Portsmouth Compact makes annual birthday visit

Document established town’s settlement in 1638

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/7/17

PORTSMOUTH — The 1638 Portsmouth Compact broke free from protective custody at the R.I State Archives so it could make an annual furlough for its hometown’s birthday party …

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Portsmouth Compact makes annual birthday visit

Document established town’s settlement in 1638

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The 1638 Portsmouth Compact broke free from protective custody at the R.I State Archives so it could make an annual furlough for its hometown’s birthday party Tuesday.

It was the fourth consecutive year that the historic document, which established the town’s founding 

379 years ago, was on display for all to see inside the Town Council chambers at Town Hall.

“This is a great opportunity to see this document up here that’s 138 years older than the Declaration of Independence. Think about that,” said Town Historian James Garman, who’s also the president of the Portsmouth Historical Society.

It was the Society that urged the Town Council to proclaim March 7 as “Founders’ Day” in Portsmouth, an occasion first observed last year. 

Mr. Garman acknowledged he still gets a thrill from seeing the original 23 signatures on the actual Portsmouth Compact, rather than just a copy.  

“To me, as a historian, that’s just awesome,” he said.

One name is notably absent: Anne Hutchinson, the outspoken midwife and preacher who feuded with the theocratic Massachusetts Bay Colony ministers and was banished after two separate trials. 

“We don’t see Ann Hutchinson on there, do we? It was because she was a woman,” said Mr. Garman. “Anne Hutchinson was a very outspoken woman and she challenged the church. It really got fairly critical and she was separated out.”

However, her followers, led by wealthy merchant William Coddington and including Will Hutchinson (Anne’s husband), signed the Compact on March 7, 1638. “We think it was written by the Rev. Dr. John Clarke,” he said.

What makes the Compact unique is its bold assertion of independence, said Mr. Garman. In using the term, “Bodie Politick,” the settlers were essentially approving a social contract in which they pledged to stick together for a common goal.

“They were banding together to be judged by God’s law. It’s interesting that there was no mention of the English monarch at this time,” Mr. Garman said, pointing out that the early settlers were declaring independence from Colonial America.

They didn’t know where to go at first, contemplating places such as Delaware, Long Island and New Jersey. “But Roger Williams assisted them in negotiations with the (Narragansett) Indians and they decided to buy Aquidneck Island.”

The price? Forty fathoms (about 240 feet) of white beads. For an additional 10 coats and 20 hoes, the Indians agreed to abandon the island, Mr. Garman said.

A long walk

Anne Hutchinson arrived later, in April. “She walked from Boston to Providence with her children in the wintertime,” said Mr. Garman.

There were two ways to access Portsmouth at the time: the Town Pond — near where Roger Williams University’s Baypoint Inn and Conference Center now stands — and Island Park. 

Two-acre house lots were established in that area and the settlers — afraid that officials from nearby Massachusetts would continue to harass them — set up a training ground near Founders’ Brook “where they would gather to practice warfare,” Mr. Garman said.

Town meetings were held very early on and their minutes detail everything — from Compact signer William Baulston receiving permission to open up the town’s first tavern, to the fact that the town had slaves, servants and women who had few rights compared to “freemen.”

“Maybe we should revise that,” Mr Garman quipped while referencing the “birthplace of democracy” tag that’s often associated with Portsmouth, “because it wasn’t very democratic.”

Problems arise

Soon there was dissension between Anne Hutchinson and William Coddington and their followers. In April 1939, the dispute came to a head when Coddington’s followers closed the town meeting book, walked out and founded a new colony, “way down south to Newport,” Mr. Garman said.

In doing so, they took the Portsmouth Compact with them, said Mr. Garman. It got mixed up with Newport’s records “which became a problem later,” he said.

The remaining settlers in Portsmouth ended up writing another Compact, but it was very different from the first in that it said they would be “ruled by the ideas and ideals of King Charles the First,” said Mr. Garman.

As for Anne Hutchinson, she left Portsmouth not long after her husband Will died in 1641. She headed west with her family and settled in an area now known as the Bronx, N.Y. Sadly, Siwanoy Indians attacked her homestead in 1643 and murdered her along with several of her children. One daughter, Susanna, was found hiding nearby and taken captive by the Siwanoys. 

State Archives

The Historical Society hosted Tuesday’s event with assistance from Town Clerk Jennifer West and Ken Carlson of the R.I. State Archives, who escorted the Compact here from Providence.

Mr. Carlson invited members of the public to visit the State Archives’ office on Westminster Street, where they can view many historical local documents dating back to the 1600s.

“We have many documents in Roger Williams’ handwriting,” he said. “Most people don’t know what he looks like, but I know what his handwriting looks like.”

Portsmouth Compact, Portsmouth Historical Society, Portsmouth Town Hall

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