New Hampshire's Loyalist population was smaller than in some colonies, in part because the absence of fighting within its borders allowed many residents to remain uncommitted and wait out events. The most prominent Loyalist was Governor John Wentworth, who fled and never returned. His Anglican inner circle largely followed him into exile. Robert Rogers, famous for Rogers's Rangers in the French and Indian War, raised a Loyalist unit and fought for the British. The Loyalist-Patriot divide in New Hampshire tracked closely along religious lines: Anglicans from Wentworth's Portsmouth congregation tended toward loyalty, while Congregationalists—the colony's majority—tended toward patriotism. The Congregational Church remained New Hampshire's established church into the early nineteenth century, a sign of the patriots' denominational triumph and of how closely religious and political allegiance were bound together in the state.
Interviewees
-
Eliga Gould
- Professor of History, University of New Hampshire
