Goffstown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,929 at the 2000 census. Goffstown includes the villages of Grasmere and Pinardville. The town is home to Saint Anselm College and the New Hampshire State Prison for Women.
The town was first granted as "Narragansett No. 4" in 1734 by Colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts, which then held authority over New Hampshire. It was one of seven townships intended for soldiers (or their heirs) who had fought in the "Narragansett War" of 1675, also known as King Philip's War. In 1735, however, some grantees "found it so poor and barren as to be altogether incapable of making settlements," and were instead granted a tract in Greenwich, Massachusetts.
The community would be called "Piscataquog Village" and "Shovestown" before being regranted by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1748 to new settlers, including Colonel John Goffe, for whom the town was named. In 1761, Goffstown was incorporated. The village of Grasmere was named for Grasmere, England, home of poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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