By Muriel Bristol | May 12, 2024
The inhabitants of Rochester’s North Parish drafted and signed a Rochester Division Petition on Friday, May 28, 1802. The NH State Legislature responded with the following Milton incorporation act, on Tuesday, June 8, 1802, which was approved by then NH Governor John Taylor Gilman (1753-1828), on Friday, June 11, 1802.
Rochester’s NH State Representatives of that term were Beard Plummer and Levi Dearborn. (The designated Moderator Pro Tem of the inaugural Town Meeting was William Palmer, Esq., who had been a Rochester NH State Representative in the years 1794-1800).
State of New Hampshire }
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THAT PART OF THE TOWN OF ROCHESTER IN THE COUNTY OF STRAFFORD COMMONLY CALLED THE NORTH-EAST PARISH INTO A SEPERATE TOWN BY The name of MILTON ~
[Approved June 11, 1802. Original Acts, vol. 17, p. 41; recorded Acts, vol. 13, p. 299].
Whereas a Petition has been presented to the General Court the Inhabitants of that part of the Town of Rochester in the County of Strafford commonly called the North east parish setting forth that some time prior to the year one thousand seven hundred & Ninety four, the Town of Rochester at a legal Meeting warned for that purpose, Voted uanmous [unanimous] that said Town should be divided into three Towns, & a Committee was then chosen to run out and describe the lines of the same, that said Committee accordingly made division of said Town of Rochester into three parts, that afterwards in the year one thousand seven hundred & Ninety four, the said Town of Rochester appointed another committee who were not inhabitants of said Town to examine the lines aforesaid & make such alterations therein as they should judge proper, that said Committee on the twenty eighth day of August in the same year, made their report to said Town of Rochester that the former lines & boundaries of the proposed Towns be established which report was at a legal Meeting of said Town Unanimously accepted that the said Town of Rochester in its present form was so large and the inhabitants so numerous as rendered it very inconvenient for to transact business at their Town Meetings. Wherefore they that that part of the Town of Rochester commonly called the Northeast parish within the bounds hereafter described be incorporated into a seperate [separate] Town the principal facts set forth in said Petition being substanciated [substantiated] and the prayed thereof appearing reasonable. ~
Therefore be it enacted by the senate & house of representatives in general Court convened, that the lands & Inhabitants contained within the Northeasterly part of said Rochester as described within the following bounds Vizt beginning at the Southeasterly corner of the Town of Farmington & running north forty six degrees east to salmon falls river & contain all the lands between Farmington line & the eastern line or boundary of said State which is salmon falls river, be & they hereby are incorporated into a seperate Town by the name of Milton. And the said Town of Milton is hereby vested with all the powers privileges & immunities to which other Towns in this State are or may be entitled to agreeably to the Constitution & the laws of this State to have continuance & succession forever. And be it further enacted that the Inhabitants of said Town of Milton shall pay all arrears of taxes that have been assessed on them by the said Town of Rochester, and shall pay their proportionable part of all the debts due from said Town of Rochester, and shall be entitled to receive their proportionable part of all Monies & debts now due to the said Town of Rochester, and also their proportion able part of all other property of the said Town of Rochester of every kind & description whatever ~ And be it further enacted that William Palmer, Esqr, be and hereby is authorised & impowered to warn a Meeting of the inhabitants of said Milton by posting up advertisements in said Town fourteen days previous to said Meeting and the said William Palmer, Esqr, shall preside in said Meeting till a Moderator shall be chosen for that purpose, and the annual Meeting in the said Town of Milton shall be holden on the second Monday of March annually.
Rochester NH State Rep. Levi Dearborn died while still in Concord, NH, shortly after the passage of the Milton incorporation act.
DIED. At Concord, N.H., very sudden’y, of a bilious turn, Levi Dearborn, Esq., Representative in the State Legislature from the town of Rochester (Portland Gazette (Portland, ME), June 21, 1802).
Rochester NH State Rep. Beard Plummer would be chosen as Moderator at Milton’s inaugural Town Meeting, August 30, 1802 (thus taking over for Moderator Pro Tem William Palmer, Esq.).
References:
NH Secretary of State. (1918). Laws of New Hampshire: Second Constitutional Period, 1801-1811. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=bL5GAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA58
Milton Observer 