the territory of the present united states state of new hampshire has a colonial history dating back to the 1620s. this history is significantly bound to that of the neighboring massachusetts, whose colonial precursors either claimed the new hampshire territory, or shared governors with it. first settled in the 1620s under a land grant to john mason, the colony consisted of a small number of settlements near the seacoast before growing further inland in the 18th century. mason died in 1635, and the colonists appropriated a number of his holdings. in 1641 the new hampshire colonists agreed to be ruled by massachusetts bay colony, which also claimed the territory. massachusetts governed the new hampshire settlements until 1680, when it became the royally chartered province of new hampshire. in 1686 the territory became part of the dominion of new england, which was effectively disbanded in 1689 following the 1688 glorious revolution in england. after an interregnum under de facto rule from massachusetts, samuel allen, who had acquired the mason land claims, became governor. from 1699 to 1741 the governorships of new hampshire and the province of massachusetts bay were shared. boundary disputes between the two colonies prompted king george ii to appoint separate governors in 1741, commissioning portsmouth native benning wentworth as governor. in 1775, with the advent of the american revolutionary war, the province's last royal governor, john wentworth, fled the colony. under a state constitution drafted in early 1776, meshech weare was chosen the first president of the independent state of new hampshire. ==lower plantation governors, 1630â1641== permanent english settlement began after land grants were issued in 1622 to john mason and sir ferdinando gorges for the territory between the merrimack and sagadahoc (kennebec) rivers, roughly encompassing present-day new hampshire and western maine. settlers, whose early leaders included david thomson, edward hilton, and thomas hilton, began settlements on the new hampshire coast and islands as early as 1623, that eventually expanded along the shores of the piscataqua river and the great bay. mason and gorges, neither of whom ever came to new england, divided their claims along the piscataqua river in 1629.clark, pp. 17â18 mason took the territory between the piscataqua and merrimack, and called it "new hampshire", after the english county of hampshire.{{cite web| url=http://www.nh.gov/nhinfo/fastfact.html| title=fast new hampshire facts| publisher=state of new hampshire| accessdate=2
Colonial_governors_of_New_Hampshire Lists_of_American_colonial_governors Pre-statehood_history_of_New_Hampshire