White pine trees were prized in the colonial era for the high quality of their wood and tall, straight trunks. Colonial authorities marked the best specimens with the King’s Broad Arrow to reserve them for ships’ masts for the Royal Navy.
Most colonists did not profit from this arrangement and resented the loss of their largest trees.
In February 1772, officials found and confiscated white pines with the king’s mark at a sawmill in Goffstown. Some of the offenders, who lived in Weare, refused to pay the required fine, so on April 13, 1772, the deputy surveyor and his assistant rode out to Weare to issue warrants against them, putting up for the night in a local inn.
In what became known as the Pine Tree Riot, more than 20 men burst into the surveyor’s room at dawn, beat him, and drove him out of town.
The king’s designs on New Hampshire’s towering white pines fueled growing hostility to the British government and was a local grievance that contributed to the American Revolution.
N.H. Historical Society