These summer meetings were held to accommodate the people who objected to walking or riding five or six miles to attend meetings at Cochecho, where now is the center of the city of Dover. As this is the place where Master Sullivan spent thirty years of his life, I may as well explain further in regard to this name, Somersworth, which is unique in the history of towns and cities in the United States, no other place in the country having that name. The people had become familiar to having the village called the “Summer parish,” so in 1730, when this district was separated from the First parish as a distinct parish, it was the most natural thing for the leaders, who were educated men, to retain the familiar name, and they did it by changing “parish” to “worth,” and they had “Summersworth.” The word “worth” is the old English termination for names of places, so Summer parish and Summersworth mean precisely the same thing. You will notice that the present spelling is Somersworth. The ancient spelling of the parish was Summersworth, and when the citizens petitioned for an act of incorporation as a town they asked to have it spelled that way, but when they got their charter they found that the clerk of the General Court, or somebody else, had changed “Sum” to “Som,” so they let it go that way. This change in orthography made no change in the meaning of the name. According to Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose large dictionary was published in 1755, the year after this town was chartered, “Sumer” is Saxon and “Somer” is Dutch for the English word “Summer.” Before Summersworth was made a separate parish the town of Dover looked after the schools; but after it became a parish the people managed their own schools by votes in parish meetings. July 2, 1734, the parish “Voted that Hercules Mooney be the schoolmaster here for one month (viz) from July 4^{th} to Aug^t 4^{th}, 1734 next ensuing at three pounds fifteen shillings per month.” “Voted that Capt. Thomas Wallingford and Mr. Philip Stackpole be the men that Joyn with the Selectmen at the months end above to agree with Mr. Mooney or any other suitable person to keep school in this Parish for the Residue of this Sumer and autum.” In 1735 it was “Voted that Mr. Jon^o Scrugham be school master for one month in this Parish at the Descression of the Selectmen.” Also, “Voted that there be thirty pounds raised to Defray the Charge of a school this sumer and autum.” In 1737 the parish “Voted sixty pounds for a school master.” “Voted that Mr. John Sullivan be the schoolmaster for the ensuing year.” “Voted that John Sullivan to sweep and take care of ye meeting house & to have thirty shillings.”