Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor William Plumer (1812-1813; 1816-1819). Plumer (1759-1850) was born at Newburyport (MA). Elected a selectman at Epping (NH) in 1783, Plumer was next elected to the first of many terms as a State Representative [ 1785-86, 1788, 1790-91 (Speaker of the House, 1791), 1797-1800 (Speaker of the House, 1791). While serving his first terms in the House Plumer read law with Joseph Atherton (1784-87). He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1787.

Plumer was a delegate to the New Hampshire Constitutional Conventions of 1791-92. In 1802 he was elected (as a Federalist) to a term in the U. S. Senate (served 1802-1807). While at Washington Plumer wrote William Plumer's Memorandum of Proceedings of the United States Senate, 1803-1807 (edited by E. S. Brown, 1923), an important source for historical researchers.

Returning to New Hampshire Plumer served as President of the Senate (1810). He supported the War of 1812 as Governor, and he recommended changes to the Dartmouth College charter which became the 1819 Dartmouth College Case, one of the landmark decisions of Chief Justice John Marshall's Supreme Court.

In the 1820 presidential election Plumer was the only Presidential Elector to vote against a second term in office for President James Monroe. He was a founder and the first President of The New Hampshire Historical Society (founded 1823), and his biographical sketches of his contemporaries are an important part of the Society's manuscript collections. Plumer is buried near Epping (NH).

Location: State House, Second Floor, Executive Council Chambers
Portrait by A. Tenney after original by A. G. Hoyt; Presented to the State by a descendant, 1873