James Wadsworth (1675-1756) was a lawyer from Farmington, who moved to Durham in 1707 with his wife, Ruth Noyes. Wadsworth, who became colonel of the Tenth Regiment of militia, also served as Town Clerk, Justice of the Peace, Speaker of House of the Colonial Assembly and Judge of the Superior Court. Wadsworth’s grandson later held the same offices: the Wadsworth family dominated local politics for eighty years. Col. Wadsworth’s house in Durham began as a single-story center-chimney house, built in 1708, and was expanded to two stories between 1720 and 1750.
James Wadsworth House (1708)