Monadnock Moment No. 116

Era 2: Colonization and Settlement - 1623 to 1763

The Town with the Harmonious Name

The town of Buckingham, New Hampshire was granted by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1753. It was probably named in honor of Englishman John Hobart, the first Earl of Buckinghamshire, whose sister Henrietta was at that time the mistress of King George II of England.

This new town, which became a part of Cheshire County and later of Sullivan County, kept the name of Buckingham for only nine years. In the early 1760s there was a dispute over who actually had rights to the land in town. The grantees of Buckingham were opposed by a group of men who claimed that the land had previously been granted to them by the Massachusetts government.

Consequently, the town was regranted in 1764 with the provision that both groups would receive shares of land and that the Massachusetts group would receive enough territory to satisfy them.

This land dispute had caused considerable bitterness in the town, but the new grant resulted in a friendly settlement. Consequently, as a result of the settlement and the unity it brought about, the town was renamed Unity, New Hampshire.