Bow is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 7,519 at the 2010 census.HistoryThe town was granted by the authorities of New Hampshire, to Jonathan Wiggin and others, in 1727, and was originally 9mi square, and covered nearly all the territory granted to Ebenezer Eastman and others, by the authorities of Massachusetts, two years previous, under the name of Pennacook (now Concord). Massachusetts claimed to hold authority over a large portion of the territory of New Hampshire for many years, till the final boundary line was established, in 1741, giving New Hampshire more territory than it had ever claimed. These complicated lines of the two towns coming from two different authorities, were not settled decisively till after the final separation of the two states. The government of New Hampshire gave Bow the preference in its grant of 1727, and did not recognize the title of the Pennacook grantees, and in the bill giving a charter for the parish of Concord, it was worded as "taking a part of the town of Bow," etc. Although Concord was granted and surveyed before Bow, its final organization was 38 years after it. Bow gained a victory over Concord in its original title; still it was obliged to yield over two-thirds of its territory to Concord, Pembroke and Hopkinton, establishing their final boundary lines at different times, from 1759 to 1765.The town's name comes from its establishment along a bend, or "bow", in the Merrimack River. The first census, taken in 1790, reported 568 residents.
