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.
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.
Captain Walter Neale was appointed in 1630 by the proprietors of the Strawbery Banke (or "Lower") plantation (present-day Portsmouth and nearby communities) as agent and governor of that territory.
[5] However, Belknap's claim is disputed by historian Charles Tuttle, who observes that there are no records prior to 1640 in which Mason or Gorges refer to Williams as governor.
[10] He received a more definite appointment for administration of this plantation by 1633, when he was commissioned by Lords Brooke and Say and Sele, who had purchased land in the area from Mason.
[12] Wiggin and Walter Neale apparently disagreed on territorial boundaries of their respective domains, and supposedly almost came to blows, although whether this occurred in 1632 or 1633 is unclear.
After shifting for themselves for a time (during which much of the Mason property was appropriated by the colonists),[15] the plantations of New Hampshire agreed in 1641 to join with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
[21] At the urging of the heirs of John Mason, who were trying to recover their inherited claims, Charles issued a new charter in 1682, with Edward Cranfield as lieutenant governor.
This government survived until the Dominion of New England was introduced in 1686, although Cranfield departed the province in 1685, replaced in the interim by his deputy, Walter Barefoote.
For most of his tenure, he remained in London, pursuing legal actions relevant to proprietary land claims he had purchased from the Masons, but he came to the colony briefly before the arrival of his replacement as governor, the Earl of Bellomont.
[37] Before coming to North America, Burges was bribed by Massachusetts operatives to resign his commissions; Colonel Samuel Shute was then chosen to replace Dudley.
[41][42] The last governor, John Wentworth, fled the province in August 1775, after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War brought threats to his rule and family.