Benning Wentworth (1696 - 1770) was appointed Royal Governor by King George II in 1741 following New Hampshire's separation from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1679.

For ten years he rented a brick residence (now known as Warner House) in Portsmouth, capital of the new colony. When the colonial assembly refused to provide the governor enough funds to purchase the house, Wentworth relocated the governmental headquarters to Little Harbor. The mansion he built is one of the few existing colonial governor's residences to survive almost unchanged.

Originally the mansion was part of a 100-acre estate which the governor operated as a typical 18th century gentleman's farm. From the council chamber Wentworth signed the charters that incorporated towns over a wide territory including present-day New Hampshire and Vermont (Bennington, Vermont was named after him.). As surveyor general of His Majesty's Woods, he channeled the forest wealth of New Hampshire to the shipyards and fleets of the Royal Navy. Wentworth served as Royal Governor from 1741 - 1767.

A widower, the governor married for the second time in 1760 when he was 64 years old. His new wife was his 23-year-old servant. The circumstances surrounding the wedding were immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem, "Lady Wentworth" from Tales of a Wayside Inn.

The Middle Years

The Coolidge Years