History of Manchester
According to Oxford University Press, Manchester derived its name from Mamucium, the Roman name for the 1st century-settlement and fort. Mamucium itself is a Latinised form of the Celtic meaning "breast-shaped hill".
Samuel Blodgett
In 1807, Blodgett built a canal around Amoskeag Falls to aid in navigation of ships traveling up and down the Merrimack River. In 1810, he pushed for the renaming of the small rural town of Derryfield, New Hampshire to Manchester, in honor of Manchester in England, a well-known textile-manufacturing center. The renaming of the town, at Blodgett's behest, coincided with the founding of the Amoskeag Mills by his friend and fellow industrialist Benjamin Prichard. The town would later be incorporated as a city and become the most populous city in the state of New Hampshire.