New Hampshire was founded in 1622 when John Mason and Ferdinando
Gorges were given a land grant by the Council for New England.
Only three years after the Pilgrim’s landed at Plymouth, the
first settlers arrived near present-day Portsmouth in 1623. They
were fisherman. Before long, the settlers built a fort and fish-
processing buildings. They named the area Pannaway Plantation.
Eventually, some of the settlers moved from Pannaway Plantation
and in 1629, founded the settlement of Strawbery Banke.
Strawbery Bank would eventually become Portsmouth. In 1641, the
Massachusetts colony claimed the territory that was New
Hampshire. New Hampshire became known as the “Upper Province” of
Massachusetts. It remained the Upper Province until 1679 when it
became a “Royal Province”. Once again, it was reunited with
Massachusetts in 1698. Finally, in 1741, New Hampshire gained
its independence and elected its own governor – Benning
Wentworth, who governed the colony until 1766.