Rye, New Hampshire: The First Settlement in the State

In the spring of sixteen twenty-three, a group of English fishermen led by David Thomson landed at what is now called Odiorne Point, on the rocky coast of what would become Rye, New Hampshire. This was the first permanent European settlement in New Hampshire, predating Portsmouth and every other town in the state. Thomson's settlement was called Pannaway Plantation, and it was built as a commercial fishing enterprise backed by English investors who wanted a reliable source of salted cod.

Thomson built a settlement on the promontory and set his people to work. The settlement lasted only a few years in its original form before Thomson moved on, but the site continued to be occupied by subsequent families. The town of Rye was carved out as a separate parish in seventeen twenty-six and incorporated as a town in seventeen eighty-five.

Odiorne Point State Park today preserves the original landing site, and the New Hampshire Seacoast Science Center operates there, marking the spot where New Hampshire's history began four hundred years ago.