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Lesson Plans
| Topic |
| The Boundary Dispute between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 1677-1741 |
| Materials Included in the Lesson - Procedures Tasks 1 - 5 |
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| Task 1 |
Read the following passages in preparation for lesson task one.
"The origins of the boundary controversy lay in the jurisdictional separation of Massachusetts and New Hampshire
in 1679, which placed the two colonies competition with each other. The northern boundary of Massachusetts had
been established in its original charter and was restated by English judges in 1677 as 'all those lands …which
lie and be within the space of three English miles to the northward of the …Merrimack River, or to the northward
of any and every part thereof.' But when Massachusetts. received its new charter in 1691, the phrase 'of any and
every part thereof' was omitted from the boundary description, although the commissions of the various New Hampshire
governors from Allen in 1692 through Burnett in 1728 continued the former phrasing when describing the borders
of New Hampshire."
Van Deventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire, 1623-1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1976: 72-73.
"The stakes for New Hampshire were particularly high. Failure to obtain at least the upper Merrimack Valley,
if not lands to the west of the Merrimack, would make New Hampshire a province of insignificant size surrounded
by a much larger neighbor. Its very existence would be questioned, and Massachusetts authorities would almost certainly
follow up a victory on the boundary question - with a petition to re-annex the stranger within its midst."
Wallace, R. Stuart. "The 'Irish Party' and the New Hampshire/ Massachusetts Boundary Controversy, 1719-1741,"
Historical New Hampshire, 49 (Summer 1994): 110-111. |
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| Task 2 |
Read the following passage in preparation for lesson task two.
"…a turning point [in the boundary dispute] was at hand. In 1718, some 500 Scotch-Irish immigrants arrived
in Boston and sought a township grant, but the Massachusetts government could not satisfy their needs. In April
1719, a number of them (without legal authority from any source) established a settlement at Nutfield, partially
within the area contested by Massachusetts and New Hampshire, north of the Merrimack River.… The Massachusetts
government refused …[to grant them either legal recognition or a township grant] on the grounds that their town
was out of its jurisdiction."
"This refusal indicated that the Massachusetts government was not aggressively pushing its boundary claims
against its smaller neighbor, …[New Hampshire]."
"The Nutfield petition [for a township grant] was presented to the New Hampshire government in September;
in December, the New Hampshire General Assembly instructed its commissioners to run the line westward from the
coast 'till you meet the great river which runs out of Winnepesaukee Pond,' discriminating for the first time between
the Merrimack River in its east-west course and in its north-south course and contesting the traditional view that
the Merrimack River represented the western boundary of the colony as well as the southern boundary."
Van Deventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire, 1623-1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1976: 75-76. |
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| Task 3 |
Read the following passage in preparation for lesson task three.
"When in 1720, the General Assembly chose a new agent for New Hampshire, it pointedly explained to him the
conflict of interest between the two colonies and instructed him to place the dispute before the Board of Trade
along with the proper maps. He was instructed that 'the extent of this province is all the lands between Massachusetts
and Province of Maine, our south bounds is [sic] three miles north of the Merrimack River at the Atlantic Ocean
. . . and from thence a west line into the main land so far as the Massachusetts [land] extends' - a direct challenge
to Massachusetts' claims west of the Merrimack. Moreover, for the first time the northern boundary of New Hampshire
was challenged."
Van Deventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire, 1623-1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1976: 76. |
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| Task 4 |
Read the following passage in preparation for lesson task four.
John Wentworth, who was not only the lieutenant governor in 1726 in New Hampshire, but was also a prominent local
sea captain, a mast trader, and a merchant, led an all out assault against the Massachusetts practice of assigning
land grants in the disputed territories. "In 1726 the Massachusetts government granted the township of Penacook
to some settlers. This grant was located just west of the Merrimack River near present-day Concord, New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire government responded by granting the township of Bow in the same area.… Until 1730, the Wentworth
faction (some lumberers, merchants, and local royal officials) had its way in New Hampshire politics, but the appointment
of Jonathan Belcher - …who held anti-Wentworth attitudes - to the governorship of Massachusetts and New Hampshire
forced the Wentworth supporters into the background as Belcher appointees displaced them from positions of power
and influence in the colony. From this point on, the Wentworth faction - portraying Belcher as unsympathetic, prejudiced,
and tyrannical - sought a separate governor for the colony.…With goals such as new western lands, a separate governor,
and domination of New Hampshire politics guiding them, this faction sought to force the boundary dispute before
the Privy Council, displaying an unwillingness to compromise at any other level. Their determined opportunism brought
success, for in 1740 the Privy Council awarded them wider bounds than they had sought, opening the western lands
between the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers to the New Hampshire settlers. According to Frances Wilks, the Massachusetts
agent in London, the Privy Council awarded New Hampshire the victory because it looked upon the dispute as between
Mass. and the Crown, and therefore, 'Whatever was not granted to us [Massachusetts] belonged to the Crown.' To
Wilks the key factor in this loss was official bias against Massachusetts in England."
Van Deventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire, 1623-1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1976: 76-77. |
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| Task 5 |
Read the following passage in preparation for lesson task five.
Within a year of the Privy Council's decision on the boundary dispute, "the Wentworth faction turned to the
London mast contractors for support. Benning Wentworth and John Thomlinson persuaded …the mast contractor for the
Royal Navy …to join them and other London merchants in a petition for the appointment of a separate governor for
New Hampshire as the only way 'to keep that province from sinking and to make it a useful and flourishing colony.'
This petition and agent Thomlinson's varied connections and skills made the difference. In August 1741, Benning
Wentworth was commissioned governor of New Hampshire. He returned home to establish a new political order in the
colony - a monopolization of political power never before seen in New Hampshire but nevertheless acceptable to
the inhabitants."
Van Deventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire, 1623-1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1976: 77-78. |
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