History.—Martin Pring was at the mouth of the Piscataqua in 1603 and, returning to England in the same year, gave an ac count of the New England coast from Casco bay to Cape Cod bay. Samuel de Champlain discovered the Isles of Shoals and sailed along the New Hampshire coast in 1605, and much more informa tion concerning this part of the New World was gathered in 1614 by Capt. John Smith, who in his Description of New England refers to the convenient harbour at the mouth of the Piscataqua and praises the country back from the rocky shore. Under the leadership of Sir Ferdinando Gorges there was formed in 1620 the Council for New England, which procured from King James I. a grant of all the country from sea to sea between 40° and 48° N. lat., and which made nine grants bearing upon the history of New Hampshire. The first of these grants was to John Mason, who has been called "the founder of New Hampshire," on March 9, 1622. The name New Hampshire was first applied to a grant which lay between the Merrimac and Piscataqua, and given to John Mason on Nov. 7, 1629. The first settlement of which there is indisputable evidence was established in 1623 by David Thom son at Little Harbor, now in the town of Rye. Thomson was the head of a company which was organized for fishing and trading and whose entire stock was to be held jointly for five years. He built a house on Odiorne's Point overlooking Little Harbor, and, although he removed to an island in Boston Harbor in 1626, he may have continued to superintend the business of the company until the expiration of the five-year term. At least there was a settlement here which was assessed in 1628, and it may not have been completely abandoned when colonists sent over by the Laconia Company, which had received a grant on Nov. 17, 1629, arrived in 1630. The Laconia Company received its first grant under the erroneous impression that the Piscataqua river had its source in or near Lake Champlain, and its principal object was to establish an extensive fur trade with the Iroquois Indians. The company sent over colonists who occupied the house left standing by Thomson, and, not far away, built "Mason Hall" or the "Great House" in what is now Portsmouth, a name (for the entire settlement) that replaced "Strawberry Banke" in 1653. Ed ward Hilton with a few associates appears to have established a settlement on Dover Point about the time of Thomson's arrival at Little Harbor, and in the Hilton grant of 1630 it is stated that he had already built houses and planted there ; as early as 1630 this settlement was named Dover. In 1638 the Rev. John Wheel wright, an Antinomian leader who had been banished from Massa chusetts, founded Exeter on land claimed to have been bought by him from the Indians. In the same year Massachusetts en couraged friendly Puritans to settle Hampton on the same pur chase, and about a year later this colony organized Hampton as a town with the right to send a deputy to the general court. Seri ous dissensions had already arisen between Puritan and Anglican factions in Dover, and Capt. John Underhill, another Antinomian, became for a time a leader of the Puritan faction. Puritan Massa chusetts was naturally hostile to the Antinomians at Exeter as well as to the Anglicans at Strawberry Banke. Under these con ditions Massachusetts discovered a new claim for its northern boundary. The charter of that colony was drafted under the im pression that the Merrimac flowed east for its entire course, but now an investigation was in progress which was to show that its source in Lake Winnepesaukee was several miles north of any of the four settlements in New Hampshire. Accordingly, Massa chusetts resolved to make the most of the clause in the charter which described the northern boundary as three English miles north of the Merrimac river, "or to the northward of any and every part thereof," to ignore the conflicting grants to Mason and to extend its jurisdiction over the offending settlements.
The heirs of Mason protested, but little was done about the matter during the period of Puritan ascendancy in the mother country. Immediately after the resignation of Richard Crom well, however, Robert Tuf ton Mason (a grandson of the original proprietor), who had become sole heir in 1655, began petitioning first parliament and later the king, for relief. The commission ap pointed by the king in 1664 to hear and determine complaints in New England decided that Mason's lands were not within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and made an attempt to set up a government under which his claims could be tried, but this was a failure. Mason then petitioned again, and this time Massa
chusetts was requested to send agents to England to answer his complaints. They arrived in Dec. 1676, and the case was tried before the Lords Chief Justices of the King's Bench and Corn mon Pleas in April, 1677. Mason presented no claim to the right of government, and as to the title to the lands claimed by him the court decided that this was a question between him and the sev eral tenants to be determined by the local court having jurisdic tion in such matters. Thereupon Mason, in Jan. 1679, petitioned the king to appoint a governor who should have jurisdiction over all the lands which he claimed, and on Sept. 18 of this year New Hampshire was constituted a separate province with a Govern ment vested in a president and council appointed by the king and an assembly chosen by the people. This was the principal outcome of Mason's persistent efforts to establish his rights to the land. From 1686 to 1689 New Hampshire formed a part of the Dominion of New England, which, after the first few months, was under Sir Edmund Andros as governor-general. There being no provincial authority in New Hampshire at the close of this period, a convention of the leading citizens of its four towns attempted to establish one. Upon the failure of this attempt, a temporary nominal union with Massachusetts was formed, but in 1692 Sam uel Allen, the assign of Mason, caused a royal Government to be established with his son-in-law, John Usher, as lieutenant-gov ernor, and during the remainder of the colonial era New Hamp shire was separate from Massachusetts except that from 1699 to 1741 the two had the same governor. The boundary disputes be tween Massachusetts and New Hampshire were long and bitter. Both provinces granted townships within the disputed territory; Massachusetts arrested men there who refused to pay taxes to its officers, and sought to defer the settlement of the dispute. New Hampshire, being on the more friendly terms with the home Government, finally petitioned the king to decide the matter, and in 1737 a royal order referred it to a commission to be composed of councillors from New York, Nova Scotia and Rhode Island.
This body agreed upon the eastern boundary but evaded deciding the southern one. Both parties then appealed to the king, and in 1741 the king in council confirmed the decision of the commission in regard to eastern boundary and established a southern bound ary very favourable to New Hampshire. The western boundary was not yet defined, and as early as 1749 a controversy over that arose with New York. The governor of New Hampshire granted in the disputed territory 138 townships which were rapidly set tled, but there was a reluctance to incur the expense of a contest with so powerful a neighbour as New York. In 1764 New York procured a royal order declaring the western boundary of New Hampshire to be the western bank of the Connecticut river.
At the outbreak of the Revolution New Hampshire had about 8o,000 inhabitants, the great majority of whom were with the pa triot or Whig Party during that struggle. By June, 1775, the once popular governor, Sir John Wentworth, was a refugee; on Jan. 5, 1776, the fifth Provincial Congress established a provisional Gov ernment; June 15 the first assembly elected under that Govern ment declared for independence; and on Aug. 16, 1777, the impor tant victory at Bennington was won by New Hampshire and Ver mont troops under the command of Gen. John Stark, who had a commission from New Hampshire. Six States had ratified the Fed eral Constitution when the New Hampshire convention met at Ex eter on Feb. 13, 1788, to accept or reject that instrument, and so great was the opposition to it among the delegates from the central part of the State that after a discussion of ten days the leaders h favour of ratification dared not risk a decisive vote, but procured an adjournment in order that certain delegates who had been instructed to vote against it might consult their constituents. Eight States had ratified when the convention reassembled at Concord on June 17, and four days later, when a motion to ratify was carried by a vote of 57 to 47, adoption by the necessary nine States was assured.