Media Library

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William Whipple was one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from New Hampshire. His father was a sea captain, and as a young man, Whipple went to sea as well, sailing back and forth between the Caribbean and New England, shipping wood, rum, and slaves. Later, he and his brother were successful merchants in Portsmouth. Whipple supported the patriots and was in the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He was also a general in the New Hampshire militia and commanded troops at an important Revolutionary War battle, the Battle of Saratoga. After the war, he freed his slaves, including Prince Whipple. He also served in the New Hampshire legislature and on the Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

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John Sullivan was a well-known general from New Hampshire during the American Revolution. After America won its independence, Sullivan became an important political figure in New Hampshire. In fact, he helped convince the people of New Hampshire to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Sullivan was born in Somersworth and became a lawyer when he was a young man. When Americans grew unhappy with being ruled by Great Britain, Sullivan supported the patriots. He even led the raid on Fort William and Mary in 1774, when patriots took control of a British fort in Portsmouth. When America and Britain began fighting the American Revolution, Sullivan became a general in the American army. After the American Revolution was over, he became one of New Hampshire’s first governors. When the people of New Hampshire were deciding whether or not to support the new U.S. Constitution, Sullivan used all his influence to convince them that the Constitution created a good system of government for the new country.

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Sebastian Cabot was the first European explorer known to have visited New Hampshire. He was Italian but worked for the English king. His father was also a famous explorer! Cabot sailed to North America around 1508. He was hoping to find a water route around North America so he could reach Asia. He explored eastern Canada and then sailed down the New England coast. He did not get off his ship or explore the land. By the time Cabot returned to England, the king had died. The new king was not as interested in exploring, so Cabot went to work as a mapmaker. Later he worked for the king of Spain and explored South America.

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Martin Pring was the first English explorer to sail up the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire. He was only 23 years old in 1603 when he led an expedition to New England to find sassafras. Sassafras is a plant that people used as medicine. Pring and his crew explored the coast of Maine and then landed near what is now Portsmouth. They sailed 10 or 12 miles up the Piscataqua River. He didn’t find any sassafras there, though, so he continued south to Cape Cod. He found a lot of sassafras and met with the indigenous people who lived there. He sent a whole boatload of sassafras back to England, along with information about all of the plants and animals that he saw in New England. His reports helped convince English businessmen that they could make money by sponsoring settlements there. Pring continued to explore North America and Asia after this successful voyage. 

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John Smith was a famous English explorer. In 1607, he helped settle Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America. In 1614, he set out to explore the land north of Virginia. He named the area “New England.” He sailed all along the coast from Maine to Massachusetts. He stopped at some islands off the coast of New Hampshire and named them “Smith’s Isles” after himself. Today we call them the Isles of Shoals. He traded with the indigenous people for beaver pelts, which he brought back to England. He also brought back a lot of codfish. When he returned to England, he drew a map of the area and published a book about what he saw there. His stories of the natural resources and good climate in New England encouraged English settlers to move there. 

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David Thomson (sometimes spelled Thompson) founded the first permanent English settlement in New Hampshire, at what is now called Odiorne’s Point in Rye. Starting when he was still a boy, Thomson sailed to New England several times. He decided that the area near the Piscataqua River would be a good place to build a settlement. In 1623, he convinced a group of English businessmen to hire him to set up a year-round fishing station there. The settlers were supposed to send a lot of fish back to England to make money for the businessmen. They were also supposed to farm and set up a trading post. At first there were only 10 or 20 settlers, and they built a fort, some houses, and buildings to process the fish. In 1626, Thomson and his family moved to an island in Boston Harbor, called Thompson Island today. He died a few years later.

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John Mason was an English investor who gave New Hampshire its name. A naval officer and businessman, Mason had been the governor of the British settlement of Newfoundland, on the coast of Canada. He realized how important the fur trade was, so he started a company based in New Hampshire to supply beaver furs for sale in England. The business was called the Laconia Company. Mason sent English settlers to build outposts along the Piscataqua River and the other rivers around what is now Portsmouth. Mason named this area New Hampshire after Hampshire County, where he lived in England. Mason was planning to move to New Hampshire, but he died before he could leave England.

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Edward Hilton and his brother, William, founded one of New Hampshire’s first four English towns, Dover. The Hilton brothers were fishmongers in London, England. They came to New Hampshire with David Thomson as part of his fishing settlement, but the Hilton brothers set up their own fishing operation on the Piscataqua River in 1623, which they named Hilton’s Point. Most people called this settlement Cocheco, after the Abenaki name for the area. It eventually became known as Dover.

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Kancamagus was an Abenaki warrior and the grandson of Passaconaway. He became the sachem of the Penacook people, a band of Abenaki, in the 1680s. Kancamagus had a different relationship with the English settlers than his grandfather had. During his lifetime, more and more English settlers were arriving. They took more of the Abenaki’s land and treated them badly. Kancamagus began to fight with the English. He led the attack on Dover that killed Richard Waldron. A few months later, the English kidnapped Kancamagus’s wife and children. Eventually, Kancamagus signed a treaty with the English, and his family was released. Many of his people moved north and west so they could live in peace. He probably died around 1690. Hundreds of years later, a mountain and a scenic road in the White Mountains were named after him.

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Richard Waldron was an important leader of the English settlement at Dover, New Hampshire. He damaged the relationship between the Abenaki and the English settlers. Waldron was born in England but emigrated to Dover, which was then called Cocheco, around 1635. He built the first sawmill in Dover, owned a lot of land, and had a lot of political power. He was also a merchant and traded with the local Abenaki, but he didn’t always provide them with the goods he had promised. In the 1670s there was a war between English settlers in Massachusetts and the Wampanoags, a Native American tribe who lived south of New Hampshire. Many Wampanoag people moved to the area around Dover to live with the Abenaki and escape the war. Waldron didn’t like having so many new Native Americans around. In 1676 he invited the Abenaki and the Wampanoags to a big party with food and games, but it was a trick. The Wampanoags were arrested, and many were sent to be slaves in the West Indies. The Abenaki were released and could go home, but they were very angry that Waldron had betrayed them. Many years later, during another war, the Abenaki attacked Dover and killed Waldron.