New Hampshire was first settled on the coast in the 1630s. It was originally part of Maine, then a separate British Province, and then in 1699 fell under the authority of Massachusetts. In 1764, the Connecticut River became its western boundary. After the Indian Wars of the 1750s, settlers began coming into the area. New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify the Constitution. The northern border with Canada was finally resolved in 1842.
The early settler came from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Many stayed, many continued into Vermont, then New York and then ever westward.
The Putnams who came into New Hampshire were almost all from Massachusetts, with a few from Connecticut. In the early to mid 1700s, the family spread west into central Massachusetts primarily into Worcester and Franklin Counties along the border with New Hampshire. Long before the Revolution, many Putnams ventured into southern New Hampshire initially into the border counties of Hillsborough and Cheshire. A few ventured towards the middle of the state and settled in Grafton, Sullivan and Merrimack Counties in the first half of the 1800s. An equal if not larger number of settlers in the mid 1700s moved on to Vermont by the latter part of the 1700s right after the close of the War with England.
The first real settlement in what is now New Hampshire, but was Canada until 1769, was the town of Salem, Canada. The town was granted in 1735, and by 1737 three families from Danvers, Massachusetts became the first settlers. They were Jacob Putnam, Ephraim Putnam, and John Dale. Jacob and Ephraim were both sons of Nathaniel Putnam of Danvers. In 1769, when New Hampshire became a Colony on its own, Salem was split and towns such as Wilton and Lyndeborough were established. This is where the Putnams had been established. Jacob and his family were in Wilton, Ephraim and his in Lyndeborough, all in what is now Hillsborough County.
In the late 1740s, Seth Putnam and his family came and settled in Charlestown, or Number Four (named for the fort) as it was called then. Seth died here in 1775. His sons Ebenezer, Thomas and Timothy remained here in Charlestown, but by the late 1780s many of his grandchildren had moved on to Chittenden County, Vermont. The last, Ebenezer Junior, followed them in 1790 (being recorded in both the New Hampshire and the Vermont census of 1790).
Nathaniel came to Wilton from Salem in the 1740s, returned to Salem when the Indian ‘troubles’ broke out, then returned to Wilton about 1750. But he had died, and his kids had all moved to Chautaugua County, New York by the time the first census was taken in 1790. Daniel Putnam of Sutton came to Cornish in 1764 and remained there all his life.
Two sons of Cornelius Putnam came from Connecticut and settled up the Connecticut River in the Hanover area of Grafton County. They were in Hillsborough County by the 1780s and in Hanover and Lebanon of Grafton County by the 1790 census.
Several other Putnams were in Hillsborough and Cheshire Counties before the Revolution, but had moved on to Vermont in the 1770s and in many cases were out of Vermont as well before the first census reports. In fact, if you look at the section on New York, you will see a great many New England Putnam families in the first (1790) census. These families had all come from Massachusetts, passed through New Hampshire and Vermont and made it to New York even before the Revolution.
And once again, I am probably the only member of the ‘Southern Branch’ of the family to set foot in the Granite State. Great skiing, but who would want to live in a state whose motto is "Live Free or Die." Seems a tad harsh to me. On the other hand in many ways it is just like it was in 1735. Still no sales tax and still no public services, but good prices on cigarettes and liquor for those chilly winter eves.