Middlesex, Washington County, Vermont

By Stephen Herrick, Esq.

The township, situated on the north side of the Winooski River, 30 miles from the mouth of the river at Burlington, latitude 44°, 20', longitude 4°, 2', is bounded north by Worcester, east by east Montpelier and Montpelier, south by Berlin and Moretown, from which it is separated by the Winooski, and west by Waterbury.

Middlesex has had the honor to belong to Gloucester County, established by the New York Council, March 16, 1770; Unity, established March 17, 1778; name changed to Cumberland, March 21, 1778; to Bennington, being set to this County by change of county line February 1, 1779: to Addison County, formed October 18, 1785; to Jefferson County, incorporated November 1, 1810; to Washington County, the name of Jefferson being changed to Washington in 1814. Middlesex can boast of being the first town settled in Washington County, as the county is now organized; but it was not the first town chartered, Duxbury, Moretown and Waterbury having been chartered one day first, June 7, 1763.

The N. H. charter, by Wentworth, was granted "by command of His Excellency, King George III., in the third year of his reign," and provides:

The township of Middlesex, lying on the east side of French or Onion River, so called, shall be six miles square and no more, containing 23,040 acres.

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The first meeting for the choice of town officers shall be held on the 26th day of July next, to be notified and presided over by Capt. Isaac Woodruff", and that the annual meeting forever hereafter for the choice of officers for said town shall be on the second Tuesday of March, annually.

The town was to be divided into 71 equal shares; each one of the 65 proprietors to whom it was granted to hold one share, and 6 shares as usual in the New Hampshire charters for the Governor's right, the benefit of the Gospel and schools. The Governor's land was a tract of 500 acres in the south west corner of the town.

I find by the records in the town clerk's office that the honorable Seth Putnam was chosen to represent the town of Middlesex on the first day of September, 1807, and that the number of votes cast for representative was 30. The general reader will at first think it strange, to say the least, that the town had no representative till 17 years after its organization; but may remember Vermont was not admitted into the Union until Feb. 1791.

The town of Middlesex was chartered June 8, 1763, by Benning Wentworth, Esq., then Governor of the Province of New Hampshire, to the following grantees:

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Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.