HISTORY OF DEKRYFIELD. 10$ 



Following the list of towns referred to above we find Pelham, 

 1721 ; Amherst, 1728; Goffstown and Bedford, 1733, and Derry 

 and Londonderry, 17 19. 



Looking to the east we see the settlers creeping toward us 

 in much the same order, from Exeter and Dover. From these 

 towns the people came to the Merrimack valley and became ac- 

 quainted with its fisheries long before 1650. As to this western 

 extension of our sea-coast towns most historians begin with the 

 records and not with the facts. They agree in assigning 1719 

 as the date of settling the "Chestnutt Country," afterwards 

 " Walnut Hill," " Cheshire," and finally Chester. Charles Bell's 

 notes are extremely valuable, although written when he was but 

 eighteen years of age. He died young, as the editor's preface 

 naively says, "at the early age of 29^ years," and in his death 

 the state lost a born historian. The courts have always claimed 

 that records make the best witnesses — but there are others — 

 and although we are historically limited to 17 19 we shall attempt 

 to project the reverted eye to an earlier date. For some years 

 many towns not included in Ancient Dover were within the lim- 

 its of Exeter, and those not in either were included in Chester, 

 which embraced Epping, Raymond, Candia, Auburn, Hooksett, 

 and parts of other territory known to the geography of guess- 

 work. The early surveyors ran lines hither and yon, forcing a 

 balance among the figures read from their rickety transits, but 

 being always careful to add, include and reckon enough, with an 

 extra allowance for error. So these early surveys, reinforced by 

 conjecture, allotted the whole woodland acreage about us, with 

 the exception of Derryficld, which was providentially reserved 

 for greater things. 



Here we are impertinent enough to inquire, Why not Derry- 

 field .'' Let these four points be remembered : That the first step 

 was discovery, the second occupation, the third either grant and 

 survey or survey and grant as it might happen, and fourth an 

 actual settlement. In the case of Derryfield the surveyors hes- 



