Unit 2: Colonial New Hampshire
1700 to 1763
New Hampshire experienced gradual colonial autonomy beginning in 1679 when King Charles II issued a charter stating it to be a royal colony separate from Massachusetts, but it did not achieve full control of its own government until 1741. A colonial society, economy, and culture developed during this time and local governing continued to oversee the day to day in growing Seacoast communities as well as further inland. Portsmouth served as a proxy of Boston for much of the first half of the 18th century, and its sea-based prosperity made it the obvious choice for a capital when New Hampshire began acting on its own.
The Wentworth family held a political dynasty during the colonial period, beginning with John, who served as Lt. Governor of New Hampshire while it was still under Massachusetts’ s jurisdiction. His son, Benning, was appointed New Hampshire’s first Royal Governor and served from 1741 to 1767, overseeing a period of incredible expansion for the colony. As “Surveyor of the King’s Woods,” Governor Wentworth was responsible for managing the lucrative timber industry that spanned from the Seacoast to Lake Champlain. The society that grew and developed with this economy began to turn away from the mother country in favor of their own towns, regions and overall colony.
Inquiry 2.1: What influenced the development of colonial society and culture?
Inquiry 2.2: What made New Hampshire a prosperous colony?
State Learning Standards:
SS:HI:1 Political Foundations and Development Students will demonstrate an understanding of the major ideas, issues and events pertaining to the history of governance in our state and nation.
SS:HI:2 Contacts, Exchanges & International Relations Students will demonstrate an understanding of the events, actions and policies of our nation in relation to other peoples and governments over time.
SS:HI:3 World Views and Value systems and their Intellectual and Artistic Expressions Students will demonstrate an understanding of conceptions of reality, ideals, guidelines of behavior and forms of expression.
SS:HI:4: Economic Systems & Technology Students will demonstrate an understanding of the changing forms of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services over time.
SS:HI:5: Social/Cultural Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interaction of various social groups, including their values, beliefs and practices, over time
Instructional Resources and Assessments
The following links connect to secondary sources and primary source repositories created and maintained by other educators, historians, and institutions. I do not claim ownership of these materials. Instead, I share them as recommendations based on what has proven meaningful and effective in my own classroom experience. Teachers are invited to explore and adapt these resources to best meet their students’ needs, and encouraged to align with district expectations and protocols for using outside resources.
Website Timeline of New Hampshire History, NH Historical Society
Exploring this timeline is a great activity for classes 1, 2, and 5. Each entry has an easy-to-navigate list of facts regarding the entry, and many lead to primary sources.Website NH Historical Society Collections Catalogue
Staying with the NHHS site, this part of it can find usage on primary source investigation days. The advanced search feature helps keep results in the time frame you wish to stay in, and you can adjust the settings of what kinds of catalogue entries you want to see.
Website New Hampshire’s Historical Highway Markers
Similar to the Timeline found on the NHHS page, this easy-to-use site can help start the unit. Students can explore the signs by list or by map, recognizing different terms and names as well as recognizing where things took place and when.
Website The Portsmouth Treaty of 1713
Though the easier-to-read transcript of the 1713 treaty has left the site, the page still has lots to offer by way of contextualization and explanation of the proceedings and the document itself.
Primary Sources Nearly every town, and certainly every city in the state has a web presence, and on these sites a brief history can normally be found. The explanations of who, when, where, and what can be used to complete a Primary Source Analysis for that town or city. Most towns in New Hampshire were founded in the 18th Century, with many of them established during Benning Wentworth’s time as Royal Governor.
Short Audio NHPR “1763: A Landmark Year In New Hampshire History” from March 2013
This short explanation of how Benning Wentworth aggressively settled and populated the western frontier of New Hampshire to Lake Champlain is great to use in the second half of the unit.
Essay “Benning Wentworth: Brief life of a colonial grandee: 1696-1770” by Castle Freeman Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2004
An excellent overview of Wentworth’s life with a focus on his extensive career as Royal Governor of New Hampshire, this essay works very well during the second secondary source day in the unit.
Primary Source Benning Wentworth 1760 painting by Joseph Blackburn
This painting communicates so much about Wentworth, colonial politics, economics, culture, and geography and students will be sure to discover even more when dissecting a
Educational Program Ray Mears: Extreme Survival Season 3 Episode 5: “Rogers Rangers” (2002, BBC)
Ray Mears is a British reality show host who demonstrates ways to overcome the world’s most treacherous conditions in the wild. His personal hero is New Hampshire’s own Major Robert Rogers and in this episode Mears follows the exact path of Rogers’s Rangers 1759 raid on St. Francis. This film can be found on a few different subscription and paid sites.
Feature Film: Northwest Passage (1940)
This movie starring Spencer Tracy as Robert Rogers is a historically-loose version of the St. Francis raid, and could be used in this unit purely as a way to illustrate the time period. The story starts in Portsmouth and shows the Boston to Portsmouth Stage and locations such as Stoodley’s Tavern. But the lack of accuracy makes this better suited as a primary source for unit 5, which is about the 20th century.
Website Historic Houses section of Strawbery Banke Museum’s Website
Each house at Strawbery Banke is correct to a different time period in the neighborhood’s past. Look at the Wigwam and Sherburne House as primary sources for this unit.