Dover nh Wedding

Dover is a small city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 26,884 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Strafford County. Dover is home to McIntosh College.

According to historian Jeremy Belknap, the area was called "Wecohamet" by native Abenaki Indians. The first known European to explore the region was Martin Pring from Bristol, England in 1603. Settled in 1623 as "Hilton's Point" by brothers William and Edward Hilton, Dover is the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire, and the seventh oldest in the United States. It is one of the colony's three original townships, and once included Durham, Madbury, Newington and Lee. It also included Somersworth and Rollinsford, which together the Indians called "Newichawannock" after the "Newichawannock River," now the Salmon Falls River.

The Hiltons' name survives today at Hilton Park on Dover Point, located where they landed near the confluence of the Cochecho and Bellamy rivers with the Piscataqua. They had been sent from London by The Company of Laconia, which intended to establish a colony and fishery around the Piscataqua. In 1631, however, it contained only three houses.