History of New Hampshire

Founding: 1600-1775

The colony that became the state of New Hampshire was founded on a land grant given in 1622 by the Council for New England to Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges (who founded Maine). It was first settled at Odiorne's Point in Rye (near Portsmouth) by a group of fishermen from England under David Thompson in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The settlers built a fort, manor house and other buildings, some for fish processing, on Flake Hill. They called the settlement Pannaway Plantation. The first native Newhampshireman, John Thompson, was born there. New Hampshire was one of the original 13 colonies.

David Thompson had been sent by Mason, to be followed a few years later by Edward and William Hilton. They led an expedition to the vicinity of Dover, which they called Northam. Mason died in 1635 without ever seeing the colony he founded. Settlers from Pannaway, moving to the Portsmouth region later and combining with an expedition of the new Laconia Company (formed 1629) under Captain Neal, called their new settlement Strawbery Banke. In 1638 Exeter was founded by John Wheelright.

File:Damm Garrison, Dover, NH.jpg

The William Damm Garrison house, built 1675

In 1631, Captain Thomas Wiggin served as the first governor of the Upper Plantation (comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham). All the towns agreed to unite in 1639, but meanwhile Massachusetts had claimed the territory. In 1641 an agreement was reached with Massachusetts to come under its jurisdication. Home rule of the towns was allowed. In 1653 Strawbery Bank petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to change its name to Portsmouth, which was granted.

The relationship between Massachusetts and the independent Newhampshiremen was controversial and tenuous. In 1679 the king separated them and Upper Plantation became the "Royal Province" with John Cutt as governor. They were reunited in 1686 and redivided in 1691. The "Royal Province" continued until 1698 when it came once more under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts with Joseph Dudley as Governor. In 1741 New Hampshire returned to its royal provincial status with a governor of its own, Benning Wentworth, who was its governor from 1741 to 1766. See also: Province of New Hampshire

Revolution: 1775-1815

Fort William and Mary in 1705

New Hampshire was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to declare its independence, and the historic attack on Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) helped supply the cannon and ammunition needed for the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place north of Boston a few months later. New Hampshire would raise three regiments for the Continental Army, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd New Hampshire regiments. New Hampshire Militia units would be called up to fight at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Bennington, Saratoga Campaign and the Battle of Rhode Island. John Paul Jones' ship the Sloop-of-war USS Ranger and the frigate USS Raleigh were built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire along with other naval ships for the Continental Navy and Privateers to hunt down British merchant shipping.

On January 5, 1776, the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution in the soon-to-be United States, six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Industrialization and Politics: 1815-1860

Map of the Republic of Indian Stream

In the 1830s, New Hampshire saw two major news stories: the founding of the Republic of Indian Stream on its northern border with Canada over the unresolved post-revolutionary war border issue

Abolitionist sentiment was a strong undercurrent in the state, with significant support given the Free Soil party of John P. Hale. However the conservative Jacksonian Democrats usually maintained control, under the leadership of editor Isaac Hill. In 1856 the new Republican Party headed by Amos Tuck produced a political revolution.

Prosperity, Depression and War: 1920-1950

The textile industry was hard hit by the depression and growing competition from southern mills. The closing of the Amoskeag Mills in 1935 was a major blow to Manchester, as was the closing of the former Nashua Manufacturing Corp. mill in Nashua in 1949.

Modern New Hampshire: 1950-Present

The post-World War II decades have seen New Hampshire increase its economic and cultural links with the greater Boston, Massachusetts region. This reflects a national trend, in which improved highway networks have helped metropolitan areas expand into formerly rural areas or small nearby cities.

The replacement of the Nashua textile mill with defense electronics contractor Sanders Associates in 1952 and the arrival of minicomputer giant Digital Equipment Corporation in the early 1970s helped lead the way toward southern New Hampshire's role as a high-tech adjunct of the Route 128 corridor.

The post-War years saw the rise of New Hampshire's political primary for President of the United States, which as the first primary in the quadrennial campaign season draws enormous attention.

See also

• Southern boundary of New Hampshire

Resources

• online books
• A Very Grave Matter

Scholarly books on New Hampshire History

• Adams, James Truslow. The Founding of New England (1921)
• Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776 (1923)
• Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776-1850 (1926)
• Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history
• Belknap, Jeremy. The History of New Hampshire (1791-1792) 3 vol classic
• Black, John D. The rural economy of New England: a regional study (1950
• Brereton Charles. First in the Nation: New Hampshire and the Premier Presidential Primary. Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall Publishers, 1987.
• Bidwell, P. W. and John Falconer, The History of Agriculture in the Northern United States to 1860 (1925)
• Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926).
• Cash Kevin. Who the Hell Is William Loeb? Manchester, NH: Amoskeag Press, 1975.
• Cole, Donald B. Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 1800-1851 (1970).
• Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001)
• Daniell, Jere. Experiment in Republicanism (1970), colonial political history
• Daniell, Jere. Colonial New Hampshire: A History (1982).
• Dwight, Timothy. Travels Through New England and New York (circa 1800) 4 vol. (1969) Online at: vol 1; vol 2; vol 3; vol 4
• Hall, Donald, ed. Encyclopedia of New England (2005), hundreds of long articles by scholars
• Hareven, Tamara. Family Time and Industrial Time (1982), social history of workers at Amoskeag Mills in Manchester
• Jager, Ronald and Grace Jager. The Granite State New Hampshire: An Illustrated History (2000)
• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998), new social history*
• McPhetres, S. A. A political manual for the campaign of 1868, for use in the New England states, containing the population and latest election returns of every town (1868)
• Morison, Elizabeth Forbes and Elting E. Morison. New Hampshire: A Bicentennial History (1976)
• Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England (5 vol 1859-90)
• Palmer, Niall A. The New Hampshire Primary and the American Electoral Process (1997)
• Renda, Lex. Running on the Record: Civil War Era Politics in New Hampshire (1997)
• Richardson, Leon Burr. William E. Chandler, Republican (1940), late 19th century politics
• Scala, Dante J. Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics (2003)
• Squires, J. Duane. The Granite State of the United States: A History of New Hampshire from 1623 to the Present (1956) vol 1
• Turner, Lynn Warren.The Ninth State: New Hampshire's Formative Years (1983)
• Upton, Richard Francis. Revolutionary New Hampshire: An Account of the Social and Political Forces Underlying the Transition from Royal Province to American Commonwealth (1936)
• Wilson, H. F. The Hill Country of Northern New England: Its Social and Economic History, 1790-1930 (1936)
• Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906-1916 (1987)
• WPA. Guide to New Hampshire (1939)
• Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999)