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The largest city in the state of New Hampshire, Manchester is situated in Hillsborough County. John Goffe III was the first settler in what is now Manchester in 1722, having built his home next to Cohas Brook. He then built a dam and a sawmill. In 1727, the colony of Massachusetts granted the land, which was called Tyngstown, to veterans of Queen Anne's War. The veterans had served under Captain William Tyng. In 1741, New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts, and the grant was deemed invalid and was then granted to Wilton, Maine. Colonial Governor Benning Wentworth rechartered the town as Derryfield. In 1807, Samuel Blodget instituted a canal and lock system which let vessels navigate around the falls. He wanted to create what he called "the Manchester of America," alluding to the British city which boomed with the Industrial Revolution. The English Manchester was the first industrialized city in the world. In 1809, a cotton spinning mill was built, using water power from the western bank of the Merrimack River, and in 1810, Derryfield was renamed Manchester.Men from Massachusetts built three more mills in 1826, while the new mills were declared the Amoskeag Manufacturing, and at one time, the cotton mill was the largest cotton mill in the world. Cigars, paper, rifles, fire engines, textile machinery, shoes, and locomotives were soon made in Manchester, making it indeed much like the Manchester in England.

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