came its governor on 13 Dec., and held this post until 1767. He was authorized by the crown to grant patents of unoccupied land, and in 1749 began to make grants in what is now southern Vermont. This land was considered by the colonial governor of New York as lying within his domain, and the collision, famous in the history of Vermont, respecting the “ New Hampshire grants,” ensued. A proclamation was made by the governor of New York on 28 Dec., 1763, claiming the territory under the grant from Charles II. to the Duke of York and ordering the sheriff to make returns of the names of those that had settled west of Connecticut river under titles that were derived from New Hampshire. Gov. Wentworth issued a counter-proclamation on 13 March, 1764, declaring these claims obsolete and maintaining the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. Gov. Wentworth exacted heavy fees for his grants of land, and thus accumulated a large property. In each of them he stipulated for the reservation of a lot for an Episcopal church. After his resignation as governor he gave to Dartmouth 500 acres of land, on which the college buildings were erected. He was fond of display. His splendid coach with its retinue of servants became a feature of Portsmouth, and in his spacious mansion he assumed what was then looked upon as almost regal state. The town of Bennington, Vt., was named in his honor. His first wife was Abigail, the daughter of John Ruck, of Boston, who died on 8 Nov., 1755, and his second was his young housekeeper, who had been brought up in his family. His marriage to her, which took place on 15 March, 1760, is the subject of Longfellow's poem, “Lady Wentworth.” She was made sole heir of the governor's extensive property, and after his death married Col. Michael Wentworth, of the British army. Her only child, Martha, became the wife of Gov. John Wentworth's nephew, John Wentworth, author of “Special Pleading.”—
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Benning's nephew, Sir John, bart., governor of New Hampshire and afterward of Nova Scotia, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 9 Aug., 1737; d. in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 8 April, 1820, was the son of Mark Hunking Wentworth, a councillor of New Hampshire, with whom he was associated as a merchant after his graduation at Harvard in 1755. He went to England in 1765 as agent of the province, and through the influence of Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, obtained the appointment of governor of New Hampshire, succeeding his uncle, and serving from 1767 till 1775. To this office was added that of surveyor-general of the king's woods in North America, with a salary of £700 and perquisites. He landed in Charleston, S. C., in March, 1768, and, travelling northward by land, registered his commission as surveyor in each of the colonies through which he passed. He entered on his duties as governor in June, 1768, was popular, and an excellent public man in every particular. In business he was prompt and efficient, and aided greatly in encouraging education. He gave Dartmouth college its charter and endowed it with 44,000 acres of land, and also gave a piece of land to each member of the first graduating class. (See Wheelock, Eleazar.) He did much to encourage agriculture and to promote the settlement of New Hampshire, and labored zealously to increase its wealth and importance. When the Revolution began, his efforts to prevent a rupture were unwearied, and he was popular with the people until Gen. Thomas Gage applied to him to procure workmen in New Hampshire to aid in the erection of barracks for the British troops in Boston. He endeavored to comply with this request, which gave the death-blow to his authority, and he was forced to abandon his post. The indignation of the people compelled him to take refuge first in Fort William and Mary and then on board a British ship. His last official act was performed at the Isles of Shoals, where he prorogued the assembly. He embarked for Boston in the ship-of-war “Scarborough” on 24 Aug., 1775, and soon sailed for England, where he remained until peace was declared. Although he was regarded with especial favor by the king, he seems to have held no office. In 1778 he was in Paris, and John Adams records meeting him as he was leaving his box in the theatre. “At first,” says Adams, “I was somewhat embarrassed and knew not how to behave toward him. As my classmate and friend at college and ever since, I could have pressed him to my bosom with cordial affection; but we now belonged to two different nations at war with each other, and consequently we were enemies.” During their interview “not an indelicate expression to us or to our country or our ally escaped him. His whole behavior was that of an accomplished gentleman.” In 1792 he was appointed governor of Nova Scotia, which office he held until 1808, when he retired with a pension of £500 per annum, and was succeeded by Sir George Prevost. He also resumed his post of surveyor of the king's woods. In 1795 he was created a baronet. In 1799 the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, visited Halifax, and Sir John gave a dinner and ball of princely magnificence in his honor at the government house. After his retirement he went with Lady Wentworth to England, but returned to Nova Scotia in 1810 and was accorded a public welcome. He received the degree of A. M. from Harvard and Princeton in 1763, and that of LL. D. from Oxford in 1766 and Dartmouth in 1773. Gov. Wentworth owned a large farm in Wolfsborough, N. H., on which he erected in 1773 a mansion 100 feet in length and 45 feet in width and out-buildings of a corresponding size. His entire estate was confiscated and this house was burned in the year of his death. His house in Pleasant street, Portsmouth, was occupied for many years by a kinsman. Ebenezer Wentworth, at one time a cashier of the branch Bank of the United States, who died in 1860. He preserved the parlor in the same style in which its old occupant left it at the time of the Revolution. Many distinguished visitors from abroad have had curiosity to view the premises and his valuable collection of family paintings.—His wife, Frances Deering, was a native of Boston and died in England in 1813. Her maiden name was Wentworth, and, although her earliest attachment was for John Wentworth, during his first visit to England, she married Theodore Atkinson, a kinsman of both. On 11 Nov., 1769, after the death of her first husband, she married Gov. Went-
