Rye is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,543 at the 2020 census. The town is home to several state parks along the Atlantic coastline. The first settlement in New Hampshire, originally named Pannaway Plantation, was established in 1623 at Odiorne's Point by a group of fishermen led by David Thomp…Rye is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,543 at the 2020 census. The town is home to several state parks along the Atlantic coastline. The first settlement in New Hampshire, originally named Pannaway Plantation, was established in 1623 at Odiorne's Point by a group of fishermen led by David Thompson. The settlement was abandoned in favor of Strawbery Banke, which became Portsmouth. The first settler in present-day Rye was probably William Berry. Prior to its incorporation in 1726 as a parish of New Castle, Rye was called "Sandy Beach" and its lands were once parts of New Castle, Portsmouth, Greenland and Hampton. In 1726, the town of New Castle set off a parish for Sandy Beach called "Rye", for Rye in Sussex, England, the ancestral lands of the Jenness family who continue to live in the town to this day and even have a beach named after them. The town was incorporated in 1785. In 2013, a researcher pointed out that the town seal showed the parish creation date of 1726 as the incorporation date. Later on in the year, the seal was updated to include the three dates important to Rye, 1623, 1726 and 1785.
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