The main village in town, where 3,738 people resided at the 2020 census,[3] is defined as the Raymond census-designated place (CDP), and is located along the Lamprey River near New Hampshire Route 27.

The town was first settled by families from Exeter as a parish of Chester, and known as "Freetown" because it was exempt from the usual obligation of reserving its tall pine trees for masts in the Royal Navy.

The earlier theory, stated by Joseph Fullonton in his History of Raymond, published 1875, is that the name was chosen as "a new and classical one".

Fullonton relates that the original name of Freetown "arose from the ship timber business" where the king claimed the best trees.

"[4] In a second theory, the town was named for Captain William Rayment, or Raymond, of Beverly, Massachusetts, who had raised a company of soldiers to fight in the war against Canada in 1690.

Originally called "Raymondtown Plantation", it today composes the Maine towns of Raymond, Casco and part of Naples.

However, freight and passenger trains still originated in Concord and traveled south on the New Hampshire Division Main Line before entering the Portsmouth Branch at Manchester.

A large gravel pit located near Onway Lake was a busy railroad customer until closing in 1971, as was the Regis Tannery downtown until a fire the same year.

There were no regular rail customers in Raymond from 1971 until 1976, when Rehrig Pacific opened a plastics injection plant near Route 102.