Governor appauds historical research by local man that found King Charles I intended much of N. New England to be Laconia

LACONIA — A commendation from the governor received by Laconia Historical and Museum Society was presented to Laconia Mayor Ed Engler Tuesday by LHMS President Pam Clark, LHMS Director Pat Tierney and LHMS Executive Director Brenda Kean.

The commendation was made to the city by Governor Maggie Hassan in connection with a recent research and subsequent lecture program of the LMHS dealing with the Laconia Grant of 1629 — a proclamation made during the reign of King Charles I of England which granted a large swath of land in North America to the Laconia Company with the intention of fostering a large settlement which would be known as the "province of Laconia".

The research by Pat Tierney, a member of the board of directors of LMHS, shows that the Laconia grant encompassed a large area 80 to 100 miles inland from the coast of what is now Northern New England. Tierney said the name Laconia most likely comes from Middle English and was used to designate an area containing lakes.

Tierney's research into English and Colonial era records shows that the Laconia Company was one of three major settlement companies during the 1629-1640 time period.

It had three major settlement areas, one at Odiorne Point along the New Hampshire coast, another at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth and another in the Eliot, Maine area which were established in 1630 by a group of colonists led by Governor Walter Neale and the Laconia Company. In 1632 Neale led a contingent of 'Soldiers of Discovery' up the Merrimack into the 'Province of Laconia', some 20 years before the historic Endicott expedition reached the Weirs.

In 1633 the crown ordered the Laconia Company to conduct formal surveys of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and what would later become Hampton.

Tierney says that the name Laconia is emblazoned across a large part of New Hampshire and Maine in a map shown in Horace Scudder's 1884 history book ''A History of the United States of America.''

He said that the historical significance of use of the name Laconia seems largely lost for a long period of time and traces it in part to the English Civil War, which started in 1640 and pitted Royalist Anglicans against the Puritans and saw the beheading of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of an English government run by Oliver Cromwell which attempted to change and suppress actions taken by those loyal to the king and during the reign of Charles 1.

It wasn't until 1660 that England reestablished the monarchy but many legal battles, which lasted until 1746, followed over the right to soil within the Laconia grant. He said that those legal battles with the heirs of the original proprietor John Mason also kept the Laconia name from common use.

Tierney says that it may well have been the works of historian Jeremy Belknap, for whom Belknap County was named, and who often cited the Laconia grant in his works, which may have been the inspiration for naming the section of Meredith which broke away in 1855 as the town of Laconia.

A 1970 graduate of Laconia High School who earned a degree from UNH, Tierney says he has always had a keen interest in Laconia history and has been a member of the board of directors of LHMS since 2006. He is also a historian with the Mt. Lebanon Masonic Lodge #32.

The research was brought to the attention of Governor Hassan by Dr. Deborah Osgood of the Knowledge Institute for Small Business Development in Exeter, who worked with Tierney on the project.

CAPTIONS:

Tierney:

Laconia Historical and Museum Society officers Pam Clark, left, president; Pat Tierney, second left. , LHMS director; and LHMS Executive Director Brenda Kean, right, present a commendation from Governor Maggie Hassan to Laconia Mayor Ed Engler, second from right. The document "commends The City of Laconia for the many contributions it has made toward the rich history of its state and nation." (Courtesy photo)

Tierney 2:

A map from Horace Scudder's 1884 book "A History of the United States of America'' shows New England and a large swath of land named Laconia, which shows the extent of a Nov. 17, 1629 grant from King Charles 1 of England for what was to be named the province of Laconia. (Courtesy photo)