# Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the 1730s

> A Scots-Irish Presbyterian farm town made linen, fought boundary claims, and pushed west through nut woods and stony fields.

- Place: Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire (42.865, -71.374)
- Years: 1730 to 1739
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/londonderry-rockingham-county-new-hampshire/1730s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Londonderry%2C%20Rockingham%20County%2C%20New%20Hampshire%2C%20United%20States&at=42.8651,-71.3739&year=1735

## Looking around

You stand in a young inland township that had been chartered as Londonderry in 1722[1][4] after its first Nutfield years. Turning eastward in memory of the first settlement, the ground runs toward Beaver Pond[1][3], where the earliest worship was remembered under an oak. Around town are cabins, farm lots, pasture, and a common[1], with cattle held close and stray animals sent to a pound. The woods still give the old place-name meaning: butternut, black walnut, chestnut, oak, and hickory[1][3] stand among cleared fields. Work is close to the house and field: flax is grown, spun, and woven into linen[1], and potatoes[3] are planted as a Scots-Irish food crop. By the middle of the decade, the western inhabitants are asking for their own parish[5][6], a sign that farms have spread far from the first meeting place.

## Work: Flax, farms, and linen

The telling local commodity is Londonderry linen[1], important enough that New Hampshire required a seal on the genuine cloth in 1731. Most settlers also kept to part-time farming[4], 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 claim[4] 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 dispute[4] 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 reeves[1] 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 cattle[1]. 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 passed[3] 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 petition[4] over the boundary.

## Year by year

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

## 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. (inferred)[1]
- 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 sources)[6]
- 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. (inferred)[2]
- Early New England towns like Londonderry placed cabins around a common where cattle could graze and be protected. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[1]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[4]
- Nearly all Londonderry Scots-Irish settlers were at least part-time farmers, even when they also practiced mechanical or textile skills. (from the sources)[4]
- Thousands of Scots-Irish people passed through Londonderry on their way to settle other New Hampshire and northern New England towns. (from the sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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. https://londonderryhistory.org/history/
2. Londonderry Presbyterian Church: Our Story. Londonderry Presbyterian Church. https://www.lpcnh.org/about/history
3. Learn It! Building a Colony, 1720–1775. New Hampshire Historical Society. https://moose.nhhistory.org/units/building-a-colony/learning
4. The Scots-Irish Settle in New Hampshire. Scots New England, 2022. https://scotsnewengland.org/the-scots-irish-settle-in-new-hampshire/
5. Town of Londonderry Master Plan Timeline. Town of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 2013. https://www.londonderrynh.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif4616/f/uploads/londonderrymasterplan_final_010413-issuu.pdf
6. The History of Londonderry, Comprising the Towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H., 1851. https://ldsgenealogy.com/NH/books/The-history-of-Londonderry-comprising-the-towns-of-Derry-and-Londonderry-NH-part-15.htm
7. New Hampshire Manual: A History of New Hampshire with Towns and Cities. New Hampshire Secretary of State, 2021. https://sos.nh.gov/media/xisfh04s/a-history-of-new-hampshire-with-towns-cities.pdf

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Goffstown, New Hampshire in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/goffstown-new-hampshire/1760s/md) (25 km)
- [Hillsborough County, New Hampshire in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hillsborough-county-new-hampshire/1730s/md) (29 km)
- [Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s/md) (108 km)
- [Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/plympton-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1710s/md) (111 km)
- [Middleborough, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/middleborough-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s/md) (114 km)
- [Plymouth in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/plymouth-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1750s/md) (116 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the 1730s", https://yorehistory.com/place/londonderry-rockingham-county-new-hampshire/1730s