Revolutionary Portsmouth

After the Patriot raid in 1774 at Fort William and Mary in New Castle, the Seacoast area was not directly involved as a battlefield in the Revolution, although it was threatened by English sea power. Nevertheless, Seacoast residents had to make their choice: remain loyal to King and Parliament or support Revolutionary efforts. Several Patriots and Loyalists will be profiled in the show.

Locally owned objects from the period, some stylish and others not so much, illustrate the choices residents made depending on their socio-economic status. These will demonstrate Portsmouth’s role in worldwide trade and also suggest how wealthy merchants and politicians viewed themselves in the 1760s and 1770s.

Key figures of the period, including materials associated with George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, members of the Langdon family, as well as George III and Loyalist Gov. John Wentworth and his family. John Paul Jones, generally acknowledged as the founder of the American Navy, visited Portsmouth twice in the Revolutionary era to oversee the building of warships. He may have rented rooms in the Georgian house built in 1758 now known as the John Paul Jones House that has been maintained as a museum by the Historical Society since 1920.

Some works in the exhibition will indicate how the Revolutionary period was remembered and commemorated in the 1870s at the time of the American Centennial and again in the 1970s during the Bicentennial era. These modern examples of popular culture often shape our collective memories as much as academic, scholarly works. The Historical Society has a large collection of popular culture items, mainly from the collection of the late Dr. James C. Bradford, referencing John Paul Jones and modern perceptions of this complex figure.