November 30, 2023

5:30 p.m.
Shaw Research Library

 

Why do we know so little about David and Amias Thompson of Plymouth, England? And why is the little we know so often wrong? Our first European couple “settled” at Rye, NH in 1623. Within five years the Thompsons had abandoned their fishing and trading outpost and disappeared from Granite State history. Popular author J. Dennis Robinson explores the era, unearths the facts, and debunks the myths of our rocky 400-year-old origin tale.

Robinson’s companion book–1623: Pilgrims, Pipe Dreams, Politics and the Founding of New Hampshire–will be available for signing and purchase, along with his 400th-anniversary graphic history of Portsmouth for kids and his new hardcover history of New Castle.

This program is brought to the Athenaeum through the Humanities to Go program from New Hampshire Humanities.