The large size of the Joshua Wentworth House is in keeping with its history, for this is the only house in Strawbery Banke that is closely connected with New Hampshire's most powerful colonial family, the Wentworths.

Born in 1742, Joshua Wentworth was a grandson of Lt. Governor John Wentworth, nephew of Governor Benning Wentworth and cousin of New Hampshire's last royal governor, another John Wentworth. Like so many other members of the family Joshua pursued a mercantile career and became successful. By 1770, at the age of twenty-eight, he was one of the richest men in Portsmouth. It was about that time that he began purchasing property including the small building that he would expand into this larger house now in Strawbery Banke.

For all of his close family connections, Joshua Wentworth was never part of the Wentworth inner circle, the so-called "ruling oligarchy" that controlled politics and trade in this northern province. The reason for this is difficult to decipher. The answer may lie in something as simple as a well-developed sense of independence on the part of Joshua, or in differing political views. We do know that Joshua Wentworth never wavered in his support for the colonial cause before and during the American Revolution.

In 1776 Joshua Wentworth signed the Association Test pledging his loyalty to the united colonies in their opposition to Great Britain. That same year Joshua served for a short time as continental agent in New Hampshire, overseeing ship construction for the Continental Congress. When John Langdon took over that post, Wentworth became commissary for the state with the crucial and increasingly difficult responsibility of obtaining supplies for the colonial troops. His signature on myriads of documents now preserved in the New Hampshire State Archives attests to his dedication to that task throughout the war.

Joshua Wentworth was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779, but he chose to stay in Portsmouth. After the Revolution he served as a state representative and senator. In 1790 he received more votes for president of the state than Josiah Bartlett, the man chosen for political reasons by the legislature to fill the position. Having served his state well during its time of greatest crisis, Joshua Wentworth retired to private life. He died in Portsmouth in 1809.

About 1770 Joshua Wentworth bought a small four-room house and began expanding it into this much larger dwelling. Evidence of the older building can still be seen in the frame behind the two chimneys. The completed structure was noted not only for its size but also for some of the finest interior architectural woodwork in the region.

Most of that original joinery has survived, and both its general design and details suggest that it was made in Portsmouth. Yet there are several curiosities about it. Most obvious is that, despite the good size of this house, the woodwork was designed for an even larger building. Also, it is similar to work found in three other Wentworth houses--the Benning Wentworth, Wentworth-Gardner, and Governor John Wentworth houses in Portsmouth. These belonged to the prominent branch of the family to which Joshua Wentworth was not close. This raises questions about what this woodwork was originally intended for, and why it ended up in Joshua Wentworth's house.

A clue to this puzzle may lie in several of the woodwork's motifs. They are similar to designs found in the other Wentworth houses, all built earlier, indicating that the woodwork may have been meant for another member of the family. Further, these common motifs seem to have been derived from an English architectural book, Designs of Inigo Jones , published in 1727 by William Kent. The only copy of this book known to have existed in colonial America was in the library of architect Peter Harrison of Newport, Rhode Island. Harrison, in fact, was designing yet another Wentworth house at the very time Joshua Wentworth was enlarging his residence.

After John Wentworth returned from England as governor in 1767, he employed Peter Harrison to plan a house that he intended to build fifty miles from Portsmouth at Wolfeboro near Lake Winnipesaukee. Construction began in 1769, and work went on into the early 1770s. Governor Wentworth's idea was to create a country estate such as those he had seen in England among the landed gentry. He had been particularly impressed by Wentworth-Woodhouse, the colossal mansion of his distant relative, the Marquis of Rockingham.

John Wentworth's Wolfeboro house was palatial in size. One hundred feet wide and forty deep, it not only was much larger than any thing in Portsmouth, but was one of the great mansions of New England. The Governor spent several summers in the house as work continued on it. In 1775, however, as revolutionary events reached New Hampshire, Wentworth left the province never to see Portsmouth or Wolfeboro again.

Peter Harrison undoubtedly designed the woodwork for Governor Wentworth's country house. Those designs were in all likelihood executed in Portsmouth by one of the town's fine craftsmen. Because of the extent and elaborate nature of the work, however, it would have required a considerable amount of time to fashion. When John Wentworth fled in a small boat from the back yard of his Portsmouth home in June 1775, the woodwork for his Wolfeboro house may still have lain in the shop where it was made. If that were the case, there is reason to believe that the woodwork in the Joshua Wentworth House may be the elaborate joinery commissioned by Governor John Wentworth for what was then the largest house in New Hampshire.

The Joshua Wentworth House has long been recognized as a key example of Portsmouth architecture. In 1937 it was one of eight buildings in the city recorded in the Historic American Building Survey With its hearths and fireplace jambs of smoky black marble, its carved Ionic capitals in the best room, its rich palladian mantelpieces, its heavy cornices and complex balustrade, the Joshua Wentworth House represents not only the best of pre-revolutionary local craftsmanship, but also one of the significant American interpretations of English architectural fashion during the Georgian period.

In 1973 the Joshua Wentworth House donated by Mr. Harry Winebaum was moved to Strawbery Banke by barge from its original site on Hanover Street. The move itself was a major event in Portsmouth as throngs lined the river bank to watch this historic house float to its new resting place. The water route was chosen to avoid cutting the house into sections and removing numerous telephone and electrical wires. Its current location is fitting, for Joshua Wentworth also owned another house and land in this immediate vicinity on the south side of Puddle Dock. Restoration as a museum gallery has been made possible in part by a gift from the Winebaum family.