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Wentworth attempt was made to force the colonies to receive tea from the East Indies, he profited by the neglect of the home government to give him definite instructions, and persuaded the consignee to pay the duty and re-ship the cargo to Halifax. His influence, however, was waning. On 8 June 1774 he dissolved the New Hampshire assembly at Portsmouth because the members had nominated a committee to concert action with the other colonies, but he was unable to hinder the assembly from meeting privately on 6 July. Despite his remonstrance, the assembly arranged a convention at Exeter, where, on 21 July, two deputies were chosen to represent New Hampshire at the general congress of the colonies. In the autumn he finally ruined his popularity by endeavouring secretly to procure labourers for General Thomas Gage (1721–1787) [q. v.] to build barracks at Boston for the troops after the Massachusetts workmen had refused to work for him. The committee of safety had Wentworth's agent brought before them and compelled him to make ‘a humble acknowledgment.’ On 14 Dec. an armed body of people seized Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) on Great Island, at the mouth of Portsmouth harbour, and carried off its armament. On 28 Feb. 1775 Wentworth issued writs for calling a general assembly, but, finding that many of the ringleaders in the attack on the fort had been returned, he postponed the meeting by proclamation until 4 May. On 12 July the assembly expelled three members summoned by the governor's writs from new towns, and one of them was taken from Wentworth's house by the populace and driven out of the town. Wentworth, considering himself in danger, retired to the fort, and subsequently to a warship in the harbour. His house was pillaged, and he took refuge at Boston, after declaring the legislature adjourned till 28 Sept. In September he issued a proclamation from the Isle of Shoals proroguing the assembly until April. This was his last official act, for on 5 Feb. 1776 the state congress at Exeter resolved ‘to form an independent government, owing to the sudden and abrupt departure’ of Wentworth and several of the council. On 7 Feb. 1778 he embarked for Europe, and in the same year the assembly forbade his return and confiscated his property. During his governorship he was active in educational matters, promoting with the greatest zeal the foundation of Dartmouth College at Hanover in 1770 [see, second ]. He received the degree of D.C.L. from the college in 1773, and a like degree from the university of Aberdeen in the same year.

Though Wentworth suffered much from the revolution, he retained no personal resentment against its leaders. John Adams relates that he met him in 1778 at a theatre in Paris, and was greeted by him with the greatest cordiality. He resided in or near London until 1783, when he received a new commission as surveyor-general of the king's woods for all North America. He embarked for Halifax on 12 Aug., and until 1792 was incessantly engaged in the duties of his office, visiting the less cultivated parts of North America.

On 14 May 1792 he was sworn lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia under Lord Dorchester, governor-general of all the North American provinces [see, first ]. Both Dorchester and the Duke of Kent showed him much favour, and the duke, on leaving Halifax in 1800, gave him his house known as ‘Prince's Lodge.’ On 16 May 1795 he was created a baronet, and on 16 June 1796 he was honoured with the privilege of wearing in the chevron of his arms two keys as an emblem of his fidelity. His administration in Nova Scotia was vigorous, and personally he was popular; but he was accused of filling his council with his own connections, and towards the end of his government he was involved in several differences with the assembly. He was succeeded by Sir George Prevost (1767–1816) [q. v.] in 1808, receiving a pension of 500l. a year. He died at Halifax on 8 April 1820, and was buried in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, where a marble tablet was erected to his memory.

Wentworth married, on 11 Nov. 1769, at Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth, his cousin Frances, daughter of Samuel Wentworth and widow of Theodore Atkinson. She died on 14 Feb. 1813 at Gunning in Berkshire. By her he had one surviving son, Charles Mary (1775–1844), on whose death the baronetcy became extinct.

Sir John Wentworth's portrait, engraved by H. W. Smith from a painting by Copley, is in the ‘Wentworth Genealogy.’ His correspondence from 1767 to 1808 in nine volumes of manuscript is now among the public records at Halifax. His correspondence concerning the foundation of Dartmouth College is in possession of the college.

[J. Wentworth's Wentworth Genealogy, Boston, 1878; Collections of the New Hampshire Hist. Soc. iii. 107, 283, 286, iv. 151, v. 239, 259, vii. 221, 235, ix. 55, 67, 73, 304–63; Chase's Hist. of Dartmouth College, ed. Lord, 1891, vol. i.