For thousands of years prior to European colonization, the area was inhabited by Pennacook Abenaki villagers.

The location was originally known as "M'Squamskook", meaning "Falls at the Place of the Salmon" in Abenaki language, and would later become known as "Squamscott".

[5] On April 3, 1638, John Wheelwright, a clergyman exiled from the Puritan theocracy Massachusetts Bay Colony, purchased the land from Wehanownowit, the sagamore.

[7] The settlers hunted, planted and fished, raised cattle and swine, or made shakes (shingles) and barrel staves.

Thomas Wilson established the town's first grist mill on the eastern side of the island[clarification needed] in the lower falls.

Gilman was lost at sea in 1653 while traveling to England to purchase equipment for his mills,[11] but his family later became prominent as lumbermen, shipbuilders, merchants, and statesmen.

Enforcing a blockade against the French, Nelson offered ship Captain Stephen Gilman of Exeter a glass of wine and paid him for his cargo in Spanish dollars.

Reverend Thomas Paul of the African Meeting House in Boston was born in Exeter near this time, and later in 1822, abolitionist poet James Monroe Whitfield, a nephew of Jude Hall.

In the late 1800s, two men had two dry-goods stores on Water Street, John Garrison Cutler and George Harris, who both had very high net worths at the time.

[citation needed] In 1827, the Exeter Manufacturing Company was established beside the river, using water power to produce cotton textiles.

Other businesses manufactured shoes, saddles, harnesses, lumber, boxes, bricks, carriages, and bicycles.

[24] According to former governor Hugh Gregg, the United States Republican Party was born in Exeter on October 12, 1853, at the Squamscott Hotel at a secret meeting of Amos Tuck with other abolitionists.

Upon learning of Tuck's meeting, in December 1853, Horace Greeley said, "I think 'Republican' would be the best name, it will sound both Jeffersonian and Madisonian, and for that reason will take well.

[5]In 1922, it was affected by the 1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the town over an attempted wage cut and hours increase.

Their sighting attracted national publicity and became the focus of a bestselling book, Incident at Exeter, by journalist John G. Fuller.

The Old Public Library of 1894, which now is home to the Exeter Historical Society, was designed by the Boston firm of Rotch & Tilden.

[citation needed] Other features of the town include the Swasey Parkway, which replaced the wharves and warehouses along the Squamscott River, and the Ioka Theatre of 1915 on Water Street.

Exeter's highest point is 250 feet (76 m) above sea level, on Great Hill at the town's southwestern corner.

[29] In 2005, the small herring-like alewife fish was present in the Exeter River, though its numbers were fewer than in previous years.

[33] A 2017 town survey found that most human-planted trees in the urban areas of Exeter are broadleaf deciduous.

[38] Exeter is located in New Hampshire's 1st congressional district, represented by Democrat Chris Pappas (D-Manchester).

Rockingham 11 is a district with four seats covering just the town of Exeter; it is currently represented by four Democrats: Julie D. Gilman, Gaby M. Grossman, Linda J. Haskins, and Mark Paige.

Exeter also shares Rockingham 33, a single-member district, with the several other nearby towns; it is represented by Democrat Alexis H. Simpson (D-Exeter).

[41] The Amtrak Downeaster stops at Exeter, providing passenger rail service to Portland and Boston.