Grafton Presbytery

Grafton County, New Hampshire

The Grafton Presbytery, also called the Presbytery of Connecticut River, was founded sometime between 1769 and 1776, perhaps in 1770 as an independent governing body for Presbyterian and Congregational churches in the area of central New Hampshire and Vermont. Composed of churches in Hanover Centre, Bath, Orford, Hartford, Vt, and other towns west of the Connecticut River, it was centered at the fledgling Dartmouth College, and Eleazar Wheelock, founder and first president of the College, was its leading member. Information about its formation, membership and duration was apparently lost in a fire that destroyed the Presbyterian Churuch of Hanover Center, N. H. in 1797. In 1856, Reverend John M. Whiton of Bennington wrote that the Presbytery of Grafton "was large and flourishing for some fourteen years," that there were Presbyterian churches all over the Upper Valley and that many prominent men, including "the two Predidents Wheelocks" and several Professors at the College, were active members.

Hanna, Charles A. The Scotch-Irish or The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America. vol. II. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1902, 99. https://archive.org/details/cu31924092885171