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CHICHESTER

May 20, 1727, the charter of Chichester was granted to sundry persons, partly at least, of Hampton, whose names do not now appear. The conditions were that the proprietors, within three years, build sixty houses, clear three acres of ground, settle families there and pay the town charges. A meeting-house was to be built within four years, and some minor stipulations were made.

Sometime after the three years had expired, on May 5, 1731, Joseph Towle, Thomas Marston and more than ninety others, inhabitants of Hampton, Petitioned the Legislature for a grant of waste land for a township, somewhere in the province, suggesting that Chichester had been originally intended for Hampton, but that its charter had been forfeited by a neglect to comply with its provisions; and that, on account of the loss of that township they were now entitled to favor. The proprietors stated that, having met with more trouble and greater difficulty in running boundaries and clearing the way to said township than they had anticipated, they had not been able fully to comply with the conditions of the charter, and asked for more time; and one year was granted. Among the proprietors at that time were Nathaniel Weare, Richard Jenness, John Samborne.

February 28, 1733, a committee of the proprietors asked for a further extension, on the ground that their meeting-house and some dwelling-houses had been consumed by fire. The numerously signed petition for a grant in the waste lands seems to have come to naught. Chichester was not settled til 1758, and then not from Hampton.

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