The first name given to the land now called New Hampshire was North Virginia.

In 1623, Captain John Mason, sent two groups of people to establish fishing colonies near the mouth of the Piscataquea River. One of these divisions, settled near the river's mouth, now called the town of Rye, where they erected salt-drying fish racks and build a stone house. The other group set up their fishing operations eight miles above Rye, at a site which is now knows as the city of Dover.

The settlement of New Hampshire was planned with much care by the English Crown and the English Parliament. The colonization of New Hampshire, not only provided ships and provisions, but free land for its settlers. The cost of this "free Land" came with a heavy price, the land once bestowed upon the new settlers came with one very important condition, that is remain always subject to English sovereignity.