Benning Wentworth's commission as governor of New…

1741 CE

Benning Wentworth's commission as governor of New Hampshire is issued in June 1741; he is also later appointed the king's surveyor general.

Wentworth assumes the office on December 13, 1741.

The eldest child of John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governor for the Province of New Hampshire from 1717 to 1730, Benning Wentorth is a great-grandson of "Elder" William Wentworth, a follower of John Wheelwright and an early settler of New Hampshire.

Benning was born and will die in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Under his father's leadership, the Wentworths had become one of the most prominent political and merchant families in the small colony.

Benning Wentworth had graduated from Harvard College in 1715.

He became a merchant at Portsmouth, and frequently represented the town in the provincial assembly.

He was appointed as a King's Councillor, October 12, 1734.

A series of twists of fate bring Wentworth to the governor's chair in 1741.

His father, a relation of Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquis of Rockingham, had lobbied colonial officials to establish a separate governorship for New Hampshire.

Until now it has been under the oversight of the governor of the neighboring (and much larger) Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Jonathan Belcher, governor of both provinces during the 1730s and a Massachusetts native, had during his tenure issued many land grants to Massachusetts interests in disputed areas west of the Merrimack River.

There are claims that he had been biased in his awards.

The dispute had finally reached the highest levels of King George II's government by the late 1730s, and the Board of Trade had decided to separate the two governorships.

At the time, Wentworth was in London dealing with a personal financial crisis.

He had delivered a shipment of timber to Spain in 1733, but was not paid by the Spanish because of an episode of difficult diplomatic relations at the time.

Wentworth had had to borrow money to pay his own creditors, and had lobbied London to secure payment from Spain.

The diplomatic moves were unsuccessful (the War of Jenkins' Ear had started in 1739 as a result of these disputes), and Wentworth had been forced into bankruptcy.

As part of the bankruptcy, he had claimed £11,000 are owed him by the British government due to the Spanish failure to pay.

His London creditors had agreed to forgo immediate repayment of the debt if the government would give him the governorship of New Hampshire.

This had been agreed, on the condition that Wentworth abandon his claim against the British government.