New Hampshire Colony Government: Why It Was Way More Complicated Than You Think

Most people think of the early American colonies as these neat, little autonomous units where everyone just agreed on how to run things. That really wasn't the case. If you look at the New Hampshire colony government, it was actually a total mess for a long time. It was basically the "problem child" of New England, constantly being fought over by wealthy landowners, religious zealots from Massachusetts, and the British Crown. It didn’t start with a clean charter or a grand vision. It started as a business venture that failed, leading to decades of legal limbo.

You’ve probably heard of the Mayflower Compact or the strict Puritan laws of Boston. New Hampshire was different. It was founded by John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who were basically trying to set up a feudal land system in the woods. They never even set foot in the colony. Because there was no strong central authority at first, the early settlements like Portsmouth and Dover just kind of did their own thing. It was chaotic.

The Messy Origins of New Hampshire Colony Government

To understand how they governed, you have to understand that New Hampshire wasn't even its own thing for a huge chunk of history. Between 1641 and 1679, it was absorbed by Massachusetts. Why? Because the local settlements couldn't agree on anything and were terrified of attacks from indigenous tribes or internal bickering. Massachusetts had the soldiers and the laws, so New Hampshire just sort of tagged along.

But here is where it gets interesting. Even when they were under Massachusetts' thumb, the New Hampshire colony government maintained a weirdly independent streak. The people living there weren't all strict Puritans. Many were fishermen, traders, and loggers who just wanted to be left alone to make money. This created a permanent tension between the "pious" laws coming out of Boston and the "profit" mindset in Strawberry Banke (which we now call Portsmouth).

The Royal Turn in 1679

Everything changed when King Charles II decided he wanted more direct control over the colonies. He looked at the vast timber resources in New Hampshire—specifically the massive white pines used for Royal Navy masts—and decided he didn't want Massachusetts controlling it anymore. In 1679, he issued a commission that officially separated New Hampshire and turned it into a Royal Province.

This introduced a "tripartite" system. Basically, you had three moving parts:

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1. A Governor (appointed by the King).
2. A Council (also appointed by the King, acting like an upper house).
3. An Assembly (elected by the property-owning men in the towns).

The Governor had the "power of the sword," but the Assembly had the "power of the purse." If the Governor wanted a salary or money for a war, he had to beg the Assembly for it. This led to decades of political gridlock. It wasn't democracy as we know it, but it was the beginning of the "Live Free or Die" spirit. They were stubborn. They were cheap. They hated being told what to do by a guy sent over from London who didn't understand how cold a New England winter actually was.

Who Actually Ran the Show?

It’s easy to say "the King ran it," but that’s a lie. The King was 3,000 miles away. Communication took months. In reality, the New Hampshire colony government was run by a small group of elite families, often called the "Portsmouth Oligarchy."

If your last name was Wentworth, you were basically royalty. Benning Wentworth served as governor for 25 years. That’s a crazy long time for a colonial official. He used his power to grant land to his friends and family, creating a network of loyalty that bypassed the needs of the average farmer. This is a side of colonial history people rarely talk about—the blatant nepotism. Wentworth would create new towns and give himself a 500-acre "share" in every single one of them. By the time he was done, he was one of the richest men in America.

But don't think the "commoners" just sat there and took it. The local town meetings were the real heart of the government. This is a tradition that still exists in New Hampshire today. Once a year, the men of the town would gather to vote on everything from fixing a bridge to how much to pay the local minister. It was direct democracy at its most raw and sometimes its most violent.

The Masonian Proprietary Claim: A Legal Nightmare

Imagine living on a farm for 40 years, building a house, and raising a family, only for some guy to show up and say, "Actually, my great-grandfather bought this whole province in 1622, so you owe me rent." That was the reality for people under the New Hampshire colony government.

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The heirs of John Mason spent nearly a century trying to reclaim their "property." This made the government incredibly unstable. No one knew if their land titles were actually valid. At one point, a guy named Samuel Allen bought the claim and tried to evict half the colony. The local courts—which were staffed by the very people he was trying to evict—basically told him to get lost. It was a massive conflict of interest, but it worked.

Laws and Punishments

Government wasn't just about land; it was about behavior. New Hampshire’s legal code was a bit more relaxed than Massachusetts, but it was still harsh by our standards.

• You could be fined for skipping church.
• "Idleness" was a punishable offense.
• Using "profane language" could get you put in the stocks.
• Theft often resulted in public whippings.

Interestingly, they struggled to enforce these laws in the frontier towns. While the government in Portsmouth was trying to look sophisticated and British, the folks out in the woods were living a completely different life. They didn't care about the King's masts or the Council's decrees.

The Road to Revolution

By the 1760s, the New Hampshire colony government was starting to fracture. The "Benning Wentworth era" of stability was over, and his nephew, John Wentworth, took over. John was actually a pretty good guy—he built roads and founded Dartmouth College—but he was stuck in an impossible position. He was loyal to the Crown, but his neighbors were starting to talk about liberty.

When the British passed the Stamp Act, New Hampshire didn't just write letters. They rioted. They forced the stamp master to resign. The government essentially stopped functioning because the Assembly refused to cooperate with the Governor.

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The breaking point came in December 1774, months before Lexington and Concord. Local patriots heard the British were coming to secure gunpowder at Fort William and Mary in New Castle. They didn't wait. They stormed the fort, overpowered the tiny British garrison, and stole the powder. This was an act of high treason against the very government they were technically part of. Governor Wentworth eventually had to flee to a British warship in Portsmouth Harbor, and just like that, the colonial government was dead.

What Most People Get Wrong

The biggest misconception is that the New Hampshire colony government was a cohesive, well-oiled machine. It wasn't. It was a 150-year-long argument. It was a tug-of-war between the elite merchants on the coast and the rugged farmers in the interior. It was a fight between those who wanted to be part of Massachusetts and those who wanted to be independent.

Actually, New Hampshire was the first colony to establish its own independent government and constitution in January 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence. They were done with the King long before the rest of the country was ready to admit it.

Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Researchers

If you're looking to dig deeper into the actual mechanics of how these people lived and governed, you shouldn't just read textbooks. You need to look at the primary sources.

• Visit the New Hampshire State Archives: They hold the original "Provincial Papers." Seeing the actual handwritten minutes of the Assembly gives you a sense of how petty and personal these political fights were.
• Explore the Strawbery Banke Museum: Located in Portsmouth, this is where the elite of the New Hampshire colony government actually lived. You can see the disparity between the Governor's lifestyle and the people he ruled.
• Study the Town Meeting Minutes: Most NH towns have records going back to the 1700s. Look for the "warrants." They show exactly what the common people cared about—usually stray pigs and fence heights—rather than the grand geopolitics of the British Empire.
• Trace the White Pine Acts: Look into the "Mast Tree Riot" of 1772 in Weare, NH. It’s a perfect case study of how the government's attempt to enforce British law (claiming all big trees for the King) led directly to the revolution.

The story of New Hampshire's government is really a story about the transition from being "subjects" to being "citizens." It was messy, corrupt, and confusing, but it laid the groundwork for the constitutional republic we have today. Focusing on the friction between the Royal Governors and the local assemblies is the best way to understand why the American Revolution was inevitable in the North.