Orleans’ First Resident?

Nearly 1000 people were living in Orleans when it was incorporated, making them among its first residents, but Nicholas Snow appears to have been the first person to establish a homestead at Namskaket in what is now Orleans. Snow arrived in Plymouth on the Ann in 1623, married Constance Hopkins, daughter of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins, and after moving to Nauset/Eastham served as surveyor, deputy, tax collector, constable, and selectman. He died in 1676, long before Orleans separated from Eastham. The town’s French name reflected strong pro-French feeling in the United States in 1797, rooted in gratitude for French aid during the Revolutionary War and admiration for pro-liberty struggles in France. Revolutionary War patriot Isaac Snow, who had been captured twice by the British, imprisoned in England, and at one point reached France after escaping, likely became aware there of Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d’Orleans, a 30-year-old naval officer, cousin of the king, one of the wealthiest men in France, and a strong supporter of liberty. It is said that Isaac Snow’s suggestion led the local committee and the state legislature to name the newly incorporated town in honor of the Duke of Orleans.

Orleans, Massachusetts · United States