New Hampshire Grants

The New Hampshire Grants were land grants, including 131 towns, made between 1749 and 1764 by the governor of the Province of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth (they are thus also known as the Benning Wentworth Grants). The land grants, totalling about 135, were made on land claimed by New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River, but which properly belonged to the Province of New York. The resulting dispute led to the eventual establishment of the U.S. state of Vermont.

Outcome

Following the American Revolutionary War, during which period and beyond the people of the Green Mountain State had been self-governing (having written their own constitution and settled into the habit of sovereignty), it became clear to the Continental Congress (et al.) that the region of the New Hampshire Grants should become a state. The idea was pursued at several stages, ending in failure for one reason or another until 1790, when New York consented to the admission of Vermont into the Union, ceded control of the New Hampshire Grants to Vermont and stated the New York-Vermont boundary should be the western edge of the New Hampshire Grants and the mid-channel of Lake Champlain. (The Vermont-New Hampshire boundary is the still the western bank of Connecticut River.)

Related Topics:
American Revolutionary War - Constitution - Sovereignty - Continental Congress - 1790 - Admission - Union

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Vermont voters ratified the United States Constitution on January 6, 1791 and the U.S. Congress passed the resolution admitting Vermont into the Union on February 18. On March 4 of the same year, the New Hampshire Grants, as Vermont, became the 14th state, the first state admitted to the Union after the original 13 colonies.

Related Topics:
United States Constitution - January 6 - 1791 - U.S. Congress - February 18 - March 4 - 13 colonies

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Related Topics:
January 28 - 1794

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In order to prevent further legal to-dos, the government of Vermont paid the government of New York $30,000 (New York had sought $600,000) in compensation for that state's diminished territorial reach.

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It is also worth noting that while Wentworth's land sales were underway through several decades of the mid-18th century, New York had simultaneously been issuing land patents in the same area. However, in contrast to the New Hampshire grants, the New York patents were generally (a) irregularly shaped and (b) issued to wealthy landowers. The New Hampshire grants were "town-sized," and generally settled by middle-class farmers, setting the stage for Vermont's populist uprising of the Revolutionary era. So, in general, after statehood, the New York boundaries were ignored in favor of the New Hampshire boundaries and designations. Some of these New York patents are now referred to as paper towns, because they existed only on paper.

Related Topics:
Middle-class - Revolutionary era - Paper towns

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