Something doesn’t quite add up.
A quick look at the official seal of the Town of Sunapee shows an incorporation date of April, 4, 1781. Doesn’t that mean the big 250th bash should be held in 2031?
Not so fast.
Thirteen years before it was incorporated as a township, Sir Jon Wentworth – the British colonial governor of New Hampshire during the Revolutionary War – signed a charter recognizing 23,000 acres of land known as “Saville.”
Residents petitioned to change the name to “Wendell” during the incorporation process, and in 1850, the Legislature voted to rename the town “Sunapee.”
So while the seal may say 1781, history says we should recognize 1768 as the town’s true birthday.
But who’s counting?