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United States Vermont  Addison   Panton

Brief History
Orwell was chartered on August 18, 1763. No settlement occurred in town for another eight years, however.

The first settler is recorded as John Charter, a Scotsman who took up residence near what was then known as Rattlesnake Hill, now Mount Independence, in 1771.

By the mid-1770's, a few families were living in town, clearing land for fields and building rudimentary shelters for themselves and their livestock. With the start of the Revolutionary War, most residents returned to the safer, established communities to the south.

Further settlement did not commence until the close of the war.

The British burned nearly all of the buildings in town--and indeed the entire area---before the end of the war. No pre-revolution structures survive in Orwell today.

Town Histories

 * A history of the town of Orwell, Vermont, by the Orwell Historical Society (1988) - view digital copy of this book online.
 * History of the town of Orwell, Vt., from 1763 to 1851, by Roswell Bottum - find this book in a library.
 * Vintage Photos of Orwell, VT

Vital Records
FamilySearch Historical Records Collection has Vermont birth, death, and marriage records online.

Probate Records
The probate district for Orwell is Addison. Addison Probate Court 7 Mahady Court Middlebury, VT 05753 Phone: (802) 388-2612

Maps
1871 Map of Orwell Township

Cemeteries
The following is a list of cemeteries in present-day Orwell. For location of cemeteries, see Cemeteries of Vermont, Addison County, website at this link.


 * Hack Cemetery - inscriptions found at Find A Grave site.
 * Lake View Cemetery - inscriptions found at Find A Grave site.
 * Mountain View Cemetery - inscriptions found at Find A Grave site.
 * North Cemetery - inscriptions found at Find A Grave site.
 * Saint Pauls Cemetery - inscriptions found at Find A Grave site.

Town Records
Town Clerk Vital and Town Records, 1802-1887, can be found on FamilySearch (browse only images).

The Family History Library has microfilm of original records from the Orwell Town Clerk's Office. These include Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1883-1997; indexes to births, marriages, deaths, 1857-1997, Town records, 1787-1791 and Index of births, deaths &amp; marriages recorded in early land records, 1829-1854.

Orwell Town Clerk PO Box 32 Orwell, VT 05760 Phone: (802) 948-2032 Website: http://www.town-of-orwell.org/

Newspapers
Addison County Independent ($)

Burlington Free Press

Rutland Herald

Libraries and Historical Societies
Orwell Free Library 473 Main St Orwell, VT Phone: (802) 948-2041 Email: OrwellFreeLibrary@gmail.com Website: http://orwellfreelibrary.org/