Browse the Church of Christ records in Durham, New Hampshire

Settlers built the first meetinghouse in Durham, New Hampshire in 1655, but did not have a permanent minister for several decades. The Congregational Church in Durham was first organized in 1718, after the town (then called the Oyster River Plantation) was split off from Dover and ordained their first minister, Rev. Hugh Adams. Adams was a graduate of Harvard and had previously served at the church in Braintree, Massachusetts. He suggested the name of Durham for the town when it was incorporated as a township in 1732. In 1738, he petitioned the provincial government against the town for the delinquent payment of his salary, accusing the town of “sacreligious fraud” for not paying his full salary, and accusing one of his neighbors of fencing off salt marsh that was part of his parsonage lot. Adams also claimed that he prayed successfully to withhold rainfall for three months in the summer to teach his community a lesson. The following year, the church convened a council and dismissed him, but he continued to preach at Durham Point where he had the support of some residents. In 1743, the town of Durham offered to pay him £20 per year not to preach anymore while he lived within the town. Despite these difficulties, he remained in Durham until his death in 1748.

Adams’ successor to the ministry in Durham was Rev. Nicholas Gilman of Exeter, NH. He was a Harvard graduate and was ordained in Durham in 1743. Another controversy arose in the church during his ministry, when a convocation of ministers was appointed to examine the activities of some members of the congregation who engaged in singing and dancing and held raucous irregular meetings which Gilman attended. Gilman died young, at age 41, in 1748. After his death, the church called Rev. John Adams, who was the nephew of their former minister Hugh Adams. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Adams served as the chair of the town of Durham’s committee of correspondence. Adams was the minister in Durham for thirty years until he was dismissed in 1778. 

Rev. Curtis Coe was ordained in 1780. He was from Middletown, Connecticut and a graduate of Brown University. In 1792, the church built a new meetinghouse with a steeple and bell. With the increased presence of other denominations in New Hampshire, several members of the congregation left to join the Baptist church in Madbury. Coe was dismissed by his congregation in 1806 and became a missionary. For several years afterwards the church did not have a settled minister. In 1814, the town of Durham disestablished the Congregational church which meant that the minister could no longer receive tax revenue from residents as his salary. 

When Rev. Federal Burt took over the ministry in 1817, he found a  very small congregation and worked successfully  to bring in new members. Burt established the first Sunday school in Durham in 1819. He died in 1828. Following Rev. Burt, Rev. Robert Page served the congregation briefly but left over troubles collecting his salary. Rev. Alvan Tobey was ordained in 1833 and had a portion of his salary paid by the New Hampshire Missionary Society. He served the congregation for forty years, and oversaw the construction of a new meetinghouse in 1849. In 1923, the congregation renamed itself the Community Church of Durham. In 1961, the church voted to join the United Church of Christ (UCC). 

This collection contains one volume of church records which includes admissions, marriages, baptisms, deaths, and meeting notes.  

Materials in this collection have been digitized in partnership with the New Hampshire Historical Society and have been made available through our New England's Hidden Histories project.