TUFTONBORO

Tuftonboro is the only New Hampshire town to ever be entirely owned by just one man, John Tufton Mason. Mason was heir to the Masonian Claim, the undivided lands of northern New Hampshire, which he sold to a group of Portsmouth merchants—the Masonian Proprietors—in 1746. They divided the land via grants to prospective settlers prior to the American Revolution. Situated on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, Tuftonboro includes the villages of Melvin Corner, Melvin Village, and Mirror Lake.