When the royal governor of New Hampshire fled his own province in the summer of 1775, he did not leave behind a vacuum. He left behind Exeter — a modest town on the Squamscott River that would spend the next decade serving as the revolutionary capital of New Hampshire, the seat of its provisional government, the engine of its military contributions, and the birthplace of the first state constitution adopted by any of the thirteen colonies. Exeter's story is not one of dramatic battlefield engagements or famous midnight rides. It is the story of governance under fire, of institution-building in the midst of uncertainty, and of a handful of extraordinary citizens whose decisions in this small New England town rippled outward to shape the founding of the United States.
PEOPLE
Governor John Wentworth
Royal Governor of New Hampshire, Loyalist, Last Royal Governor
Josiah Bartlett
Continental Congress Delegate, Declaration Signer, Governor of New Hampshire
John Langdon
Continental Congress Delegate, Continental Navy Agent, Governor of New Hampshire
John Phillips
Merchant, Philanthropist, Academy Founder
KEY EVENTS
New Hampshire Adopts First State Constitution
Jan 1776
New Hampshire Ratifies the U.S. Constitution
Jun 1788
Governor Wentworth Flees to HMS Scarborough
Aug 1775
Josiah Bartlett Casts First Vote for Independence
Jul 1776
New Hampshire Provincial Congress Convenes in Exeter
May 1775
New Hampshire Committee of Safety Established
Jun 1775
STORIES
MODERN VOICE
Before the Declaration: New Hampshire Goes First
When I bring school groups into the Ladd-Gilman House, I ask them: when did New Hampshire declare independence from Britain? They say July 4, 1776. I tell them the right answer is January 5, 1776 — an...
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Man Who Kept the Government Running
Meshech Weare did not look like a revolutionary. He was sixty-two when the war began, a judge who had spent his career in the careful middle distance between colonial authority and local autonomy. He ...