Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Lt. Governor John Wentworth (1724-1728). Until 1741 the province of New Hampshire was controlled politically by Massachusetts, in an increasingly fractious relationship. Between 1720-1740 Massachusetts claimed vast amounts of New Hampshire land all the way up to Lake Winnepesaukee.

This portrait, of Lieutenant-Governor John Wentworth (1671-1730), shows the man most responsible for getting the Crown to act on terms favorable to New Hampshire. Wentworth was a Massachusetts official, but he lived in New Hampshire and was responsible for administration of New Hampshire 1724-1728.

Wentworth presented the border dispute as a struggle by "a poor little province" against a rapacious and arrogant Massachusetts. New Hampshire's loyalty to the Crown was stressed, as was a carefully managed revival of the Church of England in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1740 King George II decided the boundary dispute in favor of New Hampshire, and in 1741 New Hampshire got her own governor for the first time.

John Wentworth's portrait was painted by Joseph Blackburn in 1760, thirty years after Wentworth's death. Here we see Wentworth in fashionable 1760 dress, with great attention paid to the expensive fabric and matching covered buttons. The carefully positioned handkerchief is recorded, and Wentworth's well-turned calves are accentuated by his white stockings.

The portrait is a copy of an original work. The copy was made for the State House circa 1870 by Ulysses D. Tenney. It was presented to the State by a descendant in 1874.

Location: State House, Second Floor, Room 207, Council Reception Room
Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1878, after 1760 original by J. Blackburn