The Raleigh was one of the first 13 warships sponsored by the Continental Congress for a new American navy, built in 1776, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

The water stands for the harbor of Portsmouth, and in the yellow-colored spit of land is granite, a strong igneous rock, representing both New Hampshire's rugged landscape and the sturdy character of her people.

[2] In 1784, when the present state constitution became effective, the legislature revised the seal to depict a ship on stocks, with a rising sun in the background, to reflect Portsmouth having become a major shipbuilding center during the American Revolutionary War.

The General Court approved the committee's recommendations, later enacting a law codifying the official design of the state seal.

Timothy Josephson, a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives suggested replacing the state seal in the center of the flag with the Old Man of the Mountain in 2018 to memorialize its collapse in 2003, but no official action has been taken on the proposal.

[9] In November 2023, state representative Tim McGough proposed a bill that would have modified the flag to add the motto "Live Free or Die" in Times New Roman beneath the seal.

[10][11] On July 1, 1774, the First Provincial Congress met for the first time in Exeter, and subsequently they discarded every "Royal," including the previous "George the III" seal.

In preparation of the 1776 state constitution, the First Provincial Congress designed a seal measuring 1½ inches in diameter and depicting an upright fish and pine tree on either side of a bundle of five arrows.