New Castle is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,000 at the 2020 census. It is the easternmost town in New Hampshire and the smallest by area, and it is the only town in the state located entirely on islands. It is home to Fort Constitution Historic Site, Fort Stark Historic Site, and the New Castle Common, a recreation area on the Atlantic Ocean. New Castle is also home to a United States Coast Guard station, as well as the historic Wentworth by the Sea hotel.

History

thumb|Hotel Wentworth

thumb|upright|New Castle Town Hall

The main island on which the town sits is the largest of several at the mouth of the Piscataqua River and was originally called "Great Island". Settled in 1623, an earthwork defense was built on Fort Point, which would evolve into Fort William and Mary (rebuilt in 1808 as Fort Constitution). Chartered in 1679 as a parish of Portsmouth, it was incorporated on May 30, 1693, and was named "New Castle" after the fort. Until 1719, it included Rye, then called "Sandy Beach", which was set off as a parish. The principal industries were trade, tavern-keeping, and fishing. There was also agriculture, using the abundant seaweed as fertilizer.

Beginning on June 11, 1682, Great Island experienced a supernatural event—a lithobolia, or "Stone-Throwing Devil", recorded in a 1698 London pamphlet by Richard Chamberlain. On a Sunday night at about 10 o'clock, the tavern home of George Walton, an early settler and planter, was showered with stones thrown "by an invisible hand". Windows were smashed, and the spit in the fireplace leapt into the air, then came down with its point stuck in the back log. When a member of the household retrieved the spit, it flew out the window of its own accord. The gate outside was discovered off its hinges. Rev. Cotton Mather took an interest in the phenomenon, reporting that:

:"This disturbance continued from day to day; and sometimes a dismal hollow whistling would be heard, and sometimes the trotting and snorting of a horse, but nothing to be seen.... A man was much hurt by some of the stones. He was a Quaker, and suspected that a woman, who charged him with injustice in detaining some land from her did, by witchcraft, occasion these preternatural occurrences. However, at last they came to an end."

The "Stone-Throwing Devil" created quite a sensation on Great Island. Hundreds of stones mysteriously rained down on George Walton's tavern, as well as onto him and others in the area over the entire summer. Yet no one ever came forward who saw anyone throwing the stones. Many other mysterious events also occurred at that time. Demonic voices were heard, and items were flung about inside Walton's tavern. Prominent Boston minister Increase Mather described the strange events in his book Illustrious Providences.

As of the census of 2020,

  • Samantha Brown (born 1970), travel guide TV host
  • George Frost (1720–1796), seaman, jurist, representative to the Continental Congress
  • Benjamin Randall (1749–1808), religious leader
  • Duncan Robinson (born 1994), NBA player for the Detroit Pistons
  • Edmund C. Tarbell (1862–1938), American impressionist painter

References

Further reading

  • John Albee, New Castle, Historic and Picturesque; Cupples, Upham & Company, Boston, Massachusetts 1884
  • Charles W. Brewster, Rambles About Portsmouth; C. W. Brewster & Son; Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1859
  • Thomas F. Kehr, "The Seizure of his Majesty's Fort William and Mary at New Castle, New Hampshire, December 14–15, 1774," Essays and Articles, New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution at [http://nhssar.org/essays/FortConstitution.html]
  • Thompson, Connie. Piscataqua Pioneers: Selected Biographies of Early Settlers in Northern New England, Piscataqua Pioneers, 2000
  • White, Anna B. History of New Castle, New Hampshire, 1984. Carrol White, ed., 2012
  • New Castle, NH Historical Society website
  • Seacoast Forts of Portsmouth Harbor from American Forts Network
  • New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile