would it not be a good plan for every man to keep a good ladder and one or two proper fire buckets always ready?”

  • Rev. Asa McFarland Ordained

    Crowds converge on Concord, which has grown to 2,000 inhabitants, to celebrate the ordination of the Rev. Asa McFarland, third minister of the village’s Congregational Church. The church is state-sanctioned and tax-supported. Accepting the call, the 28-year-old McFarland tells townspeople he has prayed that God will make him “an instrument to promote your spiritual happiness.” A grand ball at Stickney’s Tavern, on Main Street just up from the ferry crossing, celebrates the event.

  • First Masonic Meeting

    Seven men hold the first Masonic meeting in Concord at Gale’s Anchor Tavern.

  • Concord Musical Society Incorporated

    The Concord Musical Society is incorporated “to encourage and promote the practice of sacred musick in Concord.”

  • George Washington Mourned

    Concord joins other communities across the nation in a day of mourning and prayer for George Washington, dead two months.

  • Bell Vote Acceptance Approved

    Concord residents vote “to accept a bell if one can be obtained by subscription, and cause the same to be rung at such times as the town may think proper.”

  • Gov. John Gilman Proposes State Prison

    Alarmed by the frequency of escapes from local prisons, Gov. John Gilman makes the first substantive proposal for a state prison in Concord. It will be more than eight years before the prison opens on North State and Tremont streets.

  • Concord Named the Capital

    Parliamentary maneuvering in the Legislature results in Concord being named the capital, ending several years of roving state government.

  • Legislature Authorizes Committee to Accept Bids for Prison

    Three years after a state prison is proposed in Concord, the Legislature authorizes a committee of three to accept bids for building one. It will be nearly four years before the prison opens on North States Street at Tremont Street. It will be a three-story, 36-cell structure surrounded by granite walls three feet thick and 14 feet high. The cost: $37,000.

  • Concord Declares No Swine to Run At Large

    Town meeting voters in Concord declare “that no swine be allowed to run at large on the road from Concord bridge to Boscawen bridge under a penalty to the owner of 25 cents for each offense.”

  • Lewis Downing Commences Wheelwright Business

    A 20-year-old man from Lexington, Mass., who has rented a room on Concord’s Chapel Street for the past three months announces in the Patriot that he has commenced a wheelwright business. His name is Lewis Downing, and in time his business, Abbot & Downing, will build the coaches that bring Concord national fame.

  • Merrimack Boating Co. Boat Arrives

    The first boat of the Merrimack Boating Co., later the Boston & Concord Boating Co., arrives in Concord. Northbound commercial cargo will include sugar, molasses, rum and finished goods. The boats will carry lumber, firewood, potash (for soap) and granite south to Quincy Market.