The New Hampshire Colony was the product of several English land grants in North America dating from 1623 to 1680, and for much of its colonial history was subject to the Massachusetts Colony and its leadership in Boston.

The colony's first settlements were at Little Harbor, Dover, Portsmouth and Exeter. The settlement at Exeter was founded in 1638 by John Wheelwright, a disciple of Anne Hutchinson. John Wheelwright was sent by John Mason, who wished to send settlers to create a fishing colony. 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.

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

External links

• New Hampshire Almanac - The Rise and Fall of Fast Day

Scholarly books on Colonial New Hampshire History

• 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)

History of New Hampshire | Thirteen Colonies | British North America

Provinsen New Hampshire