John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire and Surveyor General of the King’s Woods, influenced British noblemen to invest in New Hampshire, but there was a failure to settle the area due to the American Revolution. The area was named Bretton Woods by Royal Charter.

In 1944 the United States President, Franklin D Roosevelt brought delegates from 44 allied nations to the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods for the World Monetary Conference to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the end of the World War II.

Today, the area is a large resort famous for its ski slopes, the 6,288ft Mount Washington, the Mount Washington Hotel and the tiny church of the Transfiguration, famed for its Tiffany windows.

Bretton Woods rest in the town of Carroll, better known as four villages: Bretton Woods, Fabyan, Crawford and Twin Mountain. The whole area was renamed Carroll in 1832 after Charles Carroll, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

The link with Bretton Hall was through Sir Thomas Wentworth, who had inherited his father’s estate in 1763. In 1765 he was created High Sheriff of Yorkshire by his cousin, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, who had been appointed as first Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) when George III asked the Duke of Cumberland to form a government.

To find out more contact leonard.bartle@ysp.co.uk