Page 92 - John Anderson

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New Hampshire derives its name from Hampshire County in England,
and was first applied to the territory in 1629, in honor of Captain John
Mason, Governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England, and also the
proprietor of the territory now so called. At an earlier year, in 1622,
that same Captain Mason, Sir Ferdinand Gorges, and others, had
obtained from the Council of Plymouth, a grant of land partly in Maine
and partly in New Hampshire, which they called Laconia. In spring of
1623, they sent two small parties of emigrants to settle it. Some of
these commenced to stay at Little Harbor (now the town of Rye), on
the west side of the Piscataqua River, near present day Portsmouth.
The others planted themselves at Cocheco, afterwards called Dover,
further up river. The principal employment of the new settlers was
fishing and trade.
Over the next two decades, inland settlements were founded at
Dover, Durham, and Stratham. This little New Hampshire colony was
made part of Massachusetts in 1641, an arrangement that lasted off
and on until 1741, when it became a full-fledged colony and installed
its own governor. Many books have been written about the hardships
endured during these early times of land grants, changing
governments, Indian incursions and lack of overall land management
policies.

The New Hampshire Colony played a
significant role in the American
Revolution. It was the first of the original
thirteen colonies to declare
independence from Britain, and had
three regiments fighting in the
Continental Army. Ships for the
Continental Navy were built in the
Portsmouth shipyards, and the first
state constitution was ratified on
January 5th of 1776 in Exeter. After
independence, the state capital was established at Concord. Ships
are still built in Portsmouth, and the Portsmouth Navy Shipyard,
founded in 1800, has been building U.S. warships and continues to
play an important role in both the history of New Hampshire and the
United States.

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