Benning Wentworth

Benning Wentworth was an American merchant, landowner and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. He is best known for issuing a series of land grants between 1749 and 1766 in territory disputed with the Province of New York. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire into a prominent local family, Wentworth was groomed by his father John to take over the family business before Wentworth's misbehavior at Harvard College led him to be sent by his father to Boston to undergo an apprenticeship at his uncle's counting house.