Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/New Hampshire
Plate VII. NEW HAMPSHIRE, one of the New England States of the American Union, lies between 70° 37′ and 72° 37′ W. long., and between 42° 40′ and 45° 18′ 23″ N., lat. and has an area of 9336 square miles. Its boundaries are partly natural. On the W. it is separated from the State of Vermont by Connecticut river; on the N. from the province of Quebec by the natural ridge of the watershed between the St Lawrence and the streams flowing south to the Atlantic; on the E. from Maine by a straight line from Quebec to the source of Salmon river, thence by this river to the ocean, and south-easterly through the middle of the Isles of Shoals; the boundary on the S.E. is the Atlantic; and that on the S. is a line 212 miles distant from and parallel to the lower Merrimack, until that river changes its course to due north and south, when the line runs magnetic west to Connecticut river. The general shape of the State is nearly that of a right-angled triangle, having the perpendicular 180 and the hypothenuse 190 miles long. The greatest width is 100 miles, from Chesterfield to the outermost of the Isles of Shoals.
Physical Features.—The State lies on the Atlantic slope of the continent, forming part of the elevated belt bordering upon the ocean which culminates in three mountain districts, viz., Newfoundland, the White Mountains, and the Black Mountains in North Carolina. It is also situated east of the Blue Ridge and its northerly continuation in the New York highlands and the Green Mountain range, both of which are distinct from the true Appalachians—the latter being west of the great Appalachian limestone valley, and well-shown in the Catskill, Alleghany, and Cumberland ridges and plateaus. The Atlantic and White Mountain ranges are comparatively short, consisting of obtusely-pointed summits of gneissic or granitic rocks, either arranged en échelon or scattered in irregular groups. The White Mountains group first becomes noticeable in northern Maine, reaching the height of a mile at Mount Katahdin, and continues at less elevation south-westerly to the New Hampshire line, where it rapidly rises to its culmination in Mount Washington (6293 feet). The part of this mountainous area that lies within New Hampshire extends to about 1400 square miles. It is continued south-westerly, much reduced in elevation, beyond Mount Moosilauke, along the highlands separating the tributaries of the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, through New Hampshire and Massachusetts into Connecticut. The distinctive Montalban elevation is limited on the west and on the south by the Connecticut.
The geological reports published in 1878 show four important topographical features:—(1) the mountainous ridge following the eastern rim of the Connecticut river basin along the longest straight line that could be drawn within the State; (2) the elevated White Mountain tract, just north of the middle of the territory; (3) the comparatively low country between the two elevated districts just noted and the sea—three-fourths of which, away from the foothills, scarcely exceeds 500 feet above the sea-level; (4) a mountainous district north of the White Mountains, occupying Coos county in New Hampshire, Essex county in Vermont, and an indefinite region in Maine near the Quebec line. The average elevation of the land in New Hampshire is estimated to be 1200 feet above the sea. Of this more than one-half is situated below 1000 feet, and about one-sixth exceeds 2000 feet, and is comprised in the third area mentioned above. The average height of the Coos and Essex district will be found to exceed 1500 feet. Mount Washington is the only mountain peak exceeding 6000 feet; and eight others are above 5000 feet (Adams, Jefferson, Clay, two Monroes, Madison, Lafayette, and Lincoln).
Climate, Fauna, Flora.—These elevations have produced a marked effect upon the climate and natural products. The greatest annual precipitation is along the Merrimack river, 44 inches near Manchester and 46 above Franklin. It is only 35 inches near the sea-coast, and 40 inches on the upper Connecticut. The greatest precipitation is therefore on the seaward side of the long mountainous ridge constituting the backbone of the State. The annual isothermal lines vary from 48° Fahr. at Manchester to 40° in Coos county and 25° upon the summit of Mount Washington.
No less than four faunal areas are recognized, known as the Alleghanian, Canadian, Hudsonian, and Labrador. The first enters New Hampshire from the south, and is limited on the north by the line of 600 feet altitude, which is not far from the isothermal line of 45° Fahr., or the winter average of 20° Fahr. and the summer average of 65° Fahr. A few distinctive animals are the red-headed woodpecker, humming bird, bobolink, Baltimore oriole, blue jay, the box and painted turtles, and the rattlesnake. Among plants which are employed to determine the northern limit of this district are the hickory or shell bark, chestnut, mountain laurel or Kalmia, grape, and cranberry. A few characteristic animals of the Canadian district are the rose-breasted grosbeak, Canada jay, spruce partridge, crossbill, snowbird, caribou, and Canada lynx; the absence of reptiles is marked. A few of the trees are spruces, balsam fir, canoe birch, and bush maples. This district, comprising the northernmost county, reaches the height of 4000 feet, or the upper limit of trees. The Hudson district is a region of dwarfed spruces extending above the Canadian upper limit to the 5000 feet line, and limited to the White Mountains. None of the larger animals which flourish about Hudson’s Bay could be expected in such limited and mountainous peaks, so that the proof of the presence of this fauna is afforded by the plentiful distribution of the butterfly known as Brenthis montinus and the grasshopper Pezotettix glacialis. Owing to the small areas occupied by the Hudson and Labrador floras in the White Mountains, botanists have not yet succeeded in separating the plants peculiar to each. Fifty-three species are referred to them, called the sub-alpine and alpine districts, embracing such genera as Arenaria, Geum, Solidago, Potentilla, Nabalus, Cassiope, Rhododendron, Salix, Saxifraga, Diapensia, Carex, Poa, &c. The Labrador fauna is specially characterized by the abundant presence above the 5000 feet line of the butterfly Oeneis semidea. The presence of these faunal islands in the midst of the Canadian district is accounted for by the greater coldness of the climate in the glacial period. The whole country was then overspread by the peculiar animals and plants of the Arctic regions. As the climate moderated these organisms migrated both northwards and upwards into the higher districts, where they found the conditions favourable to their existence. Those which ascended the mountainous regions soon became separated from their congeners by the warmer temperature of the lowlands, and are now securely imprisoned in these mountain fastnesses.
New Hampshire was originally nearly covered by a dense forest. In 1876 it was estimated that more than one-fourth of the territory was still covered by trees, not of the original growth, but occupying land that had not been cleared. The trees valued for lumber, growing naturally in the forest, are the white, red, and pitch pines, spruces, hemlock, larch, red and sugar maple, beech, birch, red and white oak, chestnut, elm, hickory, poplar, cherry, &c. The pines have been described by the early settlers as commonly exceeding the height of 200 feet. One that was cut upon the Dartmouth College grounds measured 270 feet in length.
Geology.—The topography has a less intimate connexion with the geology. The rocks are nearly all crystalline, and show very few peculiarities of sculpturing except the eruptive massive granites. These are more or less conical, like volcanic accumulations of modern times. Examples may be seen in Mount Chocorua, Mount Pequawket, and Mount Moat. At the base is a coarse porphyritic gneiss, not less than 5000 feet thick. This shows itself principally along the Connecticut-Merrimack watershed south of the White Mountains. Next comes a protogene gneiss, saccharoidal and easily crumbling, having the same thickness, and developed most extensively in Cheshire county. A third gneissic group, 18,000 feet thick, was first separated from the other series in the Lake Winnipiseogee basin, and it is the principal component of the several ridges supposed to be repetitions of the Green Mountains. These three groups may be referred to the Laurentian system. Fourth there succeeds an imperfect gneiss, deficient in felspar, 10,000 feet thick, but developed in the highest of the White Mountains, and hence receiving the name of “Montalban.” Fifth comes the first of the schistose aggregates, occupying the synclinal positions between the gneisses. As it corresponds closely in stratigraphical and lithological features with that large series first separated from the Laurentian by Sir W. E. Logan upon Lake Huron, the name of Huronian is adopted for its development in New England. The largest terrane borders the Green Mountains through Vermont and Massachusetts. A second commences in the Connecticut basin near Bellows Falls, enlarging very much in the extreme-northern part of New Hampshire. These rocks are 12,000 feet thick. Other terranes of related rocks are to be found in Merrimack, Hillsborough, and Rockingham counties. Veins of copper and gold are wrought in the Huronian. Sixth there follows a succession of schists and slates 11,000 feet thick, whose relations are not well established. Seventh is a series of clay slates, auriferous, and 3000 feet thick, referred to the Cambrian. Eighth follows a group of mica schists and limestones, known as the Coos group, and the calciferous mica schist, perhaps 7000 or 8000 feet thick. These are claimed as Silurian by some. Ninth, and last, are fossiliferous beds of undetermined thickness, as much as 1000 feet, in which occur well-defined Pentamerus and Halysites. These show the rock to belong to the Niagara group of the Upper Silurian. The principal localities are at Littleton and Lisbon, at the west base of the White Mountains. The most natural association of these groups is (1) Laurentian, (2) the Montalban, and (3) Huronian,—all of which are Eozoic, with an aggregate thickness of 40,000 feet. Next would follow the Huronian and indeterminate groups, reaching 23,000 feet, all believed to antedate Palæozoic time. Thirdly there remains the supposed Palæozoic series, 12,000 feet.
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Distribution of the rocks over a large part of New England on a scale of about 100 miles to the inch. For convenience they are grouped thus:—(1) granite; (2) Laurentian of New York, and porphyritic gneiss of New England; (3) the later gneisses—Bethlehem, Lake, and Montalban; (4) Huronian, &c.; (5) Cambrian and Silurian; (6) Carboniferous; (7) Triassic; (8) Quaternary. |
{{Fine block|Few parts of the country display better evidences of the existence
of an ice age than New Hampshire. No extensive rock exposures
can be found that do not exhibit marks of scarification. Even
Mount Washington has been striated, and boulders weighing 90 ℔
occur there, which have been brought at least a dozen miles and
left 3000 feet higher than their source. The prevailing direction
of the striae and transportation of fragments was to the south-east.
Local glaciers existed in the decline of the period, leaving
well-marked moraines. It was in New Hampshire that the nature of
the eskers or kames was first understood in America. A very noted
one follows the course of the Connecticut river, from Lyme, N.H.,
to Windsor, Vt, , a distance of 30 miles. The terraces along the
Connecticut, the Merrimack, and other rivers are well shown. Careful
measurements indicate that they all slope equally with the descent
of the river, and resulted from accumulations of detritus pushed
forward when the streams were fed by the waters of the melting ice
sheet and stood 200 feet or more higher than at present.
Minerals occurring in sufficiently large quantities to be the object of mining are gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, tin, iron, bismuth, manganese, and molybdenum. Articles used for building purposes occurring largely are granite, coloured porphyries for ornamentation, slate, clays for brick, limestone, and soapstone or steatite. Other useful minerals either obtained directly from the rock or capable of special manufacture are quartz and felspar for glass, mica, plumbago, precious stones, whetstones, copperas, alum, pyrites, titanium, polishing powder, moulding sand, and ochres for paints. There are forty extensive quarries of granite in the State. The stone is very fine grained, of a light grey colour, and is used largely for obelisks in cemeteries. The mineral beryl is very abundant. Crystals weighing 2900 ℔ have been described as occurring at Grafton. (C. H. H.)
Population.—The population of New Hampshire in 1880 was 346,991 (170,526 males, 176,465 females)—46,294 being of foreign birth. The growth of the population is shown by the following table:—
| Population. | Gain per cent. |
Rank in Union. | |
| 1790 | 141,885 | ... | 10 |
| 1800 | 183,858 | 29.5 | 11 |
| 1810 | 214,460 | 16.6 | 16 |
| 1820 | 244,042 | 18.7 | 15 |
| 1830 | 269,328 | 10.3 | 18 |
| 1840 | 284,574 | 5.6 | 22 |
| 1850 | 317,970 | 11.7 | 22 |
| 1860 | 326,073 | 2.5 | 27 |
| 1870 | 318,300 | −2.3 | 31 |
| 1880 | 346,991 | 9 | 31 |
The decrease in the decade ending with 1870 was due to the effects of the civil war and to emigration to other States. The latter cause greatly checked the growth of the preceding decade. So constant has it been that 128,505 natives of New Hampshire are resident in other parts of the Union. The density of population is 37.17 to the square mile, but the southern part of the State is more thickly inhabited. The tendency of the population is towards the towns. Of the total increase in the last decade (28,691, of whom 58 per cent, were immigrants), nine towns received 20,649, Manchester alone gaining 9094. Canada supplied the largest number of immigrants (14,979), and Ireland the next (6544). Since 1850 the native population has decreased 2866. The number of families in 1880 was 80,286, and the number of births 6141, one to 56.5 of the inhabitants, and the deaths 5584. The average size of families was 4.32, the smallest average of any State in the Union, though larger than in a few of the new Territories. It is steadily decreasing, having been 4.41 in 1870, 4.72 in 1860, and 5.15 in 1850. The decrease in the size of the family has been accompanied by an increase in the number of divorces. The tendency of the State legislation for a number of years was to facilitate divorces; between 1860 and 1870 the number increased (one county not reporting) from 90 to 147, and between 1870 and 1878, in the whole State, from 157 to 240. At the present time public sentiment is setting towards greater stringency of legislation, and has already diminished the number of divorces. The number of paupers in 1880 was 2037.
The cities of largest population in 1880 were—Manchester, 32,630; Concord, the State capital, 13,843; Nashua, 13,397; Dover, 11,687; Portsmouth, 9690; Keene, 6784; Rochester, 5784; Somersworth, 5586.
Manufactures.—The principal industry of New Hampshire is manufacturing. In 1880 the number of establishments was 3181, and the invested capital $51,112,263, giving employment to 45,811 operatives. The total annual product was valued at $73,978,028. The most important manufactures, mentioned in the order of the value of their products, were those of cotton and woollen goods, boots and shoes, leather, lumber, mixed textiles, and worsted goods. Other valuable manufactures are hosiery and knitted goods, paper, foundry and machine-shop products, flouring and grist-mill products, and malt liquors. There is a large annual cut of logs in the northern part of the State. The total horse-power employed in manufacturing was 87,750, of which water furnished 78.81 percent, and steam 21.19 per cent. Manchester is the chief manufacturing centre, but large mills are built at Dover, Nashua, and Great Falls. The growth of manufactures in New Hampshire has been steady and constant. The first cotton mill was built in 1804. By 1826 there were fifty different buildings for the manufacture of cotton, and about half as many for that of wool. Since 1850 the capital invested in manufacturing has increased nearly 300 per cent., the annual value of materials employed 350 per cent., and the value of products 320 per cent.
Agriculture.—The value of the agricultural productions of the State is about one-fifth of the manufactures. In 1879 it was $13,474,330. The large farms are growing at the expense of small ones. In the decade ending 1880, the average size decreased from 122 to 116 acres. Within that time the farm acreage increased 115,179 acres, but the improved acreage diminished by 26,375 acres. The value of farms and farming implements remained about the same, but there was a general falling off in the quantity and value of farm productions (decrease about $9,000,000, without allowance for change in currency).
Fisheries.—An effort is being made to stock the inland waters of the State with food and game fish. A hatching house is main tained from which thousands of fry (black bass, Schoodic salmon, carp, brook trout, and other fish) are distributed to the ponds and streams. The sea fisheries are of slight importance.
Railroads.—The first railroad charter was granted in 1835. Since then the growth of railroads has kept pace with the development of the State, the present mileage (1051) being greater in proportion to population and wealth than in the case of any other New England State. The number of persons employed is 2389. The Mount Washington Railway is one of the triumphs of modern engineering. Extending 2¾ miles from the base to the summit of Mount Washington, it makes an ascent of 3625 feet. Its maximum gradient
is 1980 feet to the mile, and the sharpest curve has a radius of 497 feet. The peculiarity is a central cog-rail into which plays the cog-driver of the engine, while the weight rests upon two lateral rails.
Finance.—The first bank in New Hampshire was established at Portsmouth in 1792. In 1882 there were under a State charter one bank, with a capital of 50,000, and forty-nine national banks under the National Banking Act. Their capital was $6,080,000; circulation, $5,704,691; surplus, $1,102,631; deposits, $4,859,327; loans and discounts, $8,137,442; dividends (1882), $447,525 (about 712 per cent. on capital). The first savings bank was established in 1823. They now number sixty-five, with deposits of $36,181,186, by 104,432 depositors. In thirty years the depositors have increased by nearly 90,000, and the average deposit from $127 to $372. Every banking company pays annually to the State a tax of 12 per cent. on its actual capital, and the amount thus paid constitutes a “literary fund” for the support of schools. All are under the supervision of two bank commissioners, whose duty it is to inspect the accounts and securities of each bank at least once each year, and who have power to petition the supreme court against any bank which they think unsound. In 1880 the valuation of the State was $122,733,124 for real estate, and $42,022,057 for personal property. The taxes assessed by the State were $395,372, and the local taxes amounted to $2,302,268 (about $7.75 per head). The net State debt was $3,561,200, and the local debt $7,162,970, or taken together about $31 per head.
Religion and Education.—The largest religious denomination is the Congregationalist, which has 188 churches, 179 ministers, 20,039 members, and 21,948 in its Sabbath schools. The Methodists have 119 churches, 107 pastors and 63 local preachers, 12,100 members and 1362 probationers, and 13,509 Sabbath school scholars. Tho Baptists have 80 churches, 90 ministers and 7 licentiates, and 8932 members. The Episcopalians have 28 churches, 32 ministers, and 2062 communicants. The Free-will Baptists have an organization, and there are two societies of Shakers. New Hampshire has always fostered education. In earlier colonial times, when it was united with Massachusetts, the same laws applied to both, and on becoming a distinct province it placed on its statute book the Massachusetts law requiring townships of 50 householders to provide instruction for their children, and those of 100 householders to set up a grammar school. This law, with slight changes designed to render it more effective, remained in force till after the Revolution. The State constitution, adopted in 1784, contained a clause, still in force, making it the duty of “legislators and magistrates to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools.” In 1789 the school laws were revised, and towns required to raise for school purposes £4 for every 20s. of their several apportionment of the State tax. This requisition has been gradually increased, until now it is $350 for each dollar of the apportionment. In 1805 the towns were authorized to divide into districts, and each district was directed to maintain a school. This system, with modifications, is still in force. Towns are now authorized to abolish districts and form central schools, and to grade them when the attendance exceeds fifty. High schools may be established when there are not less than one hundred school children between the ages of six and sixteen. In 1829 the “literary fund” was divided among the towns according to the apportionment of the State tax for the support of “common free schools, or for other purposes of education.” To the tax on bank capital is added one on the savings banks deposits of non-residents. In 1881 it was $26,584. The general supervision and control of the educational interests of the State are committed to a superintendent of public instruction appointed by the governor. The immediate charge of all schools is given to local boards of education or committees, which, within the requirements of the law, have complete authority to engage teachers and fix their compensation, to regulate the studies and discipline of the schools, and to direct their expenditures. Attendance upon the public school or some reputable private day school for at least twelve weeks in a year is required, except in case of sickness, of all children between the ages of eight and fourteen. Teachers, except graduates of the normal school, are engaged only after examination. The State normal school, established in 1870, and supported by an annual appropriation of $5000, confers upon its graduates the right to teach three or five years in the common schools. The number of schools in 1882 was 2644, including 481 graded and 56 high schools. The number of scholars was 64,349, and in private schools 4275. The schools are supported by the literary fund, the tax required by law, with the additional taxes voted by the towns and a few other taxes. The total amount appropriated for schools in 1882 was $584,527.74. There are also, existing under special charters, 53 academies and seminaries, many of them endowed, and furnishing a preparatory training for college. They have 161 teachers and 3112 pupils. The largest of these is Phillips Academy at Exeter, founded in 1781. Dartmouth College, the only college in the State, was founded in 1769. It has nearly 7000 graduates, among whom are some of the most noted names in American history. With its academic course are connected a scientific department, a department of civil engineering, the New Hampshire Medical College, and the New Hampshire
College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. The faculty has 36 members, and there are 427 students. Its library contains 63,000 volumes.
Government.—The executive department consists of a governor and five councillors elected biennially by a majority vote, or by the general court when there is no popular election. In addition to the usual powers of the executive, the governor and council have the right of pardon, and appoint all judicial officers, the attorney general, notaries, coroners, judges of probate, and general and field officers of the militia. The legislative department consists of a senate of 24 members, elected by districts, and a house of representatives of 231 members, elected by the towns according to population. They are styled the General Court, and meet biennially in June. The judicial department is a supreme court consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices appointed by the governor, and holding office during good behaviour, or till they reach the age of seventy. Law terms are held twice each year at the capital, by the full bench, and by single justices two or four times yearly in each of the ten counties. This court has civil, criminal, and equity jurisdiction. Exceptions on questions of law, taken at the trial terms, are heard at the law terms, and cases not exceeding $100 in value, or affecting the title to real estate, may be tried before referees without jury. Commitments for offences are made by justices of the peace and by police courts. Probate courts are held by the judges of probate in the different counties, but there is a right of appeal to the supreme court. All native or naturalized male inhabitants of the State, except paupers, are entitled to vote. The State is represented in congress by two senators and two representatives, and has four votes in the electoral college.
The enrolled militia under the command of the governor numbers 33,288 men, but the active militia, known as the “New Hampshire National Guard,” consists of infantry, cavalry, and a battery, and is formed into a brigade of 1208 men. An annual encampment of not less than four days is held in September.
State Institutions.—There are several institutions under State control. The State’s prison in 1880 had 151 inmates. The number confined in the county jails was 122. The State reform school for “juvenile and female offenders against the laws” was opened in 1858, and has received 1087 boys and girls. The asylum for insane, established in 1838, and partly supported by the State, had in 1880 285 patients (129 men and 156 women). The total number of insane in the State was 1056.
History.—New Hampshire was unknown to the earliest European explorers of America, who passed its short sea-coast without observation. The first recorded visit of a white man was that of Martin Pring, who in June 1603 sailed with two small ships into the Piscataqua. The French discoverer De Champlain visited it in July 1605, and discovered the Isles of Shoals, but in 1614 Captain John Smith made a more careful examination of this and the contiguous coast. The map which he made was presented to Prince Charles of England, who gave to the whole country the name of New England. In November 1620 James I. chartered the Plymouth Company “for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England,” which was the territory lying between the 34th and 48th parallels of north latitude. On the 1st of August 1622 this company gave a sub-charter to Sir Fernando Gorges and Captain John Mason of all land lying between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers and a line supposably 60 miles inland. This was called “Maine,” though from another charter covering about the same territory sometimes spoken of as “Laconia.” Under this charter settlements were made in 1623 at the places now known as Portsmouth and Dover, by companies sent out by Mason and Gorges. These continued for several years without enlargement, mere fishing and trading posts; and the next settlements, those at Exeter and Hampton, were not made till 1638 and 1639. In November 1629 Gorges and Mason divided their grant, and Mason obtained from the Plymouth Company, of which he was then a member, a grant of the land between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua for 60 miles inland. To this tract he gave the name of New Hampshire, from the county of Hampshire, in which he had been a resident. The efforts of Mason, his heirs and assigns, to enforce the proprietary rights of this patent gave rise to litigation that lasted more than a century and a half. The settlers disturbed in their possession resisted his claim, opposing to it the rights of occupancy and a prior deed of a considerable portion of the same land, said to have been obtained of four Indian sagamores in May 1629 by one Wheelwright, a minister expelled from Boston for errors of doctrine. This deed was probably a forgery, but it was made the basis of resistance to Mason’s grant. Cases arising from the conflict of the two deeds were repeatedly brought before the colonial courts and appealed to England. Conflicting decisions, resisted when adverse to those in possession, delayed settlement till 1746, when a company purchased the Mason claims, and by refraining from the extreme assertion of their claims brought the quarrel nearly to an end, but it did not wholly disappear till it was settled by the legislature in 1787. In 1641 the four New Hampshire settlements, fearful of their weakness, voluntarily petitioned for union with Massachusetts. They were
received, and with some towns on the Merrimack formed into a county. This union continued till 1680, when the claim which Massachusetts had put forward for jurisdiction over New Hampshire, by the terms of its charter, was denied by royal authority, and New Hampshire was declared a separate province with a governor of its own. The province ceased to have a special governor when Joseph Dudley was appointed governor of New England in 1685. In 1691, when Massachusetts regained the charter of which it had been deprived, New Hampshire was anxious to unite with it, and did act with it for a time. It did not, however, cease to be a royal province until the Revolution, having governors of its own, or jointly with Massachusetts and all New England. New Hampshire suffered severely in the French and Indian wars, as its settlements were most exposed to the attacks that came from Canada. It furnished 500 men for the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, of whom 150 were paid by Massachusetts. It sent 500 to the attack on Crown Point in 1755, and raised 2600 in the succeeding years of the war. The boundaries of New Hampshire, owing to conflicting charters given in ignorance of the country, were long a matter of dispute. The claim of Massachusetts to its whole territory was not settled, and the southern boundary definitively established, till 1740. In 1749 a controversy arose with New York, which claimed as far east as the Connecticut river, while New Hampshire claimed to extend as far west as did Massachusetts. It was determined in favour of New York in 1764, but not till New Hampshire had chartered 138 towns in the disputed territory. After the Revolution many of these towns attempted to unite with those on the western border of New Hampshire into a new State. The bitter quarrel that arose and proceeded almost to bloodshed was settled only by the interposition of congress. The settlement of New Hampshire, which had been retarded by fears of Indian invasions and questions of jurisdiction, followed very rapidly after the province was quieted, so that by the outbreak of the Revolution it had 80,000 inhabitants. It took a prominent place in the assertion of American liberty. It was represented in the successive continental congresses by two delegates, who in 1776 subscribed the declaration of independence, and in 1787 contributed to the formation of the constitution. Two New Hampshire regiments took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. The battle of Bennington, that turned the scale of the war, was won by New Hampshire and Vermont troops under the command of General Stark, who bore a commission from New Hampshire. In the whole war New Hampshire furnished 12,497 soldiers. It was the ninth State to adopt the Federal constitution, June 21, 1788, thus securing the success of the Union. Its own provisional government, formed on the retirement of the royal governor in 1775, was replaced by a State constitution in 1784. This was thoroughly revised in 1792, and with minor changes continued till 1877, when another though less radical revision was made. In the war of 1812 the State, though divided on the question of the rights of the States and the general Government, sent its quota of men. More than 2000 took part in the various battles. In the civil war of 1861-65 New Hampshire earnestly supported the Union cause. It furnished 18 regiments of infantry, 1 of cavalry, 1 light and 1 heavy battery, and 3 companies of sharpshooters, in all 32,750 men, or about 10 per cent. of the population.
The earlier history of New Hampshire is given in Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, and illustrated by a series of Provincial and State Papers. Its later history is found in Sanborn’s History of New Hampshire, and various local histories and official reports. (J. K. L.*)
| VOL. XVII. | NEW HAMPSHIRE | PLATE VII. |
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| W. & A.K. Johnston, Edinburgh, and London. | ||
| ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, NINTH EDITION | ||