In 1777, the state legislature passed an Act for the Regulation of the Town of Hillsborough, which included that every household have two buckets and one ladder, and keep them “in continual readiest” in case of fire.

This pre-dates by decades the 1848 references in town minutes to fire equipment. See that history here, by Legeros. 

What other gems can be found in the old session laws, pertaining to own towns and their fire companies or fire departments? 

Tool over to Mike’s page on historical fire laws, to see what the’s lately found, with excepts added going farther back in time, now the 1740s forward: