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The Village District in New Hampshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Lashley G. Harvey
Affiliation:
Boston University

Extract

Although legally buried since 1891, the “precinct” in New Hampshire, like Banquo's ghost, continually arises to baffle students of New England local government. To the lawmakers, it is known as the village district; while in its annual report the state tax commission lists village districts as precincts, only adding to the confusion.

In making a count of governmental areas in New Hampshire, one finds the state divided into ten counties. Within these, there are eleven municipalities classed as cities and 224 towns. The cities were once towns, but have been incorporated as cities by the legislature, not in accordance with a population prerequisite, but upon application. The first city to be incorporated was Manchester in 1846.

All New Hampshire cities and towns include within their limits a great deal of rural land. Clusters of houses or settlements are sprinkled over these areas. Frequently, a settlement has several stores, a post office, and a railroad station and has the outward appearance of a village. Legally, however, such a settlement is not a village. It is administered entirely as a part of the town or city in which it is located, although it may be several miles from the principal urban center. New Hampshire has 639 such settlements, none of which is incorporated. Villages are not incorporated in New Hampshire as they are in Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. Frequently they are referred to as places, but they should not be confused with the 23 so-called “unincorporated places” (found principally in the White Mountains), which are administered by the county and state governments almost completely. However, there are a few of the “villagelike” settlements within unincorporated places.

Type
American Government and Politics
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1946

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References

1 Some village districts were created by special act in the early part of the nineteenth century. Others, like Hanover, have been granted additional powers.

2 Communities, Settlements, and Neighborhood Centers in the State of New Hampshire, State Planning and Development Commission, July, 1937.

3 N. H. Laws, 1849, ch. 852.

4 N. H. Laws, 1899, ch. 82.

5 Public Statutes (1891), ch. 53. Ch. 57 of the Public Laws (1926) has practically the same wording.

6 Revised Laws (1942), ch. 70.

7 The Vermont statutes place many more restrictions on villages desiring incorporation, although the procedure is similar. A petition must be signed by a majority of voters living in the village, must be approved by the town meeting, and the district may not contain less than thirty houses. Vt. Public Laws (1933), ch. 151.

8 Revised Laws, ch. 70, sec. 1.

9 Revised Laws, ch. 70, sec. 6. This measure is the result of Attorney General v. Littlefield, 78 N. H. 185 (1916). Village districts have no more power than is granted by ch. 70, Rev. Laws.

10 Revised Laws, ch. 72, sec. 7.

11 Revised Laws (1942), ch. 55, sec. 14.

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