The spring of 1623 found the ship Jonathon and it’s very few passengers landing 50 miles north of the present day Boston. This handful of men, under the leadership of David Thompson, had come to the New World to earn money for a group of men in England known as the Plymouth Council. They were to evaporate sea water to obtain salt to preserve the fish they caught, they were also to cut timber. These products were to be shipped to England and sold. If the endeavor prospered the settlement would continue if not then it would certainly be abandoned. These men settled near the mouth of a river they called ‘Piscataqua’, a Native American name, and they named their settlement ‘Pannaway’. They quickly built rudimentary huts covered with bark, turf, and clay, so that they could begin their …show more content…
Mason called these grants ‘New Hampshire’ because he was from the county of Hampshire in England. The Hiltons pushed about eight miles up the Piscataqua River and founded Dover. Mason sent skilled Danes and 22 women so that the settlement would begin to flourish. In 1631 the Hiltons founded a second settlement approximately three miles north of Pannaway. The meadows along the river were lush strawberries, which prompted them to name it ‘Strawberry Bank’. Dover and Strawberry Bank grew slowly. Everything was provided for them by Mason and the Plymouth Council; food, tools, building materials, guns, munitions, and even fine fat cattle. Men were paid wages and owned no land of their own. Only the proprietors benefited from their labor, so the settlers had little reason to strive for improvement. In 1635 the Plymouth Council was forced to give up their charter to King Charles I of England. The King didn’t have time for the colonies. Both Dover and Strawberry Bank took advantage of this and set up their own