Chester Township Index

CHESTER - Chester [historical names: Flamstead, New Flamstead]

     Of the several towns that now comprise Windsor county the first to be chartered was that now known as Chester, but which under the original grant was named Flamstead.  The first grant of this town was made February 22, 1754.  However, the charter proprietors failed to comply with the conditions and requirements of the grant, whereupon it was forfeited.  The second charter of the same territory was made on the 3d of November, 1761, to another set of proprietors, and under another name, the latter being New Flamstead.  Under this grant settlements were made and pioneer improvements commenced.  But it appears that during the early years of the controversy between New York and the Green Mountain Boys, the inhabitants of this town were disposed to favor the New York interests, and being  imbued with such spirit, yielded up or set at nought the New Hampshire charter and procured another from the former province.  Under this last grant, which was made on July 14, 1766, the name Chester was given the township, and by that name it has ever since been known.  In 1771, under the New York authority, an enumeration of the town's inhabitants was made, and Chester was found to contain one hundred and fifty-two souls. (History of Windsor County, Vermont, by Lewis Cass Aldrich and Frank R. Holmes, 1891).

After 1768, when Cumberland County, New York was created, legal matters could be settled at Chester, VT, where there were courts of common pleas and of quarter sessions.

·       Town of Chester, VT

·       First Congregational Church, Chester, VT:  1868 List of Pastors, Deacons & Parishioners, by Janice Boyko, on the Northeast Kingdom website

·       The Whiting Library:  117 Main Street, PO Box 68, - Chester, VT 05143  Phone:  (802) 875-2277.

·       Chester Historical Society: Main Street - Chester, VT 05143; Phone: (802) 875-3767 or (802) 875-2497.

·       Chester Town Clerk:  P. O. Box 370 - Chester, VT 05143  Phone: (802) 875-2173.

·       Cemeteries include:

Brookside, North Street, Pleasant View, Poplar Grove, and cemeteries located in West Chester and on Spoonerville and Smokeshire Roads.