Cheshire | General Information

The County of Cheshire was one of five counties established in 1769 – Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough and Grafton were the other four. Cheshire was named after an English county of the same name, and included a portion of the present Sullivan County. Major Josiah Willard, who had been the first representative to the legislature, 1768-1770, was appointed the first “Recorder of Deeds and Conveyances of Real Estate” in March 1771 and held office until 1776.

Land records were held in Walpole until 1813. The County building was in several locations until the present Cheshire County Court House was built in 1858. Property records remained in that building until 1988 when once again the Registry outgrew their facilities. The County brought the Ashuelot National Bank at 33 West Street in October 1987 and once again, the land records were moved. The new County Administration Building was dedicated on June 4, 1989.

What’s Available in the Registry

Index books containing Grantor and Grantee records alphabetically and by year are located in the records area. Computer stations also have the grantor and grantee indexes; and documents are available as images for the years 1929 through the current year. All the records are also available for search on the internet. For the years up to 1975, you cannot search directly by name, as the “index” is a page which has some names listed alphabetically, and one must then use that information to input the book and page that will bring up the corresponding document image.
Images of the documents for this time period are also available as are the images for the current year.

Cheshire County adheres to the Grantor – Grantee index. If acquiring property, being discharged or released or receiving, then the name should be checked in the grantee index. If looking for liens, i.e., mortgage, tax liens, etc. or to locate a seller, then the grantor index should be checked.

Plans are listed under the owner’s name, Development name, subdivision or Condo, when applicable. Plans were indexed in the grantor index in June 1985, but we still maintain two (2) plan files, one strictly alphabetical by name and a second which is alphabetical by town, then alphabetical by owner. We also maintain a street index within the plan index. All plans are available on aperture cards which are located in the public work area. Viewers are available and copies can be obtained through microfilm and the newer plans are also in imaging. Full scale copies are available for all plans recorded since 1977.