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NOTE 5. New Hampshire Breaks Free

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Volume 2, Chapter 5, New Hampshire Breaks Free

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Conflicts over land grants and claims and over corollary governmental jurisdiction were

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important sources of inter-colonial conflict in 18th century New England. Massachusetts

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laid claim to the bulk of New Hampshire, and the General Court handed out arbitrary grants

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to New Hampshire Land. Furthermore, the Massachusetts towns insisted on claiming tax revenue from

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their junior New Hampshire neighbors. Massachusetts encroachment on New Hampshire was facilitated

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by their having a common governor, and by the 1730s, Governor Jonathan Belcher, a wealthy

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Boston merchant, was heading the Massachusetts party in alliance with Secretary Richard

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Waldron III and the oligarchs of the New Hampshire Council.

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The popular opposition to Massachusetts in New Hampshire was led by Lieutenant Governor

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John Wentworth and then by his son Benning, also a powerful merchant.

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The opposition shepherded the New Hampshire legislature into making conflicting land grants

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of its own.

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To secure the favor of the Crown, the New Hampshire General Court voted the governor

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a fixed salary, thus going beyond Massachusetts.

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Influenced by this good conduct, in addition to bribe money spread where it could help,

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by the importance of New Hampshire's ship mass, and by the perennial troublesomeness

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of Massachusetts, the English Privy Council finally decided in 1737 on a boundary in favor

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of New Hampshire By 1741, New Hampshire was assured of approximately

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its present dimensions. Massachusetts conspired to revive the old Mason claim to proprietorship

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to New Hampshire. Not only did this fail, but Britain in disgust removed Belcher from

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his post and ended the system of joint governorship, which threatened to keep New Hampshire under

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The Leader of the Popular Opposition, Benning Wentworth, now became full governor of New

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Hampshire in 1741, and Massachusetts received a royal governor of its own.

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Freed from the burden of this struggle, New Hampshire flourished and grew apace.

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At his inauguration, Governor Wentworth prophetically hailed the final separation of the two colonies

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as an event which will be a lasting advantage, will be a means of replenishing your towns

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with people, of extending and enlarging your commerce.

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With New Hampshire secure from Massachusetts aggression, Governor Wentworth decided to

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safeguard the newly decided-upon western part of the colony, now Vermont, for his control

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by parseling out huge land grants to that unsettled region, known as the New Hampshire

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Grants. Here, Wentworth was worried about New York's old claims to jurisdiction over

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this territory. Wentworth, it should be noted, took good care to assign himself a fee of

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five hundred acres in each newly designated township. Fortunately, no feudalistic proprietary

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Utilistic proprietary was sustained, as the grantees quickly divided and sold the land.

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An annual quick rent of one shilling per hundred acres was demanded by the grantees, but they

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typically found it impossible to collect.

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With settlement rapidly developing, the period of transfer of land holdings from grantees

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to actual settlers fortunately tended to be brief.

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New York, however, continued to make its claim and to hand out conflicting Western New Hampshire

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grants of its own. Governor Wentworth began the grants in 1749 by creating the town of

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Bennington and by the 1760s was founding many towns per year, 63 in 1761 alone. Here, considerable

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All absentee speculation served as wholesale and jobber intermediaries before the land

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developed fairly rapidly upon the settlers.

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In making the grants, incidentally, Wentworth did not neglect his own family.

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At least a dozen Wentworths received handsome gifts, as did many leading citizens of New

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New Hampshire and New England