Most of Madbury was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1916 on, and the census since 1790.
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1825.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Madbury’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Madbury is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Madbury’s overall grade.
New Hampshire towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Hampshire town has 9.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Madbury’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (8% of New Hampshire towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1699.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.7 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Madbury’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Madbury was originally a part of Dover called "Barbadoes", after the West Indies island of Barbados with which settlers conducted trade, sending wood and lumber in exchange for sugar, molasses, slaves and other commodities. The name survives at Barbadoes Pond. Garrison houses were built as protection against the Native Americans. Later it was part of Durham, a Dover parish which organized in 1716 and then incorporated in 1735. Madbury was once the farm of Sir Francis Champernowne of Greenland, and named after his ancient family's mansion at Modbury in Devon, England.
Passages that mention Madbury, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Strafford County, New Hampshire1914 · page 138Read the page →
Read the text
Thirty-second, 1755: Madbury was made a parish separate from Dover. Thirty-third, 1758: A new meeting house was built on Tuttle square, and the old house on Pine Hill was torn down in 1760; the last town meeting was held there March 31, 1760.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Madbury, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. 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.
In 1699, according to Wikidata. Madbury’s post office opened in 1825, and the first U.S. census counted 592 people here in 1790.
How does Madbury rank for history?
Madbury is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Madbury?
9% of Madbury’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1984.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), 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.
2018
2018
2018
