Benning Wentworth

Portrait of Benning Wentworth from 1760 by Joseph Blackburn

Signature of Benning Wentworth

Benning Wentworth (born July 24, 1696 in Portsmouth (New Hampshire) , † October 14, 1770 ibid) was the colonial governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766.

Life

As the eldest of 14 children of Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth , he was great-grandson of Elder William Wentwort of the United Methodist Church . Under his father, the family rose to become one of the colony's prominent political trading families.

Benning Wentworth graduated from Harvard College in 1715 . He was a trader in Portsmouth, importing wines from Spain and exporting wood from the forests of New Hampshire in return. He also represented the town to the government. He was appointed to the royal council on October 12, 1734.

New Hampshire Governor

He assumed the office of the first governor of New Hampshire in 1741. Years earlier, his father had lobbied colonial officials to establish a separate governor for New Hampshire. Until then, New Hampshire was under the supervision of the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay . Jonathan Belcher , then governor of both provinces, had issued many land grants in disputed areas west of the Merrimack River during his tenure . This created tension with the governor of Massachusetts. The dispute eventually reached George II August and the government decided to separate the two governors in the late 1730s.

At the time, Wentworth was in London dealing with a personal financial crisis. After a shipment of wood was delivered to Spain , payment for the delivery was pending as no payment was made due to difficult diplomatic relations. In order to be able to pay his own creditors, Wentworth had to borrow money and tried to secure the payments from Spain in London. Since diplomatic moves were unsuccessful, the War of Jenkins' Ear began in 1739 as a result of these disputes, Wentworth was bankrupt. In bankruptcy proceedings, he claimed the UK government owed him £ 11,000 for the Spanish failure to pay. His London creditors agreed to forego immediate debt repayment if the government offered him the office of governor of New Hampshire. On the condition that Wentworth gives up his claim against the government, he was given the office.

Confirmation of office was given in June 1741. He was later referred to as the king's surveyor . On December 13, 1741, Wentworth took office.

The Wentworth-Coolidge mansion

Wentworth was authorized by the Crown to grant grants on uninhabited land. He began doing so in southern Vermont in 1749 . He also enriched himself personally through a regulation on the sale of land to land developers, despite the claims that the province of New York had on the region. He named new townships after famous contemporaries in order to find support for his company. An example is the Rutland parish according to John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland . He named 129 towns within 15 years. He named Bennington after himself. In each of these grants he paid tribute to the Church of England and himself. Ultimately, this settlement of the New Hampshire Grants led to a dispute between New York, Massachusetts and the settlers in Vermont. The dispute was only resolved when Vermont became a state in 1791.

The construction of Fort Wentworth near Northumberland, New Hampshire , named after himself, he started in 1755. Wentworth occupied important government positions with relatives. He also equipped them extensively with lands. Businessmen and residents alike became increasingly angry at these practices. They accused his government of corruption, high taxes, mismanagement and neglecting the timber trade in the interests of the crown and forced his resignation in 1767.

Wentworth later donated 500 acres to Dartmouth College for the construction of the buildings. His nephew John Wentworth succeeded him as governor.

family

Study in Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion

In 1719 he married Abigail Ruck in Boston. They had three children together, none of whom survived their father. Abigail Wentworth died on November 8, 1755.

At the age of 64 in 1760, Wentworth married his much younger housekeeper Martha Hilton. This marriage was a considerable scandal at the time. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Lady Wentworth about Martha Wentworth. She was the only heir to her husband's large property after his death.

literature

• Swift, Esther Munroe (1977). Vermont Place Names: Footprints of History. Stephen Green Press. ISBN 0-8289-0291-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Clark, Charles. The Eastern Frontier . New York: Knopf, 1970. p. 301
2. ↑ Harvard Magazine on Benning Wentworth , accessed June 8, 2014.

Web links

• Harvard Magazine accessed June 8, 2014.