As early as 1749, Benning Wentworth, New Hampshire's governor, was selling land grants in the area west of the Connecticut River, to which New Hampshire had always laid somewhat dubious claim.
Lebanon was chartered as a town by Colonial Governor Benning Wentworth on July 4, 1761, one of 16 along the Connecticut River.
Fort Benning | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | John Wentworth | Thomas Wentworth | Wentworth Woodhouse | Wentworth | Thomas Wentworth Higginson | Wentworth Miller | John Wentworth (governor) | William Wentworth | Benning Wentworth | William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford | Wentworth Estate | Charles Wentworth Dilke | Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham | Wentworth's Location, New Hampshire | Stephen G. Wentworth | John Wentworth (mayor) | William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam | William Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 6th Earl FitzWilliam | William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 6th Earl Fitzwilliam | Wentworth (UK Parliament constituency) | Wentworth's Location | Wentworth Club | Wentworth Castle | Wentworth Beaumont, 1st Baron Allendale | Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth | Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham | Thomas Watson-Wentworth | Mungo Wentworth MacCallum |
It would be set off and incorporated in 1802 as "Milton", the name either a contraction of "mill town", or else derived from a relative of the Wentworth colonial governors -- William Fitzwilliam, Earl Fitzwilliam and Viscount Milton.
When the border between Massachusetts and the Province of New Hampshire was fixed (with Number 2 on the New Hampshire side), the town was regranted in 1752 by Governor Benning Wentworth as Westmoreland, named for John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland.