Exeter, New Hampshire: The Revolutionary Capital That Forged a State and Helped Birth a Nation

When the royal governor of New Hampshire fled his own province in the summer of 1775, he did not leave behind a vacuum. He left behind Exeter — a modest town on the Squamscott River that would spend the next decade serving as the revolutionary capital of New Hampshire, the seat of its provisional government, the engine of its military contributions, and the birthplace of the first state constitution adopted by any of the thirteen colonies. Exeter's story is not one of dramatic battlefield engagements or famous midnight rides. It is the story of governance under fire, of institution-building in the midst of uncertainty, and of a handful of extraordinary citizens whose decisions in this small New England town rippled outward to shape the founding of the United States.

To understand Exeter's significance, one must first appreciate the crisis that elevated it. Throughout the colonial period, Portsmouth had served as New Hampshire's capital, the seat of royal authority embodied by Governor John Wentworth. Wentworth was not, by most accounts, a tyrant — he was an educated, capable administrator who had invested in the province's infrastructure and enjoyed considerable personal popularity. He had succeeded his uncle, Governor Benning Wentworth, in 1767. But by 1774 and 1775, as tensions between the colonies and Parliament escalated, Wentworth found himself caught between imperial directives and an increasingly restive population. The breaking point came in stages. When patriots raided Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth harbor in December 1774, carrying off gunpowder and weapons that would later serve the revolutionary cause, Wentworth was powerless to stop them. The fort housed supplies of gunpowder and arms, and the raid delivered barrels of gunpowder across the seacoast towns, including Exeter. The town had erected a gunpowder house in 1771, making it an excellent location to store the spoils. By June 1775, with armed conflict already underway at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, the governor's position had become untenable. Wentworth dissolved the colonial assembly, attempted to govern by decree, and finally, recognizing the futility and danger of his situation, fled first to the fort at New Castle, and later to Boston. He departed with his wife Frances and their young son Charles-Mary aboard the British naval warship HMS Scarborough on August 23, 1775. He would never return to govern. Royal authority in New Hampshire was finished. The revolutionary government of New Hampshire subsequently confiscated Wentworth's estates in Portsmouth and Wolfeboro, along with approximately 20,000 acres of his land.

Into this void stepped the New Hampshire Provincial Congress, which had actually begun convening in Exeter even before the governor's flight. In July 1774, a group of men — many of whom were serving in the Provincial Assembly in Portsmouth — met at Exeter to discuss the increased tension with the British government. Exeter was chosen as the second-largest town in the province and because it was inland enough to be safe from British naval intimidation. They agreed on two things: they would elect and send a delegation to the Continental Congress for the colonies' collective response, and they would set up a New Hampshire Committee of Correspondence to keep everyone informed of what was happening across the colonies. This First Provincial Congress, which convened on July 21, 1774, sent Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter and John Sullivan of Durham to represent the province at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

What followed was an extraordinary acceleration of self-governance. A Second Provincial Congress, consisting of 144 members, met on January 25, 1775, in Exeter; while the first Congress had operated on a limited basis, this second body took charge as a legislative government.

At this meeting, a Committee of Safety was appointed to function as the lead decision-making entity for the colony, with Matthew Thornton, a respected physician from Londonderry, chosen as chairman and granted the authority to call a convention when needed and to serve as the province's executive when the congress was not in session. The delegates also agreed to continue participating in the Continental Congress by sending delegates and approving funds to support them.

The need for further action arose quickly. The Third Provincial Congress assembled in Exeter on April 21, 1775, two days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Now, with war having broken out, it focused its efforts on raising and supplying soldiers and officers from the province's militia to counter the British regulars in Boston.

Colonel Nathaniel Folsom was placed in command of all New Hampshire forces bound for Boston, and supplies were to be sent to him.

On April 20, Exeter had already sent Captain James Hackett with 108 men to join the New Hampshire contingent, which soon totaled 2,000 men.

The Fourth Provincial Congress convened in Exeter on May 17, 1775, with Matthew Thornton elected president.

That body created the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, which became the de facto executive of New Hampshire until mid-1784. Meanwhile, the General Assembly was convened in Portsmouth on June 12, but attendance was so poor that it was unable to conduct business; on June 15, Wentworth ordered it adjourned until September, but it would never meet again.

In July 1775, the Provincial Congress had the provincial records seized from royal officials in Portsmouth and brought to Exeter, cementing the town's role as New Hampshire's capital — an honor it would hold for fourteen years.

The Fourth Provincial Congress had already begun to act like the ruling body of the state, aided by the experience of most of its members who had served in the Provincial Assembly, and so self-rule had begun in New Hampshire much earlier than in most other colonies.

With the royal government now collapsed entirely, the Provincial Congress — acting on the advice of the Continental Congress — took the most consequential step in Exeter's history. In early November 1775, the Continental Congress issued a carefully worded resolution endorsing the creation of a provincial government based solely on the will of the people, stating that if New Hampshire's representatives "think it necessary," they should "establish a form of government, as in their best judgment will produce the happiness of the people."

New Hampshire's Fifth Provincial Congress opened in Exeter on December 21, 1775, and the formation of a new government was debated, with the advice of John Langdon, Josiah Bartlett, and John Sullivan all considered.

The constitution was drafted in eight days, primarily by Matthew Thornton, Meshech Weare, Ebenezer Thompson, Wyseman Claggett, and Benjamin Giles, and was only two pages long.

By January 5, 1776, an independent "Form of Government" was enacted for New Hampshire — the first constitution contained just 911 words, about a third of which described the "unhappy circumstances" that brought about such an extraordinary step.

The document was remarkable both for what it established and what it deliberately omitted. It created a two-house legislature: towns elected representatives to the lower House, and that body in turn chose members for the upper Council of twelve; together, these chambers wielded both legislative and executive power, and instead of a governor, the Council selected a President who acted as chief executive but remained firmly under legislative control.

The constitution intentionally excluded a chief executive, reflecting a clear break from the top-down authority of the colonial governor and marking a shift in public attitudes toward representative government.