Rambles About Portsmouth [New Hampshire]

Sketches of Persons, Localities and Incidents of Two Centuries, Principally From Tradition and Unpublished Documents

These historical sketches of Portsmouth, New Hampshire take the reader on a guided tour of the city, with detailed descriptions of mid-18th through mid-19th century buildings, their functions and their inhabitants. Witness the development of Brick Market and Jefferson Hall, then visit picturesque Odiorne's Point with its ancient manor house and the first New Hampshire cemetery, or take a stroll down Lafayette Road to the Langdon farm with its memorial monument. This marble monument is inscribed with a lengthy family genealogy including date of birth, death and marriage, and spouse's name. Atkinson's massive silver waiter offers another memorial list of forty-eight names. These names are supplemented in the text by snippets of biographical material. Brewster also includes the following historical and genealogical miscellany: the 1782 visit of the French major-general, Marquis de Chastellux; the will of Susanna Atkinson; loyalist, Peter Livius; ghost stories; newspaper sketches and local history; the 1786 insurrection; Newcastle; Fort Constitution and the explosion of 1809; yellow fever in 1798; the Great Fire of 1813 with stories of escapes and rescues; the 1823 centennial celebration; the stone throwing demons of Newcastle; and more. Sketches of significant figures and families include Henry Sherburne, Rev. Samuel McClintock, Toppin Maxwell, and the Langdon, Sherburne, Waterhouse, Pickering, Sheafe, Cutts, Sparhawk and Drown families, to name only a few. This valuable research volume is augmented by transcripts of documents and inscriptions, poems, and the original surname index.

Charles W. Brewster

(1869), 2015, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 378 pp.

ISBN: 9780788414848

101-B1484