Dover, where I live, is proclaimed as the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire and the seventh oldest in the United States.
Counting gets tricky, because there were earlier settlements that were abandoned. As best as I can determine, then, here’s the list the counts to seven:
- St. Augustine, Florida, 1565
- Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1607
- Newport News as Hopewell or Elizabeth Cittie, Virginia, 1613
- Albany, New York, 1614
- Jersey City, New Jersey, as Pavonia, New Netherlands, 1617
- Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620
- Dover, New Hampshire, 1623
While I found Weymouth, Massachusetts, as Wessagussett, 1622, the town itself notes 1630 as its settlement. And Taos, New Mexico, 1615, was abandoned by its Spanish missionaries in 1640. As I said, counting gets tricky.
Jnana's Red Barn 
Interesting – i have just found some ancestors that moved to Cumberland, Massachusetts mid 1800’s. I do find it amusing when i come across English place names in the USA.
In New England, especially, the names from the British Isles are repeated, often in each of the region’s six states. And sometimes in ways that are humorous to those from the homeland, as happens here in New Hampshire with Derry sitting next to Londonderry. (What, they’re not the same?)
or that York is nowhere near Jersey, as Jersey is an island – although i often wondered what the early settlers were thinking when they landed on the new world when it came to names, i mean they could have named the cities just about anything and yet they chose names from home.
Let me add York, Maine, to your musings. It’s about a half-hour from Dover (in New Hampshire) … less from Portsmouth. Oh, yes, it’s also right on the ocean.
I had no idea the Spanish had made it that far north in 1615. Wow.