Chartered by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth on July 10, 1761, the
town was a New Hampshire grant to David Page and 61 others. It was named after
Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England, as an homage to both Blenheim Palace and its
owner, George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough. The town was first settled in
1768 by James Sanderson and his family. In 1776, Major Joab Hoisington built a
gristmill, followed by a sawmill, on the south branch of the Ottauquechee
River.
Although the Revolution slowed settlement, Woodstock developed rapidly once
the war ended in 1783. The Vermont General Assembly met here in 1807
