Rochester Colonial Moments, a historical series highlighting notable moments from Rochester’s past, in collaboration with the Office of Mayor Chuck Grassie, is brought to you by Patrick O. Connelly, Rochester, New Hampshire, historian.

In this edition:

Rochester N.H. First Meeting House Part III

The first meeting house was erected quickly to meet the charter’s requirements and provide a venue for the annual town meeting. It later became a gathering place for the preaching and instruction of the Reverend Amos Main. The building likely had only basic framing and an exterior of overlapping planks, resembling the clapboard siding common later in the 18^th century. This simple construction hastened completion, reduced costs for the proprietors, and reflected the risk that the building might be destroyed during recurring conflicts with the Eastern Indians.

The proprietors authorized the first meeting house on April 30, 1730, and held their annual meeting there on July 10, 1732. Completing the building so quickly was notable at this stage of Rochester’s history, when local resources were also needed to survey, sell, and settle the homestead lots in the First Division.

Built on common land near the center of the First Division—a prominent location on the town division map—the meeting house hosted the settlers’ first town meeting on April 27, 1737. Town records mention no repairs until August 24, 1751, when officials appointed a committee to auction pews and use the proceeds to repair the building and expand its existing seating.

In 1766, the town voted to build a seat to accommodate singers. The seat was to be built before the front gallery to prevent blockage of the pews as well as to those sitting in the back of the meeting house. The next year, 1767, the town voted to mend the glass in the Meeting house windows and execute the building of the seat for singers as well as to other pews to accommodate the seat. The deacons were charged with the selection of the congregation’s best singers to sit in this new seat annually.

In this same period, the town agreed and funded work on the parsonage. Many townsmen were credited with time spent on the project and town records with credit allocated for each. Additionally, the town committed resources to rebuild bridges in the town wiped out by the freshets of the Spring 1767.

In a town meeting of November 29,1771, it was noted that “ …the circumstances of the town at present seems to look dark and gloomy and the burden of cutting and clearing of roads through this town is too heavy for the inhabitants to bear,,,”,

In the annual accounts of 1772, Ichabod Corson was paid 6s for glass in the meeting house and Ebenezer Tebbets paid 10s 3d for mending the meeting house. An additional 5s was paid for work done on the meeting house.

Building of  bridges and roads took several more years of discussion and building. In fact, until the ministerial controversy between the congregation in Rochester and the current minister Rev. Avery Hall, the town government was consumed with building roads and bridges to support settlement growth.

For reasons not made clear in town records, in the town meeting of October 17,1774, the town agreed to refund back to petitioners that fell into the second parish or parishes part of the taxes collected for the building of a new meeting house in the First Parish, if and when the town would build a meetinghouse. . It was in this meeting that the town agreed to build a new meetinghouse. A new phase of development in Rochester had begun.

Patrick O. Connelly
September 19, 2026