Errol was granted by Governor John Wentworth to Timothy Ruggles and others in 1774, the name taken from Scotland's James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll. In 1789, proprietors of the Errol grant petitioned the General Court that towns between Conway and Errol be required to pay for "a good connecting road". The legislature approved the measure in 1781, mandating what is today Route 16. A winter trade route to Andover, Maine was built in 1804, connecting Errol to Portland via what is now Route 26. The first settlers arrived at Errol in 1806, and by 1820 the population was 36. It was incorporated in 1836.
Passages that mention Errol, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Coos County, New Hampshire .1888 · page 952Read the page →
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"Section 2. Be it further enacted that the inhabitants of said township be and hereby are made a body politic and corporate with all the right, powers, privileges, immunities and liabilities of similar corporations in this State. And the said town of Errol shall be classed for the purpose of electing a representative with the same towns and places with which it has been heretofore been classed and shall be annexed to the same councillor and senatorial districts as said Errol was previous to the passing of this act.
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He afterwards went to the wild unsettled township of Errol, built a camp and began to construct a mill, but the loss of his camp and all the money he possessed, $800, by lire, necessitated his returning to his farm in Shelburne where he lived about eight years, and by calculation and economy was enabled to purchase a tract of wild land, which he developed, clearingit in two years, making a large quantity of " black salts," potash and pearlash. He was the first man to engage in merchandising in the town of Shelburne, and did a large business furnishing supplies to lumbermen and
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Errol, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1914
1973
1973
1973
