The Crown has authorized New Hampshire's Governor…
1749 CE
He enriches himself by a clever scheme of selling land to developers in spite of jurisdictional claims for this region by the Province of New York.
He often names the new townships after famous contemporaries in order to gain support for his enterprises (for example, Rutland is named after John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland; he names Bennington after himself).
In each of the grants, he stipulates the reservation of a lot for an Anglican church, and one for himself.
Ultimately, this scheme will lead to a great deal of contention between New York, Massachusetts, and the settlers in Vermont.
The dispute will outlive Wentworth's administration, lasting until Vermont is admitted as a state in 1791.
A fact often overlooked among those who accuse Wentworth of overweening self-interest is that the charters he issues (known as the New Hampshire Grants) are intended to establish self-supporting towns based on democratic government and fee simple ownership of land.
The Wentworth grants created modern towns in this sense, unlike New Netherland and New York, for example.
The grants are all similar: the towns are six miles square, containing about 24,000 acres.
The charters require set-asides to support the school, the settled minister, the glebe, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
He issues the charters to groups of investors in southern New England, most of whom will never set foot there.
They hire surveyors who measure off hundred-acre lots, then hire middlemen who sell the lots to individuals and families eager to move north out of the already-crowded lower colonies.
To prevent runaway speculation, failure to personally occupy and put the land under cultivation will result in forfeiture.
Wentworth's charters call for settlers to cultivate five acres in five years for every fifty acres they own.
Proof of cultivation is payment of an ear of Indian corn in Portsmouth once a year at Christmas (Lady Day), for the first ten years.
Hereafter, once the economy is up and running and hard currency is available, the "tax" will be one shilling per year for every hundred acres owned, in perpetuity.
When fifty families have settled the town can have a market and two fairs per year.
An equally important and universally missed fact is that the Wentworth charters stipulate the formation of a town government and an annual Town Meeting, to be held the first Tuesday in March.
This town meeting practice still holds today.
It is true that Wentworth reserves five hundred acres in the contiguous corners of each town, marked on maps with "B. W.", but it still is not clear whether he does so as a private individual or as a representative of the Crown; more study in original documents is needed.
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