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Benning Wentworth (July 24, 1696 – October 14, 1770) was a merchant and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. While serving as governor, Wentworth is best known for issuing several land grants in territory claimed by the Province of New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River, which led to disputes with the neighbouring colony of New York and the eventual creation of Vermont.
Born on July 24, 1696, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire into a prominent colonial family, Wentworth was initially groomed by his father to take over the family business before misbehavior at Harvard College led him to be sent to Boston instead in 1715. There, Wentworth was apprenticed at his uncle's business before working as a merchant. After Wentworth's father died in 1730, he returned to New Hampshire to assume control over the estate.
After assuming his place at the head of his family, Wentworth started dabbling in politics, sitting on both the colonial assembly and the governor's council in the 1730's. There, he allied with Theodore Atkinson against political rivals Jonathan Belcher and Richard Waldron. In 1733, Spain refused to pay Wentworth for a timber shipment, leaving him in debt. Negotiations in London to resolve this led to Wentworth being appointed governor in 1741.
Wentworth used his position as governor to entrench his family's economic and political dominance in New Hampshire. In the 1760's, a dispute with the neighbouring colony of New York led to an end to Wentworth's land grants, and he quietly stepped down as governor in 1766. Wentworth soon retired to his personal mansion in Portsmouth, where he died four years later in 1770. The town of Bennington, Vermont was named in his honour.
