Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet
Sir George Prévost | |
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Personal details | |
Born | 9 August 1737 Halifax, Nova Scotia |
Spouse | Frances Atkinson |
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Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet (9 August 1737 – 8 April 1820) was the British colonial governor of New Hampshire at the time of the American Revolution. He was later also Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. He is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Church in Halifax.
Early years
Wentworth was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 9 August 1737.[1] His ancestry went back to some of the earliest settlers of the Province of New Hampshire, and he was a grandson of John Wentworth, who served as the province's lieutenant governor in the 1720s, a nephew to Governor Benning Wentworth,[2] and a descendant of "Elder" William Wentworth. His father Mark was a major landowner and merchant in the province, and his mother, Elizabeth Rindge Wentworth, was also from the upper echelons of New Hampshire society.[3] In 1751, he enrolled in Harvard College, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1755 and a master's degree in 1758.[4] During his time at Harvard, he was a classmate and became a close friend of future Founding Father and President of the United States John Adams.[5]
In 1759, the young Wentworth made his first significant investment, joining a partnership in the purchase and development of land in the
Wentworth's uncle Benning had spent many years of his governorship lining his pockets by
In August 1766, he was commissioned as Governor and vice admiral of New Hampshire, and Surveyor General of the King's Woods in North America. Before he returned to North America he was awarded a Doctorate of Common Law by
Governor of New Hampshire
Under Wentworth's administration the growing province was divided into five counties to distribute administration and judicial functions to communities remote from Portsmouth. Wentworth was responsible for naming them, choosing names of current British leaders (including Rockingham), but also named Strafford County after one of his distant relatives, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford.
He also began the process of developing roads between the major population centers of the province, which had grown around the coast and the
Wentworth was ironically responsible for significant improvements to the provincial militia organization. When he arrived, the militia consisted of about 10,000 men, who were by his report "badly accoutred and scarcely at all disciplined". He expanded the militia, adding 1,600 men and three regiments to the force, and regularly attended regimental reviews.
Although Wentworth was successful in keeping New Hampshire from implementing harsh boycotts in response to the Townshend Acts, he was clearly troubled by both colonial resistance to Parliamentary acts and by the introduction of troops into Boston in 1768. He wrote to Rockingham that the troop movement was likely to be problematic, and that government and other reforms were more likely to succeed. New Hampshire businessmen were eventually pressured into adopting a boycott of British goods when Massachusetts businessmen threatened to suspend trade with them.
After the
Wentworth's popularity in the province began to fall as tensions continued to rise in neighboring Massachusetts. When the Boston port was closed as punishment for the Tea Party, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage found it increasingly difficult to find workers willing to support the military (despite rampant unemployment caused by the port closure). He therefore asked Wentworth to assist in the procurement of carpenters in New Hampshire to build barracks for the troops. When his secretive methods to do so were exposed and publicized, local revolutionary committees denounced him as an "enemy to the community".[8] Although he intuited that the arrival of Paul Revere on 13 December 1774, was likely to cause trouble, he was unable to prevent the local militia, now effectively under control of the revolutionary committees, from marching on Fort William and Mary the next day and seizing the provincial armaments and gunpowder. Wentworth had warned the garrison before the event, and called for naval support afterward, but it arrived too late to be of use.
He eventually asked for further reinforcements but received none, and realized that any attempt to arrest the ringleaders of the rebellion would likely result in an uprising. He organized a small force of trusted men to act as guards of his person and property, and during early 1775 pressure on the province's Loyalists was prompting some of them to flee to the safety of the British Army presence in Boston. Despite the opening of hostilities with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April (after which numerous New Hampshire militia went south to join the Siege of Boston), Wentworth convened the provincial assembly in late May. Composed primarily of rebel sympathizers, it refused to consider the Conciliatory Resolution proposed by Prime Minister Lord North to defuse the crisis. Wentworth therefore prorogued the assembly, hoping that a delay would favorably change the atmosphere. It did not; on 30 May, rebel militia began occupying and fortifying Portsmouth. Captain Andrew Barclay of HMS Scarborough further exacerbated tensions by impressing local fishermen and seizing supplies for use by the troops in Boston. Wentworth managed to defuse the situation by convincing Barclay to release the fishermen.
On 13 June 1775, after his house was surrounded by a mob of armed men seeking to arrest a Loyalist militia officer, Wentworth and his family fled to Fort William and Mary, which was under the guns of the Scarborough. Conditions continued to deteriorate, and Wentworth boarded the Scarborough and sailed for Boston on 23 August. After sending his family to England, he remained in the city until it was evacuated to Halifax in March 1776. He remained with the fleet until New York City was captured in September 1776, and finally sailed to England in early 1778. The New Hampshire government established after his departure seized most of his property, but specially reserved to the family portraits and furniture from the Portsmouth mansion.
Surveyor General of the King's Woods
Wentworth had hopes of being appointed Governor of Nova Scotia, replacing
The office of Surveyor General of the King's Woods had been regarded as a sinecure by most of its previous holders, but Wentworth took the job very seriously. The government had seen the forests of North America as an inexhaustible resource of timber for the construction of ships, buildings, wharves, and other purposes. But Wentworth was far-sighted enough to see that the pressure of human settlement was literally chipping away at the old-growth forests. In particular he was aware of the enormous demand by the Royal Navy for mast timber, the tall, straight pines that were suitable for masts, booms, and other rigging on sailing ships. And given that Britain had just lost about half of its forest lands in North America, he was determined that, for the defense of the realm, the remainder of the choice trees would be protected.
For the next seven years Wentworth travelled through the woods of eastern British North America, displaying endurance and courage that were remarkable for a man who in 1783 was forty-six years old. He could truthfully declare that his journeys were so physically demanding he could never find any man who could stay with him through a whole trip. The timber reservations John Wentworth made between 1783 and 1791 not only provided the Royal Navy at a critical time with the masts to defeat Napoleon, but also laid the basis of future crown land policies in what is now Canada.[10]
Upon his return from his travels to Halifax in Dec., 1786, he received a letter from
Frances Wentworth and Prince William
Frances Wentworth had been unhappy since her arrival in Nova Scotia. As ambitious as her husband, she took his and her misfortunes very hard. She also missed the sophisticated lifestyle she had enjoyed in England, missed her son who was being schooled in England, and was distressed by John's long absences.[12]
John learned of the affair, but did not raise any public scandal; Frances described him in a letter as the "most diffident of men." A scandal would not have furthered the interests of either of them. Nevertheless, he made his displeasure known to the King, most likely via the Prince's superior officer, Admiral
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
The Wentworths sailed to England in the early summer of 1791, to try to sort out their deepening financial disorders. While there, news came that Lt. Gov. Parr had died. The couple immediately began lobbying for John to get the vacated post, and while his position appeared weak, Henry Dundas decided in his favor based on his experience.[15] Wentworth became the first civilian governor of Nova Scotia.
During the previous decade hostility between the Planters and the newly arrived Loyalists nearly crippled the government. As well, the cost of settling the Loyalists had plunged the colony into debt. As a Loyalist himself, Wentworth favored them for higher offices, while being more even-handed with the distribution of lower offices. This began a Loyalist ascendancy that continued well into the 19th century. He stabilized the colony's finances by introducing an excise duty on all imports; by the end of 1793 even some of the principal of the debt had been paid off.[16]
In April, 1793, news arrived that war had broken out between Britain and
In May, 1794, another royal prince arrived at Halifax, the fourth son of the King,
The Wentworths had been displeased with the state of their residence since John had come to the office. The building (on the site now occupied by Province House) was a wood-frame construction built in 1758. Nearly 40 years later it was generally run-down and not large enough for major occasions. Beginning in 1796, Wentworth obtained funding from the Legislature for an entirely new building, built of stone, which would be both a residence and a public space, a few blocks to the southwest. Government House, as it became known, eventually went three times over its initial budget, and the Wentworths did not finally move in until 1805, when the interior was still not finished.[20] This residence still serves as home to Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governors today.
Wentworth also improved and expanded roads, increased support to Nova Scotia's poverty stricken
Wentworth was knighted and awarded a baronetcy in 1795,[22] and granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms, London, England, 16 May 1795.[23] He also served as Grand Master of the Free Masons. He retired as governor of Nova Scotia in 1808 on a pension of 6500 dollars.[24]
Family and legacy
John Wentworth and Frances Deering Wentworth were cousins.[25] Frances had first married Theodore Atkinson, Junior, Secretary of the Colony of New Hampshire, who died at Portsmouth, 28 October 1769. John and Frances married two weeks later. Her name is preserved in the towns of Francestown, Deering and Wentworth. John's name is preserved in the community of Wentworth and the surrounding area. The couple had one son, Charles Mary Wentworth, who succeeded to the baronetcy.[24] The son, who served as a member of the Legislative Council in Nova Scotia, died without issue in 1844, extinguishing the baronetcy.[26]
Frances died at
Government House remains the official residence of Nova Scotia's Lieutenant-Governors.[27]
The Governor's Lady, by
Lieutenant Governor Wentworth employed a number of Maroons on his farm and in his household, as well as a few at Government House. Wentworth kept a Maroon mistress. They had at least one child, George Wentworth Colley (1804–1893). Wentworth's farm was located near the foot of Long Lake.
See also
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 53: Wentworth Estate
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 116: College Road
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 123: The Governor's Road
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 186: Sawyer's Rock
- New Hampshire Route 109, part of which is known as the Governor Wentworth Highway
Notes
- ^ Mayo, p. 7
- ^ Mayo, p. 5
- ^ Mayo, pp. 8–9
- ^ a b Fingard, Judith (1983). "Wentworth, John". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. V (1801–1820) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- ^ Mayo pp. 9–12
- ^ Mayo, p. 26
- ^ Gurney, C.S. (1902). Portsmouth, Historic and Picturesque. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. pp. 88–89.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Mayo, p. 138
- ^ Cuthbertson, Brian C., The Loyalist Governor, Petheric Press, Halifax, 1983, p. 27
- ^ Cuthbertson, p. 32
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 40–41
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 36–37
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 41–43. The evidence for the affair is mainly from the diary of Lt. William Dyott, who later became a general and aide-de-camp to King George. While in Halifax in 1787 Dyott served as an unofficial aide to the prince, as well as a companion and drinking partner. John Wentworth's biographer, Cuthbertson, as well as historian and novelist Thomas Raddall, believe the affair happened, while the Prince's biographer, Philip Ziegler, and author Philip Young, in his book Revolutionary Ladies, raise doubts.
- ^ Cuthbertson, p. 43
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 50–53
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 58–59
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 62–64
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 70–71
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 90–91
- ^ Cuthbertson, pp. 108–111
- ^ John Boileau, The peaceful revolution: 250 years of democracy in Nova Scotia (2008) p. 96
- ^ Heraldic Journal, p. 171
- ^ Governor General of Canada – Public Register or Arms, Flags and Badges (website – includes image of the arms) accessed 21 November 2015
- ^ a b Morgan, Henry James, ed. (1903). Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada. Toronto: Williams Briggs. p. 349.
- ^ Cuthbertson, p 12
- ^ Heraldic Journal, p. 172
- ^ "The story of Government House". Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
References
- Mayo, Lawrence Shaw (1921). John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire: 1767-1775. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 1609815.
- Cuthbertson, Brian C. (1983). The Loyalist Governor, Biography of Sir John Wentworth. Halifax, NS: Petheric Press. ISBN 0-919380-43-3.
- Wilderson, Paul W. (1994). Governor John Wentworth & the American Revolution: The English Connection. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. ISBN 0-87451-656-0.
- The Heraldic Journal
External links
- Biography in BluPete's History of Nova Scotia
- Paul Wilderson, "Governor John Wentworth" at Seacoastnh.com (A New Hampshire perspective)
- Biography at ns1763.ca