PORTSMOUTH — Dean Holt was here the last time the Portsmouth Compact visited town. In 2013 during the 375th anniversary celebration, he helped add color to the festivities as a member of the Newport Company of Artillery.

But the Tiverton resident didn’t know then what he knows now.

“I’m related to William Aspinwall,” said Mr. Holt, referring to one of the 23 signers of the Compact, the document that marked the town’s founding in 1638. “He’s my 10th or 12th great-grandfather.”

Three members of the Artillery accompanied the Compact in 2013, but this year Mr. Holt did the honors by himself.

“It’s just by happenstance that they chose me,” said Mr. Holt, who started examining his family tree more closely after the Compact’s first appearance in 2013.

“One of my hobbies is genealogy; I always like finding out more things about my family,” he said. “I didn’t really know a whole lot on my mother’s side, so I wanted to learn more about that. I found out she’s got a really old lineage, going back to the Mayflower and also to Rhode Island.”

On Monday, Mr. Holt stood silently to the left of the Compact, as dozens of viewers streamed by for a closer look and to snap photographs. (No flashes were allowed, however.)

“It’s definitely a special thing,” Mr. Holt said. “It’s kind of surreal almost, having a document older than the Constitution of our country sitting right next to you. I’m really thrilled to see it.”

As were the many other curious onlookers who came out in droves to inspect this slice of town history. Monday’s ceremony was notable for another reason.

“Today is our very first inaugural Founders’ Day in Portsmouth,” said Town Council Vice President Jim Seveney, noting that the town will celebrate the special day every March 7, the date on which the Compact was signed 378 years ago.

Mr. Seveney credited the folks behind the 375th anniversary in 2013 for not only getting Founders’ Day off the ground but breaking the Compact out of the State Archives Division for a day, with the assistance of Town Clerk Joanne Mower. (The Compact isn’t owned by the town and is part of a volume that also contains early town records from Newport.)

Mr. Seveney said some of the same people are also responsible for joining forces with the Portsmouth Historical Society “and breathing new life into that organization.”

’For the common good’

“This is a really a special treat to have this piece of paper over here that was signed in 1638 — nearly 150 years before the Declaration of Independence,” said Town Historian Jim Garman, who’s also president of the Portsmouth Historical Society.

Mr. Garman described the Compact as a unique document that was essentially a social contract — “an agreement between people to band together for the common good.”

Mr. Garman outlined the events leading up to the signing of the Compact, particularly Anne Hutchinson’s dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony ministers, which revolved around the antinomian conflict of whether a “saved” person is saved initially, or whether they’re saved through their good works.

Boston, in particular, was a theocracy in which the church controlled everything, said Mr. Garman, who found it ironic that the Pilgrims first landed here to escape persecution from the Church of England.

“They became the persecutors in Boston,” Mr. Garman said.

Hutchinson was tried and convicted twice of defying the male leaders of the church and was ordered banished from Massachusetts. Some of her followers were also kicked out and ordered to give up their weapons, he said.

“She refused to recant her ideas,” said Mr. Garman, adding that Hutchinson was also excommunicated. “She was a very powerful woman, a very important woman.”

At the time, however, her sex precluded her from signing the Portsmouth Compact — not that she was available, anyway. While her followers met in Boston on March 7, Hutchinson sat in a jail cell.

“What’s interesting is that there’s no mention of a British monarch — no political influences,” Mr. Garman said of the Compact’s language. “This is an organization that was being created to be governed by God’s law. They banded together for their common good.”

After signing the Compact, Hutchinson’s followers had to find a new home. After checking out several places — Long Island, New Jersey and Delaware — the group settled on Aquidneck Island after discussions with Roger Williams, himself banished from Massachusetts three years earlier.

They sailed into the area by the Town Pond, across from where Roger Williams University’s Baypoint Inn and Conference Center now stands. “They unloaded there and — this is about March 25 — began to build shelters. Everyone in the ground was give a two-acre house lot around that are in northern end of town,” said Mr. Garman.

Sheep grazed at Common Fence Point and settlers were eventually given farms — some as large as 200 acres — located to the south of the original settlement.

Document’s importance

Although Portsmouth has been referred to as “the birthplace of democracy,” most historians now agree the claim goes too far. However, said Mr. Garman, the early settlers did start the idea of town meetings. They’d gather annually to create the budget and talk about town business, such as how to protect themselves from Native Americans and enemies from Massachusetts, he said.

“An exercise of democracy is really good,” Mr. Garman said.

Just the fact that the document has survived for 378 years and can be viewed by the public is unusual, he said.

“It’s a very special document for our history,” said Mr. Garman. “There aren’t too many towns around which still have a founding document that’s still in existence.”