Meshech Weare

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The Hon. Meshech Weare (June 16, 1713 – January 12\14, 1786) was a farmer, lawyer, and revolutionary statesman from Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He served as the first President of New Hampshire from 1776 to 1785.

1 Family life
2 Political life
3 Memorials
4 External Resources
5 Resources

[edit] Family life

Meshech was born to Deacon Nathaniel Weare and his second wife, Mary Waite in what was then the Third Parish, New Hampshire. The site of the home is now in Seabrook, though the actual house burnt down in the early 1900s. Fortunately, a picture of the home does exist. Meshech was baptized by Rev. Cotton in modern-day-Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, on June 21, 1713. He was the youngest of 14 children. Some of the children included (in order of baptism date) Elizabeth, Meshech, Abigail, Mehitable, Susanna, and Nathan. It later became part of Hampton Falls, but is now a part of Seabrook. The house Meshech lived in was built in 1737 by R. Shaw. It has been visited by George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, and James Monroe. The back half of the house burnt down a while back, but the firefighters did a miraculous job of saving the front half. It still stands to this day, right next to the park named after him and across from the town school, Lincoln Akerman School.

Meshech graduated from Harvard College in 1735. He originally planned to work in the Congretional ministry, but those plans were changed after his marriage to Elizabeth Shaw in 1738. Now he planned on improving the land he and his wife bought after their marriage. But then came the untimely death of Elizabeth some time later. So he remarried to Mehitable Wainwright in 1746. It was during this time that Meshech began to study law, he first started with the books passed down to him from his father and grandfather, who were former lay Judges in the provincial court.

[edit] Political life

Meshech's political career began in 1739 when he became a town moderator. For the next thirty-five years, he served in various political positions. They included selectman and representative of Hampton Falls in the Assembly. He was also thrice speaker of the House of Representatives, and its clerk for eight years. In 1754, Meshech was one of New Hampshire's delegates to the Albany Congress.

On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first American state to adopt a formal constitution. Meshech was a leader in the drafting of this document, which served as the basic instrument of government for the ensuing eight years or until the adoption of a second and more permanent constitution in 1784. Under this constitution, there was no established executive, and the legislature was supreme. In practice, executive power was delegated to a Committee of Safety consisting of eight or ten legislative leaders. This committee had full power to act on behalf of the government while the legislature was not in session. After a brief interval, Weare was elected chairman of the Committee of Safety and served in this capacity through out the Revolution.

In addition to being New Hampshire's first "President", Meshech was chief justice of the state's highest court the "Superior Court of Judicature" from 1776 to 1782. He also served as presiding officer of the Council, then part of the upper house of the legislature. He managed to hold that position throughout the American Revolution.

The Committee of Safety, over which Weare presided, was a most interesting governmental institution. It operated both at the state and (through a network of town committees of safety) at the local level, and was virtually a law unto itself while the legislature was not in session. Its duties included supervision and coordination of military affairs within the state, raising of recruits and supplies, regulation of the state militia, custody of prisoners of war, supervision of the entrance and clearance of vessels from Portsmouth Harbor, regulation of privateers and captured prizes, surveillance of the Loyalists, regulation of trade and currency (including prevention of counterfeiting), and supervision of price controls.