Shrouded in myth, mystery, and misinformation, the true story of New Hampshire's founding family has never been fully told–until now. Why do we know so little about David and Amias Thompson of Plymouth, England? And why is what we think we know so often wrong? Barely three years after the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts, a wholly different plan for America was in play. Popular journalist J. Dennis Robinson exhumes the facts and connects the dots to reveal a forgotten journey that will challenge your perception of how New England was born. "I have been impressed by Robinson's work over the years and own a lot of his books. While 1623 is about New Hampshire, it deserves national attention. The Granite State has never had a more important history book. Darn good writing and thorough research. Wow, just wow!" -- Fritz Wetherbee, NH storyteller "Robinson has written the best book ever on 1623 and the first English colonization of the New Hampshire coast!" --Richard M. Candee, Prof. Emeritus, Boston University " 1623 pulls back the curtain to expose long-held mistaken beliefs of what did and did not happen on the coast of what is now New Hampshire. Robinson's historiographical approach of contrasting multiple conflicting published accounts brings a new critical examination of old errors and even older myths to pick out the elusive truth." --Thomas M. Hardiman, Jr, Executive Director and Keeper, Portsmouth Athenaeum "A compelling narrative on New Hampshire's founder, 1623 reveals the all-but-forgotten life of David Thompson, his family, and their relationship to an island in the Boston Harbor." --Sylvia Watts McKinney, CEO & President, Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center "Thank goodness for J. Dennis Robinson. While we've disposed of many grand myths of our past we still struggle with smaller ones that, in aggregate, form colorful but misleading narratives for the present. In 1623, Robinson's dogged (and often controversial) pursuit of the facts seduces readers with ironclad ironies, secret scuttlebutt, and rigorously researched revelations that make our history all the more fantastic and entertaining." --Rick Broussard, editor emeritus of New Hampshire Magazine " 1623 is a masterpiece. It fits together details that my history friends and I have been puzzling over for decades." --Wendy Pirsig, Southern Maine historian "This important and entertaining read sets the record straight on New Hampshire's fascinating early history." --Emerson W. Baker, author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience " 1623 is a deep dive into what actually happened on the New Hampshire coast in its early years of European colonization. Robinson teases fact from fiction, setting the scene for the circumstances around David Thompson's settlement using the most up-to-date research. A must-read for anyone interested in the early history of New England." --Reagan B. Ruedig, NH historic preservationist This project started almost 50 years ago when I bumped into a 1623 note in the journal of Pilgrim leader Edward Winslow. A "Scotchman" named David Thompson, Winnslow wrote, had recently set up a fishing and trading outpost at what would later become the tiny seacoast of New Hampshire. The Mayflower survivors were starving and sent military leader Miles Standish to find food. Thompson delivered a shallop full of live-saving codfish to the Separatists, after which the Plymouth Colony offered prayers of thanksgiving. The idea that the first European settler at what would become New Hampshire "saved" the PIlgrims intrigued me.  Why hadn't I heard of this guy and his wife Amias and their son John who had settled at what is now Odiorne State Park in the town of Rye?    The more I dug into the story over the decades, the more fascinating it became. Thompson, in fact, was an apothecary (pharmacist) from Plymouth, England. He was born in London, it appears, not Scotland. He was deeply connected to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a hugely influential figure in the first 40 years of New England history.  Gorges, like Thompson and almost all other very early settlers to the region were Anglicans, loyal to the king and effectively enemies of the pious Pilgrims who had escaped to a new world. (This was before 20,000 Puritans imigrated to Massachusetts starting in 1630.) My research led to the Wessagusset Massacre. In 1623 when, fearing an attack, Miles Standish and his tiny militia assassinated seven Native warriors at what was supposed to be a peaceful meeting. That event, rarely mentioned, had a profound effect on the region at the time.   And what about English lawyer and colonist, Thomas Morton, who was exiled and left to die at the Isles of Shoals by Standish? Who remembers Robert Gorges, the first "Governor" of New England? More digging. Explorer Christopher Levett, fisherman Phineas Pratt, and merchant Samuel Maverick all wrote about meeting David Thompson in his Piscataqua home near w