You probably picture the typical New England setup. A quiet village, a white steeple, and some somber-faced men in buckled shoes voting on how many pigs can run loose in the town square. It looks peaceful. It looks organized. Honestly, though? Government in colonial New Hampshire was a total disaster for decades. It wasn't some smooth, democratic experiment. It was a chaotic, multi-generational legal brawl between wealthy families, pissed-off settlers, and a British Crown that couldn't quite decide if New Hampshire should even exist as a separate place.
If you lived in Portsmouth in 1680, you weren't thinking about "democracy." You were probably wondering if the guy who just claimed to own your backyard—because of a piece of paper signed fifty years ago in London—was actually going to kick you off your land. New Hampshire was the only colony in New England that started as a proprietary venture (meaning someone owned it like a business) rather than a religious refuge like Massachusetts. That distinction changed everything about how the laws worked and who held the power.
The Masonian Mess: A Government Built on a Grudge
To understand why the government in colonial New Hampshire functioned the way it did, you have to know about John Mason. He’s the guy who named the place. He was an Englishman who got a huge land grant in 1629. The catch? He never actually set foot in the colony. He died in 1635, leaving a massive legal headache to his heirs.
For the next hundred years, the Mason family tried to collect rent from people who had already built houses and farms. Imagine building a house, living there for thirty years, and then someone from London shows up saying, "Hey, my grandpa owned this, so you owe me thirty years of back rent."
It didn't go over well.
This land dispute basically dictated the political parties of the era. You were either a "Masonian" or you were against them. Because the courts were often packed with people who had an interest in the outcome, the "government" was less about justice and more about protecting your property from a guy 3,000 miles away. This tension is why New Hampshire kept oscillating between being its own province and being swallowed up by Massachusetts. In fact, Massachusetts ran the show from 1641 to 1679. People in New Hampshire actually liked that better for a while because it provided some stability against the Mason family claims.
The Royal Governor: Power from Across the Ocean
When the King finally decided New Hampshire should be a "Royal Province" in 1679, he sent over a commissioned governor. This was a big deal. Unlike Connecticut or Rhode Island, where the people elected their own governors, New Hampshire’s big boss was picked by the King.
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The Governor had some serious muscle. He could:
- Veto any law the local assembly passed.
- Dissolve the assembly whenever he got annoyed with them.
- Appoint all the judges and sheriffs.
But there was a massive loophole. The King appointed the Governor, but the King didn't pay him. The local assembly did. You can see the problem here, right? If the Governor didn't play ball with the local elites, the assembly would simply refuse to pass a tax bill to pay his salary. It was a constant game of political chicken.
The Assembly and the Town Meeting: Real Power at the Grassroots
While the Governor sat in Portsmouth looking fancy, the actual government in colonial New Hampshire happened in the meeting houses. This is where things get interesting. New Hampshire adopted the "Town Meeting" style of governance, which is still a thing today.
Once a year, all the "freemen" (mostly white, property-owning men) would gather. They didn't just talk; they decided everything. They'd vote on where to build a road. They’d decide who the "hogreeve" was (the guy who dealt with stray pigs). They’d elect a board of "Selectmen" to handle the day-to-day business for the rest of the year.
It was raw, direct democracy. But don't mistake it for modern equality. If you weren't a member of the church or didn't own land, you were basically a spectator. Also, the "Assembly"—the lower house of the provincial legislature—was made up of representatives from these towns. These guys were often the loudest voices against the Royal Governor. They used their "power of the purse" to keep the British authorities in check.
The Wentworth Dynasty: A Family Business
If you look at the names of towns and streets in New Hampshire, you see "Wentworth" everywhere. There’s a reason for that. From 1717 to 1775, the Wentworth family basically ran the government in colonial New Hampshire like a family-owned corporation.
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Benning Wentworth was the most famous of the bunch. He was the Governor from 1741 to 1766. He was incredibly savvy and, honestly, a bit corrupt. He started granting land for new towns left and right—mostly in what is now Vermont. For every town he chartered, he made sure to set aside a nice chunk of land (usually about 500 acres) for himself. By the time he was done, he was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies.
The Wentworths kept the peace by making sure all their friends and relatives had jobs in the government. This "Old Guard" in Portsmouth created a high-society culture that felt very British. They wore the best silks, drank the best wine, and lived in huge mansions like the Governor John Langdon House. But out in the woods, the farmers were getting tired of the Portsmouth elite telling them what to do.
Laws, Taxes, and Pine Trees: The Weird Stuff
Government wasn't just about high-level politics; it was about resources. Specifically, trees. The British Navy needed masts for its ships. The biggest, straightest white pines were designated as "The King's Broad Arrow" trees.
It was literally illegal to cut down a big tree on your own land if the King's surveyor had marked it with an arrow.
The government in colonial New Hampshire spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to enforce this. They’d send out "Surveyors of the King's Woods" to fine people. In 1772, this led to the "Pine Tree Riot" in Weare, NH. A group of settlers beat up a sheriff and his deputy for trying to enforce the tree laws. It was a precursor to the Boston Tea Party, but with timber instead of tea. It showed that the "official" government was losing its grip on the people living on the frontier.
The Shift Toward Revolution
By the 1760s, the system was breaking down. The British Parliament started passing acts (like the Stamp Act) that bypassed the local New Hampshire assembly. This was the ultimate insult. For decades, the assembly had used its power to tax as its only leverage against the Royal Governor. When London took that away, the assembly had no reason to cooperate anymore.
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The Governor at the time, John Wentworth (Benning’s nephew), was actually a pretty decent guy who loved New Hampshire. He founded Dartmouth College and built the first real roads. But he was loyal to the King. When the Revolution started, he had to flee Portsmouth on a British warship.
In January 1776, New Hampshire did something incredibly bold. It became the first colony to establish a formal constitution and a government independent of Great Britain. They didn't even wait for the Declaration of Independence. They were just... done. They set up a "Council" and a "House of Representatives" and started running their own show.
How to Explore This History Today
If you want to actually see how the government in colonial New Hampshire operated, don't just read a book. Go to the places where it happened.
- Strawbery Banke Museum (Portsmouth): You can walk through the actual neighborhood where the wealthy merchants and government officials lived. It’s the best way to feel the "Royal" side of the colony.
- The Ladd-Gilman House (Exeter): When the Revolution started, the rebels moved the capital from Portsmouth (which was too pro-British) to Exeter. This house was the state treasury.
- Town Meeting Day: Go to a small town in New Hampshire on the second Tuesday in March. It is the closest thing to 17th-century government you can find in the modern world. You’ll see neighbors arguing over bridge repairs and school budgets just like they did in 1720.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you're researching this or just curious about how colonial power worked, keep these three things in mind:
- Follow the Land Titles: The "government" was essentially a land-office for the first 50 years. If you find a weird property line in New Hampshire today, there’s a decent chance it dates back to a Masonian dispute or a Wentworth grant.
- Look at the Religion/State Divide: Unlike Massachusetts, New Hampshire was "less" obsessed with theocracy. This made it a haven for people who found the Puritans too intense, which shaped a more pragmatic, business-focused government.
- Check the Archives: The New Hampshire State Archives in Concord hold the original "Provincial Papers." If you want the raw truth, look at the court records from the 1700s. You’ll see that the government spent about 80% of its time dealing with lawsuits over wandering cows and "slanderous words" spoken at the tavern.
The government in colonial New Hampshire wasn't a monolith. It was a messy, loud, often corrupt, but ultimately functional system that taught people how to govern themselves—mostly by giving them someone to rebel against.
Primary Sources and References:
- Bouton, Nathaniel. "Provincial Papers: Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire."
- Clark, Charles E. "The Eastern Frontier: The Settlement of Northern New England."
- Daniell, Jere. "Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution."