Concord NH Historical Timeline Before 1765

  • John Mason

    John Mason of London receives one of the first land grants in New Hampshire.

  • The Council for New England

    The Council for New England, a joint-stock company chartered by King James I, grants John Mason and Fernando Gorges a vast area between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers. Mason’s intention, approved by the council, is to name the tract New Hampshire after his home county in England.

  • NH a New Royal Colony

    New Hampshire is declared a separate royal colony.

  • Permission to Settle

    Massachusetts grants permission to settle the area that will become Concord. A supervising committee screens would-be settlers. It wants just 100 families.

  • Penny Cook and Judge Sewall

    A group of Massachusetts colonists with a royal land grant arrive to settle Penny Cook. They find Judge Sewall, the first white settler, living on his 500-acre tract on the east side of the Merrimack.

  • Surveying Party

    Having made camp near the Merrimack River the night before, a surveying party of 34 men from Haverhill, Mass., fans out in the fields and woods of what will one day be Concord.

  • First Christian Service

    At Sugar Ball in East Concord, Enoch Coffin, a Congregationalist minister, preaches at the first Christian service in the future Concord. His congregation is a group of men who have come from Massachusetts Bay Colony to survey the Plantation of Penny Cook.

  • Congregational Church Building Ready

    A Congregational church, Concord’s first, is ready for occupancy. It is a 40-by-25-foot log structure at North Main and Chapel streets. The logs are thick enough to be bullet-proof, and the church, though windowless, has port-holes through which to shoot Indians.

  • NH Legislature Grants Concord Charter

    New Hampshire’s legislature grants a charter to a township that includes most of present-day Concord and Bow and part of Pembroke. Because Massachusetts had drawn different boundaries for a similar area, the charter led to much confusion over jurisdiction and – more important – tax collection.

  • Penacook to Hire Minister

    The proprietors of Penacook appoint a committee to find and hire a permanent Congregational minister for the settlement. The minister will be paid 100 pounds a year out of the proprietors’ treasury. A year later, the proprietors will hire the Rev. Timothy Walker for the job.

  • Rev. Timothy Walker Ordained

    The Rev. Timothy Walker is ordained at Pennycook (later Rumford, then Concord), the community’s first minister.

  • Concord Funds School for Children

    Four years after Concord’s settlement begins, townspeople appropriate 10 pounds “for the instruction of the children in reading, etc.” The first teacher is Hannah Abbot, 30. The following year, the town will order the selectmen to “find books for the use of the inhabitants . . . on the town’s cost.”

  • Rumford Created

    The Massachusetts General Court creates a new township to be called Rumford (earlier known as Penny-Cook, later as Concord).

  • Rumford Self-government Recognized

    Its right to self-government recognized seven years after the first white settlers arrive, Rumford in Essex County, Mass., convenes its first town meeting at 2 p.m. In time the town will be known as Concord, N.H.

  • New Hampshire Boundary Established

    After years of disputes over Massachusetts claims on New Hampshire, King George II approves the boundary between the two colonies. The decision increases New Hampshire’s size by 3,500 square miles and costs Massachusetts 28 chartered towns, including Suncook, Bow, Concord, Penacook, Webster, Salisbury, Dunbarton, Weare, Hopkinton, Warner and Bradford.