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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Founder's Park, Hampton, New Hampshire


Do you have colonial roots in Hampton, New Hampshire?  If you have roots in Hampton, I have photos of all the surname stones in "Founder's Park".  Contact me and I will publish your ancestral surname stone photo in another post.

The central stone in the park commemorates
Rev. Stephen Bachiler, who founded Hampton, NH
(click here to enlarge, and you'll see some of the
surname stones on the circumference of Founder's Park)

In Hampton, New Hampshire there is a little park on Old Landing Road called “Founder’s Park”.   It was built in 1925 to honor the earliest settlers in Hampton with stones marked with the surnames.  If you can prove your family settled in this area before 1695 you can apply to the Historical Society for a stone memorial.  The last stone to be placed here was the Elkins family stone in 2004. 

In the corners of the park there are stones for each of the “daughter towns” of Hampton (Danville, Sandown, East Kingston, Kingston, Kensington, Hampton Falls, North Hampton, and Seabrook).  At the center of the park is a memorial to Reverend Stephen Bachilder, who led his flock to settle here in 1638. 

This is a list of the names at Founder’s Park:

Batchelder         
Blake
Brown  
Chase
Cole      
Dalton
Dearborn            
Dow
Drake   
Elkins    
Fogg
Garland               
Godfrey
Gookin
Gove
Green  
Healey
Hobbs  
Hussey
James  
Knowles
Lamprey
Lane
Leavitt 
Locke
Mason 
Marston
Nudd    
Page
Palmer 
Perkins
Philbrick              
Prescott
Redman              
Sanborn
Shaw    
Sleeper
Taylor   
Tilton
Toppan
Towle
Weare 
Johnson
Moulton
Tuck


I have photographed all the surname stones at Founder’s Park.  If you would like me to post a photograph of your family memorial stone please leave me a comment below or email me at vrojomit@gmail.com   The Hampton Historical Society has files and books on most of these families, so if you are researching your family tree you might want to contact them.  I'm descended of twelve of these families, including those highlighted in yellow. 

The Batchelder family is represented by this stone.
My 11x great grandfather Stephen Bachilder lived from 1561 to 1656. 

My 9x great grandfather John Locke
lived in Hampton (abt 1627 - 1696)

For more information on Founder’s Park:

From the Hampton Historical Society website, the Founder’s Park link: http://www.hamptonhistoricalsociety.org/foundpk.htm

This link is from the Hampton Public Library, showing an article in the 21 August 1990 Atlantic News about Founder’s Park, with photos from the 1925 dedication of Founder’s Park: http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/parks/founderspark.htm

-------------------------
Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

10 comments:

  1. Heather, I am almost certain you and my husband must have a family connection. He is also a descendant of Stephen Batchelder. Could you share the photos of the stones for Sanborn and Marston, please? Let's compare notes sometime!

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  2. Wow, Heather nice concept and well done.

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  3. Heather, thanks for coming by my blog and linking to this. I've seen these before, they're so neat. And our ancestor Reverend Bachiler was probably the most notable of New England's original "great migrants."

    I assume the names you have highlighted represent families in your tree? The ones that would be highlighted for me would be: Bachelder, Dow, Drake, Godfrey, Green, Healey, Hussey, Marston, Moulton, Page, Palmer, Perkins, Prescott, Sanborn, Towle, Tuck, and Weare.

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  4. Love this!! I decend from Stephen Batchilder, as well as Sanborns, Towles, Marstons and Drake ( Nathaniel only through marriage to my Few g Grandmother Jane (Berry) )

    Sincerely, Amanda (Pike) Morasse

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  5. Would appreciate a picture of the Hobbs Stone.
    Thanks!
    musicman14048@aol.com

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  6. Replies
    1. Brian, this post is from three years ago. I'll try to post the Hobbs stone in a new blog post sometime soon. Or send me your email and I'll send you the image.

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