Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Portsmouth, Rockingham, Massachusetts, United States

Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion

Contents 1 Contact information 2 History / Ownership 2.1 Major John Wentworth (1750-1759) 2.2 Governor Benning Wentworth (1759-1766) 2.3 Martha Hilton Wentworth and Michael Wentworth (1766-1812) 2.4 Martha Wentworth and John Wentworth (1812-1816) 2.5 Charles Cushing and Ann Huske Sheafe Cushing (1816-1860 2.6 William P. Israel (1860-1886) 2.7 John Templeman Coolidge, III and Katharine Parkman Cushing (1886-1954) 2.8 State of New Hampshire (1954- current) 3 Research Notes 3.1 Also See 4 Sources

Contact information

375 Little Harbor Road
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603-436-6607
info@wentworthcoolidge.org
Grounds: Open daily, dawn to dusk
Mansion Tours (May-October): W-Su 10am - 4pm, on the hour, last tour at 3pm
Web address: http://wentworthcoolidge.org/

History / Ownership

Major John Wentworth (1750-1759)

• John Wentworth was the son of Benning Wentworth, who had been appointed royal governor of the province of New Hampshire that was separated from the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1741. ^[1]
  
  • In 1753 Benning Wentworth petitioned the legislature to purchase the building where he had been renting in Portsmouth. He would move into the house in Little Harbor until the remodel was complete. ^[1]
    
• A rural property on the outskirts of Portsmouth, New Hampshire on a back channel of the Piscataqua River known as Little Harbor. ^[1]
  
  • Included a dwelling house and 100 acre working farm ^[1]
    
  • Home was constructed from four or maybe five buildings that were moved there and connected ^[1].
    

Governor Benning Wentworth (1759-1766)

• Benning Wentworth gave up the rented home in Portsmouth in 1759 and the Little Harbor residence presumably became his permanent residence and the location where state business was carried out. ^[1].
  
• Benning Wentworth died in 1766 and the home was passed to his second wife, Martha Hilton ^[1].
  

Martha Hilton Wentworth and Michael Wentworth (1766-1812)

• Martha Hilton inherited the home on the death of Benning. She remarried one of his relatives, Michael Wentworth. ^[1].
  
• They entertained George Washington at the Wentworth Mansion when he visited Portland in 1789. ^[2]
  
• Martha died first and Michael Wentworth inherited ownership of the home.^[1].
  

Martha Wentworth and John Wentworth (1812-1816)

• Martha Wentworth was the daughter of Michael and Martha Hilton Wentworth and inherited the mansion after her parents' death. She married John WentworthThey lived there until 1816 when they sold the home and 113 acres to "successful merchant", Charles Cushing. ^[2]
  

Charles Cushing and Ann Huske Sheafe Cushing (1816-1860

• Martha and John Wentworth sold the estate to Charles Cushing and Ann Sheafe Cushing in 1816. ^[1].
  
  • It was operated as a farm and some records show it as Wentworth Farm. ^[1].
    
  • In about 1840 Charles Cushing began opening the home to the public. It was one of the first historic homes to be made open for viewing by the public. ^[1].
    
  • Charles Cushing died in 1849 leaving the home to the use of his wife for the remainder of her life and then to his only living son, Theodore Cushing.^[3]
    
• Ann Cushing and her family remained at Wentworth Mansion until her death on June 15, 1875. ^[4] Her son Theodore had died, unmarried soon after his father.
  

William P. Israel (1860-1886)

• Ann Sheafe Cushing's grandson William P. Israel had likely been operating the farm during his grandmother's life and inherited the home in 1860. ^[2]
  
  • William Israel actively " promoted the property to tourists, making the house one of the first historic dwellings in the United States to be opened to the public:" ^[2]
    
  • In 1886,William P. Israel sold about 15 acres with various buildings, known as "the Governor Wentworth Estate," to John Templeman Coolidge, III, of Boston.^[2]
    

John Templeman Coolidge, III and Katharine Parkman Cushing (1886-1954)

• John Coolidge and Charles Cushing were both Harvard graduate lawyers from Boston, Massachusetts. They were both from wealth and influential families known as Boston Brahmin. ^[5]
  
  • John Coolidge, III purchased the estate as a summer home. They renovated, restored and expanded the mansion with the assistance of Sumner Appleton, founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
    
  • Katherine Parkman died in 1900 and John married second Mary Abigail Parsons Coolidge.
    
  • John Templeton Coolidge, III died in 1945. His second wife Mary Abigail Parsons Coolidge donated the property to the State of New Hampshire in 1954.
    

State of New Hampshire (1954- current)

• The estate is now operated as a New Hampshire State Park under the Parks and Recreation Department of New Hampshire.

Research Notes

Also See

• GenealogyBank.com; [6]; Visit to Little Harbor The Farmers' Cabinet: Thursday, Jan 08, 1846: Amherst, NH:

• Gurney, C. S.: Portsmouth Historic & Picturesque; [7]; Portsmouth, NH; 1902; "Gov. Benning Wentworth Manson; p97-99; CHARLES CUSHING

• Paine, Sarah Cushing, Compiler; Paine Ancestry The Family of Robert Treat Paine, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Printed for the family, Boston, MA,; 1912; [8]; p107, biography of CHARLES CUSHING BY a descendant

• Robinson, J. Dennis, ; How the Coolidge Family of Boston Saved Wentworth Mansion; [www.seacoastnh.com/History/History-Matters/how-the-coolidge-family-of-boston-saved-wentworth-mansion/?showall=1], Published online: SeacoastNH.com.; 2009

• * Robinson, J. Dennis, ; http://www.seacoastnh.com/Places-and-Events/Historic-Tours/Wentworth-Coolidge-Mansion/; Published online: SeacoastNH.com.; 1996-2020

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} Wikipedia: Wentworth–Coolidge Mansion; [1]; History of the house and ownership
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Division of Parks and Recreation, New Hampshire, P.O. Box 1856 Concord, NH 03302-1856, [2]; Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion: The Middle Years ; The Cushing Family
3. ↑ Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982 [3]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.New Hampshire, Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982; Rockingham Probate Records, Vol 84, 1849-1851; p150: WILL OF CHARLES CUSHING
4. ↑ Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Death and Disinterment Records, 1754-1947 [4]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. "New Hampshire, Death and Disinterment Records, 1754–1947." Online index and digital images. New England Historical Genealogical Society. Citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire.
5. ↑ Wikipedia: Boston Brahmin; [5];