NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS

in the period before the American Revolution, the territory that subsequently became the state of Vermont. The area was initially claimed by New Hampshire, and the first land grant there was issued in 1749 by the first governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth. By 1764, 131 townships had been chartered. New York, which also claimed the territory, began issuing grants of its own in 1765, some of which conflicted with those already made by New Hampshire. Armed conflicts between the rival claimants were common, and the Green Mountain Boys were organized to expel the settlers from New York. The dispute was resolved when Vermont (originally called New Connecticut) was established as an independent republic in 1777. History American Indian population Before contact with the English about 3,000 American Indians inhabited what eventually became New Hampshire. They were organized into clans, semiautonomous bands, and larger tribal entities; the Pennacook, with their central village near the town that bears their name, were by far the most powerful of these tribes. The entire Indian population was part of the linguistically unified Algonquian culture that dominated northeastern North America. Disease, war, and migration quickly reduced the population after contact with English settlers. By 1700 few Indians resided within colonial boundaries. The primary contemporary reminder of American Indian inhabitation is in place-names like Lake Winnipesaukee, Kancamagus Highway, and Mount Passaconaway. The English colony The New Hampshire region was included in a series of grants made by the English crown to John Mason and others during the 1620s. A fishing and trading settlement was established in 1623, and in 1629 the name New Hampshire, after the English county of Hampshire, was applied to a grant for a region between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers. The towns of Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hampton were the main settlements. From 1641 to 1679 the region was administered by the colonial government of Massachusetts. Following territorial and religious disputes between Massachusetts and Mason's heirs, New Hampshire became a separate royal province in 1679. Bitter boundary feuds with Massachusetts and New York over that part of the New Hampshire grant that became Vermont continued almost until the American Revolution. Benning Wentworth held the post of colonial governor from 1741 to 1767, the longest tenure of any royal governor in any of the colonies. In 1767 the colony took its first census and reported about 52,700 people. By 1772 the state was divided into five counties, to which five others have been added since 1800. New Hampshire soldiers played an active part in the colonial wars between Great Britain and France from 1689 to 1763. By the end of the colonial period the seat of government was at Portsmouth, and there were 147 chartered towns in the province.