Why Did John Mason Found New Hampshire?
John Mason founded New Hampshire in hopes of establishing a fishing colony in North America. The land was given to him by the Council for New England in 1622 and was founded in 1629.
He later split the land with Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1625 and claimed the 60 miles between the Merrimack and Piscataqua Rivers. John Mason was born in 1586 and died before ever actually seeing the land of New Hampshire that he founded. In 1610 he was sent by the King to help settle unrest in Scotland. Expecting to be reimbursed, John Mason funded the voyage himself. However, the noblemen who was expected to pay him for his troubles never did which forced Mason to enter a life of piracy.
He traveled to the New World in order to serve as a governor of one of the plantations in Newfoundland. There he learned of the natural resources that North America provided. When John Mason was given the land which was then known as “North Virginia” he sent a Scotsman and two fishing merchants: David Thomson, and Edward and Thomas Hilton respectively to the newly acquired land in order to develop a fishing industry at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.
