Meshech Weare

Meshech Weare (June 16, 1713 – January 14, 1786) was an American farmer, lawyer and revolutionary statesman from Seabrook, New Hampshire. He served as the first President of New Hampshire from 1776 to 1785.

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 burned down in the early 1900s.

Weare was baptized 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 Samuel 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 managed to save 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.

Weare graduated from Harvard College in 1735. He originally planned to work in the Congregational ministry, but those plans were changed after his marriage to Elizabeth Shaw in 1738. He planned on improving the land he and his wife bought after their marriage — a plan cut short with his wife's death. He remarried to Mehitable Wainwright in 1746. During this time he began to study law, starting with the books passed down to him from his father and grandfather, who were former lay Judges in the provincial court.

Political life

Weare's political career began in 1739 when he became a town moderator. For the next 35 years, he served in various political positions, including 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, he 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. Weare 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 10 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 throughout the Revolution.

In addition to being New Hampshire's first "President", Weare 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.

Memorials

The New Hampshire town of Weare is named after him because he was the town's first clerk.

In Hampton Falls, a park is named after him. It was built in the early 2000s directly next to his house. His grave is located in a small cemetery across from the park.

References

• Brown, Warren. History of Hampton Falls N.H. Vol. II. 1918.

External links

• Meschach Weare at SeacoastNH.com