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The Creation of Orford, New Hampshire

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In 1760, a group of proprietors met in Lieutenant Jonathon Leavitt’s inn in Hampton, New Hampshire, to write a petition calling for the creation of the town of Orford. Upon approval by King George III and New Hampshire’s Royal Governor, Benning Wentworth, Orford received its Charter in 1761. The town was to be “six miles square…beginning at tree standing near the river marked with the figures 6 and 7 northwesterly corner of Lime, thence running easterly six miles and” so on… The reference to numbers in the charter was derived from an earlier British colonist who had marked out sites to build potential forts. Fort #4, lies south down the river and the numbers referring to different geographical areas increase as one travels up the Connecticut River. Proprietors were investors rather than settlers and were interested in selling the land for profit and in charging interests on advancements for grain, cattle and other goods to the settlers. In Orford William Marston and Jeremiah Marston were the only proprietors who actually settled in town. Proprietors Petition
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English Settlement In The Connecticut River Valley: 1691-1791 by Jere Daniell

Fort #4