From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 274:
KEY TO THE OLD ROCKINGHAM MEETING HOUSE SOLD AT AUCTION–TOWN PAUPERS SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDERS
The early records of the town of Rockingham carry many interesting indications of the quaint and primitive conditions of those early years.
At the annual town meeting in March, 1803, the key to the meeting house, which had been built in 1787 and is still standing, was put up at auction and struck off to the lowest bidder. James Marsh bid it off for the sum of $2.50 for the year. By the terms of the bid he gave bonds to unlock and lock the house every Sunday morning and evening, and at all other public meetings, at all times, on a penalty of four cents for every neglect of duty. He also agreed to sweep the house four times a year, that is during the first week in every three months and for every failure in sweeping he was to forfeit the sum of 50 cents. It is not to be supposed that $2.50 was considered as sufficient to pay for the services rendered by Mr. Marsh, but the honor of the thing was a consideration then, as now, to the office holder. It was no small trust, that of having charge of the key of both the town house and the house of God, and if the people had not at that day considered the office of sweeper of some immportance, it would not have been necessary to have required bonds for the faithful discharge of the duty.
In the year 1791 occurred the first sale of a white woman at public auction, a practice which was kept up by the town for many years thereafter, the records showing sales, who the paupers were, and to whom they were sold. In that year Mrs. Burr, a town pauper, was [275] sold at public vendue. She was bought by Capt. John Roundy. She was "bid off at five shillings per week, to be paid in wheat at five shillings per bushel. People at this day will perhaps be at a loss to understand this traffic in human flesh. It was not a sale like those made at the slave markets of the South and yet it was an inhuman practice now done away with. The poor of the different towns were put up at auction and the persons who bid to take care of them the cheapest were called the purchasers for the coming year. Thus John Roundy received one bushel of wheat per week for taking care of, feeding and clothing' Mrs. Burr. A few of the smaller towns in Vermont and some other states, have kept up this practice until within the last 40 or 50 years. In several instances during those early years there were cases of greed which caused the parties who had bid off the paupers not to furnish proper food and clothing so that suffering occurred, and one notable instance during the last years of the practice occurred when it was said that a woman who had been "sold" was actually starved to death, not in Rockingham, however.