Milton, Vermont: Named for the Poet
Near Burlington, Vermont
About fourteen miles north of Burlington, the town of Milton received its charter on June eighth, seventeen sixty-three, when New Hampshire's Governor Benning Wentworth granted the land to sixty-two proprietors. Local legend says the town was named for the English poet John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, though the name more likely honors Viscount Milton, a British supporter of the colonies.
Actual settlement came nearly two decades later. William Irish, Leonard Owen, Amos Mansfield, Absalom Taylor, and Thomas Dewey arrived together in February of seventeen eighty-two, making West Milton the first settled corner of town. Milton today is one of the faster-growing communities in Chittenden County, sitting along the Lamoille River where it nears Lake Champlain, with a population pushing ten thousand.
