Province of New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Colony, located in the present day state of New Hampshire, was the product of several English land grants dating from 1623 to 1680. One land grant was given to Captain John Mason in 1623. For much of its history the colony was controlled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony based in Boston.
The colony's first settlements were at Little Harbor, Dover, Portsmouth and Exeter. David Thomson, Edward Hilton, and Thomas Hilton were sent by John Mason, who wished to send settlers to create a fishing colony. They established the cities of Dover and Little Harbor. The settlement at Exeter was founded in 1638 by John Wheelwright, a disciple of Anne Hutchinson. These towns agreed to unite in 1639 and in 1641 agreed to join the Massachusetts Colony.
On January 1, 1680, New Hampshire was separated from the Massachusetts Colony, becoming a royal colony with a separate government. It was reunited with Massachusetts again in 1688, and separated out one last time in 1691, at which point it became the royal Province of New Hampshire. The name is likely linked to the county of Hampshire in southern England.
Although New Hampshire did not get its own colonial governor until 1741, in 1631 Captain Thomas Wiggin served as the first governor of the province of the Upper Plantation of New Hampshire, comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham, which ultimately became the royal Province of New Hampshire.
The disputed New Hampshire Grants territory (New Hampshire claimed it, a judge awarded it to New York) later became the state of Vermont.
See also
- List of Colonial Governors of New Hampshire
- New Hampshire
- New Hampshire Militia
- New Hampshire Provincial Regiment
- Southern boundary of New Hampshire
External links
Bibliography
- Belknap, Jeremy. The History of New Hampshire (1791-1792) 3 vol classic history
- Daniell, Jere. Colonial New Hampshire: A History (1982).
- Morison, Elizabeth Forbes and Elting E. Morison. New Hampshire: A Bicentennial History (1976)
- Squires, J. Duane. The Granite State of the United States: A History of New Hampshire from 1623 to the Present (1956)
