Template:Wp-Middleton, New Hampshire-History

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Granted by the Masonian Proprietors in 1749, the town was named after Sir Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, who was in charge of convoy service between Barbados and the colonies. The land was first settled shortly before the Revolutionary War by settlers from Lee and Rochester. Soon after the war, its population was challenged when a number of Quaker families led by the town auditor, Nicholas Austin, left for the more peaceful setting of Austin, Quebec. Although the soil is rocky and unsuited for cultivation, cider was made in considerable quantities, and maple syrup to some extent.

Middleton was situated on the road between the New Hampshire Seacoast and Wolfeboro, the location of colonial governor John Wentworth's summer home, "Kingswood". (Today the road survives as "Governors Road" in northern Rochester and Milton and continues as "Kings Highway" through Middleton.) Neglect of the road caused the governor to bill the proprietors for repairs he had to make for safe travel to Kingswood, built in 1771. Middleton was incorporated on March 4, 1778, and originally included Brookfield, which was split off in December 1794.

Middleton's old Town Hall, located on King's Highway, was built in 1795 as a meetinghouse on Ridge Road. It was moved to its current location in 1812, jacked-up on the new site, and the Town Hall added underneath. The original stucco painting, a wrap-around landscape mural of trees and scenery, was painted by John Avery in 1811 and touched up in 1841.