Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the 1730s

Work

Flax, farms, and linen

The telling local commodity is Londonderry linen¹, important enough that New Hampshire required a seal on the genuine cloth in 1731. Most settlers also kept to part-time farming⁴, with flax, potatoes, cattle, and wood shaping the work year.

Faith

Presbyterian town life

The settlement’s founding memory was MacGregor’s sermon by Beaver Pond^1,3, and its Scots-Irish religion was Presbyterian rather than Congregational. By 1735–1739, western families were numerous and distant enough to press for West Parish privileges^5,6.

Law & power

Boundaries meant authority

Power came from town officers, parish votes, New Hampshire courts, and imperial decisions far away. Londonderry people felt that sharply in the 1733 Haverhill claim⁴ while New Hampshire and Massachusetts still shared Governor Jonathan Belcher^3,7.

In the air

Land, liberty, and belonging

The argument under daily life was whether this inland Scots-Irish township securely belonged to New Hampshire or could be pulled toward Massachusetts. The 1733 petition to London over the boundary dispute⁴ shows ordinary land titles tied to imperial politics.

What people feared

Frontier work and dispute

The visible dangers were not only illness and accident but insecure title, distance, and livestock loss. A town pound and hog reeves¹ were practical answers to the constant problem of animals straying through farms and commons.

Home & table

Cabins among nut trees

The first houses had been ordinary farmhouses whose exact 1730s appearance is not described online here, but the settlement pattern is clearer: cabins and lots clustered around a common with cattle¹. The woods supplied chestnut boards and hickory handles^1,3, and fields supplied flax and potatoes.

Who lived here

An Ulster settlement

This was a notably Scots-Irish place, begun by sixteen Presbyterian families^1,3,4 and enlarged by kin, neighbors, and later arrivals. Londonderry became a gateway through which thousands of Scots-Irish people passed³ into northern New England.

Roads & news

News came by road

News traveled with migrants, petitions, ministers, and town business rather than by railroad or telegraph. A Londonderry question could reach London itself, as in the Board of Trade petition⁴ over the boundary.

Year by year

1. 1729Rev. James MacGregor died, removing the founding minister from Londonderry before the 1730s opened. here⁶
2. 1731New Hampshire required a seal on linen truly made in Londonderry because other sellers were using the town’s name. here¹
3. 1733Haverhill, Massachusetts asserted a claim over Londonderry, and local Scots-Irish petitioned the Board of Trade in London. here⁴
4. 1735The town granted the petition to create West Parish of Londonderry. here^5,6
5. 1737Scots-Irish settlers founded Bedford, part of the wider Londonderry-centered spread into southern New Hampshire. nearby³
6. 1739West Parish received parish privileges from the General Court, formalizing worship and local organization west of the first settlement. here^5,6
7. 1740The Crown settled the New Hampshire–Massachusetts boundary question in New Hampshire’s favor after years of dispute. the country³
8. 1741Benning Wentworth became New Hampshire’s separate royal governor, ending the shared-governor arrangement with Massachusetts. the country³

What the sources say

• The settlement was first known as Nutfield when sixteen Scots-Irish Presbyterian families arrived in April 1719. from the sources^1,3,4
• On June 21, 1722, Nutfield was chartered as the township of Londonderry, named for Londonderry in Ulster. from the sources^1,4
• In the 1730s Londonderry was still a very large township, including land that later became Derry, Windham, Hudson, Salem, and parts of Manchester. from the sources^1,4
• The first settlers had come from the Bann Valley near Coleraine after moving through Boston, Maine, and Haverhill, Massachusetts. inferred¹
• Local tradition placed Rev. James MacGregor’s first Nutfield sermon under a large oak on the east side of Beaver Pond in 1719. from the sources^1,3
• MacGregor died before this decade, in 1729, so Londonderry in the 1730s no longer had its founding minister alive. from the sources⁶
• A petition to create the West Parish of Londonderry was granted by the town in 1735, and the parish received wider privileges in 1739. from the sources^5,6
• The present Londonderry Presbyterian Church building did not exist in the 1730s; it was built in 1837. inferred²
• Early New England towns like Londonderry placed cabins around a common where cattle could graze and be protected. inferred¹
• Town officers in early Londonderry included animal-control men called haywards, hog reeves, or pounders; a pound run by David Dickey is recorded in 1730 near Adams Pond in what is now East Derry. inferred¹
• Londonderry’s Nutfield woods included butternut, black walnut, chestnut, oak, and hickory, useful for food, boards, handles, and spokes. from the sources^1,3
• Flax and linen were central to early Londonderry work, and a 1731 New Hampshire act required a seal on linen truly made in Londonderry because others sold cloth under that name. inferred¹
• The Scots-Irish settlers planted potatoes in Nutfield from 1719, and some New Hampshire accounts describe these as among the first potatoes grown in America. from the sources³
• By September 1719 the first sixteen families had grown to about seventy families, and by the 1730s new immigrants and migrants were still spreading across the township. from the sources⁴
• Nearly all Londonderry Scots-Irish settlers were at least part-time farmers, even when they also practiced mechanical or textile skills. from the sources⁴
• Thousands of Scots-Irish people passed through Londonderry on their way to settle other New Hampshire and northern New England towns. from the sources³
• The Scots-Irish differed from many older New England neighbors by Presbyterian church government, broad Scots speech, Ulster place-names, potatoes, linen wheels, and other foodways and skills. from the sources⁴
• In 1733, when Haverhill, Massachusetts asserted a claim over Londonderry, local Scots-Irish petitioned the Board of Trade in London for action on the New Hampshire–Massachusetts boundary dispute. from the sources⁴
• During the 1730s New Hampshire shared Governor Jonathan Belcher with Massachusetts, which made the boundary quarrel politically urgent for towns like Londonderry. from the sources^3,7
• New Hampshire did not receive a separate governor until 1741, just after this decade ended. from the sources³
• No detailed online account found here gives prices for a day’s labor, a bushel of potatoes, or a yard of Londonderry linen in the 1730s. not known
• No detailed online description found here gives the exact appearance or dimensions of ordinary Londonderry farmhouses in the 1730s. not known

Sources

1. History: The Early History of Londonderry. Londonderry Historical Society
2. Londonderry Presbyterian Church: Our Story. Londonderry Presbyterian Church
3. Learn It! Building a Colony, 1720–1775. New Hampshire Historical Society
4. The Scots-Irish Settle in New Hampshire. Scots New England, 2022
5. Town of Londonderry Master Plan Timeline. Town of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 2013
6. The History of Londonderry, Comprising the Towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H., 1851
7. New Hampshire Manual: A History of New Hampshire with Towns and Cities. New Hampshire Secretary of State, 2021

Nearby, about the same time