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In the 1600s, European settlers to New Hampshire were from England. In 1719, a new group of settlers came here. They were known as the Scots-Irish. A group of 16 families founded a settlement in Nutfield, which later became the town of Londonderry. Over the next several decades, thousands of Scots-Irish came to New England, and many of them passed through Nutfield as they decided where to live. New Hampshire has a strong tradition of Scots-Irish culture, and many people here are descended from the Scots-Irish. The Scots-Irish in Londonderry also planted the first potatoes in North America. 

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When New Hampshire was first founded, it shared a government with Massachusetts. They both had the same governor, and at one point, there was even talk about making all of New Hampshire a county in Massachusetts! Most people living in New Hampshire did not want to be part of Massachusetts, and they asked King George II of England to keep them separate and give them their own governor. The king agreed and appointed Benning Wentworth the governor of New Hampshire. Wentworth was from an old New Hampshire family, and under his rule, New Hampshire became completely separate from Massachusetts. 

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By the 1760s, many people in New Hampshire—and America—were getting tired of being British colonies and having to pay taxes to the British government. In 1765, the British imposed a new tax called the Stamp Act, which put a tax on books, newspapers, documents, playing cards, and anything made of paper. People all over America protested against the new tax, including in Portsmouth, which was the biggest city in New Hampshire at that time. This protest was an important first step in convincing the people of New Hampshire that they needed to be independent from Great Britain.  

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One of the British laws that the people of New Hampshire did not like involved pine trees! The British government declared that all the big pine trees in New Hampshire belonged to the king, who used them as ships’ masts for the British navy. Many people in New Hampshire ignored the law, but then a group of people in Goffstown and Weare got caught cutting down some big pine trees for their own use. They had to pay a fine for breaking the law. Some of them paid the fine, but the people living in Weare refused to pay it. When the sheriff came to arrest them, they ran him out of town in the middle of the night. This became known as the Pine Tree Riot. It is an example of how the people of New Hampshire were frustrated by being under British rule.

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In December 1774, an American patriot named Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to warn his friends that the British army was going to send more soldiers and supplies to Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth Harbor. The Americans wanted to keep the British army out of New Hampshire, so they captured Fort William and Mary from the few British soldiers who were stationed there. This action was the first conflict between the Americans and the British in what would become known as the American Revolution.