Strawbery Banke Presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #231

This is the first John Wentworth (1671-1730), not the NH royal governor of the same name later driven out of Portsmouth at the start of the American Revolution. Technically, Wentworth was a lieutenant governor, subject to the political will of his boss in Massachusetts. (Continued)

He helped convince the King that NH needed a separate governor. This portrait, a rarely seen copy, hangs in the Capitol at Concord. Its accuracy is questionable, since the original full-length painting was completed 30 years after Wentworth’s death. An often-neglected link in NH history, John was the grandson of the first Wentworth settler and the father of the powerful provincial Gov. Benning Wentworth, whose mansion survives at Little Harbor. John married Sara Hunking of Portsmouth in 1693. They had 13 children and settled in a house at Puddle Dock (now Strawbery Banke Museum) that was torn down by bordello owner "Cappy" Stewart in the 1920s. (Courtesy of NH Division of Historical Resources) 

This image from the book STRAWBERY BANKE:
A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making
by J. Dennis Robinson
(c) Strawbery Banke Museum Collection

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