New Hampshire’s First Settlers Historical Marker and Monument – Rye, New Hampshire

In 1622 John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges were granted land between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers. Captain John Mason granted six thousand acres to David Thompson to establish trade and to settle the land. In 1623 he founded the Pannaway settlement on this site on the New Hampshire seacoast in Rye. Pannaway did not survive as a permanent colony is now on land within Odiorne Point State Park.

First Settler’s Monument