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Exeter, New Hampshire

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Exeter, New Hampshire

Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. Home to Phillips Exeter Academy, a private university-preparatory school, Exeter is situated where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott River.

The urban center of town, where 10,109 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Exeter census-designated place.

For thousands of years prior to European colonization, the area was inhabited by Pennacook Abenaki villagers. The location was originally known as "M'Squamskook", meaning "Falls at the Place of the Salmon" in Abenaki language, and would later become known as "Squamscott".

About 100 Pennacook would return to the Squamscott in the spring to fish, and raise corn, pumpkin, and pigeons, and had relations to other Pennacook at Concord, Sewall's Island, and Manchester. They fished at the falls where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott, the site around which the future town of Exeter grew. The falls in Brentwood were known to have been a favorite fishing site of the native population.

On April 3, 1638, John Wheelwright, a clergyman exiled from the Puritan theocracy Massachusetts Bay Colony, purchased the land from Wehanownowit, the sagamore. Wheelwright took with him about 175 individuals to found a town he named after Exeter in Devon, England. Local government was linked with Massachusetts until New Hampshire became a separate colony in 1679, and counties were introduced in 1769.

One of the four original townships in the province, Exeter originally included Newmarket, Newfields, Brentwood, Epping, and Fremont. On July 4, 1639, 35 freemen of Exeter signed the Exeter Combination, a document written by Wheelwright to establish their own government. The settlers hunted, planted and fished, raised cattle and swine, or made shakes (shingles) and barrel staves.

Thomas Wilson established the town's first grist mill on the eastern side of the island[clarification needed] in the lower falls. This mill was established within the first season of settling in Exeter, and his son Humphrey assumed control of the mill in 1643, when Thomas died.

Some early settlers came from Hingham, Massachusetts, including the Gilman, Folsom, and Leavitt families. In 1647, Edward Gilman Jr. established the first sawmill, and by 1651, Gilman had a 50-ton sloop which he used to conduct business in lumber, staves, and masts. Gilman was lost at sea in 1653 while traveling to England to purchase equipment for his mills, but his family later became prominent as lumbermen, shipbuilders, merchants, and statesmen. The Gilman Garrison House and the American Independence Museum were both former homes of the Gilman family. The Gilman family also donated the land on which Phillips Exeter Academy stands, including the academy's original Yard, the oldest part of campus. Members of the Gilman family have played an important role in the United States government, including Founding Father Nicholas Gilman, as well as treasurers, a governor, representatives to the General Assembly and judges to the General Court of New Hampshire.

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