Exeter is a town in Rockingham County

Rockingham County, New Hampshire

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 277,359 people, 104,529 households, and 74,320 families residing in the county. The population density was 399 people per square mile . There were 113,023 housing units at an average density of 163 per square mile...

, New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood

Brentwood, New Hampshire

Brentwood is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 4,486. Brentwood has been the county seat of Rockingham County since 1997...

. Home to the Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...

, a private university-preparatory school

University-preparatory school

A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...

, Exeter is situated where the Exeter River

Exeter River

The Exeter River is a -long river located in Rockingham County in southeastern New Hampshire, the United States.It rises in the town of Chester, southeast of Manchester. It follows a winding course east and northeast to Exeter, where it becomes the Squamscott River, a tidal river leading north to...

 feeds the tidal Squamscott River

Squamscott River

The Squamscott River is a tidal river in Rockingham County, southeastern New Hampshire, in the United States. It rises at Exeter, fed by the Exeter River...

.

The urban portion of the town, where 9,242 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined by the U. S. Census Bureau as the Exeter census-designated place

Census-designated place

A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

.
The area was once the domain of the Squamscott Indians

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, a sub-tribe of the Pennacook

Pennacook

The Pennacook, also known by the names Merrimack and Pawtucket, were a North American people that primarily inhabited the Merrimack River valley of present-day New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as well as portions of southern Maine...

 nation, which fished at the falls where the Exeter River

Exeter River

The Exeter River is a -long river located in Rockingham County in southeastern New Hampshire, the United States.It rises in the town of Chester, southeast of Manchester. It follows a winding course east and northeast to Exeter, where it becomes the Squamscott River, a tidal river leading north to...

 becomes the tidal Squamscott

Squamscott River

The Squamscott River is a tidal river in Rockingham County, southeastern New Hampshire, in the United States. It rises at Exeter, fed by the Exeter River...

, the site around which the future town of Exeter would grow.