Place:Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States

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NamePortsmouth
TypeTown
Coordinates41.6°N 71.25°W
Located inNewport, Rhode Island, United States
Contained Places
Island
Prudence Island
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island. The population was 17,871 at the 2020 U.S. Census. Portsmouth is the second-oldest municipality in Rhode Island, after Providence; it was one of the four colonies which merged to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the others being Providence, Newport, and Warwick.

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History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Portsmouth was settled in 1638 by a group of religious dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Dr. John Clarke, William Coddington and Anne Hutchinson. It is named after Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Roger Williams convinced the settlers that they should go there instead of settling in the Province of New Jersey, where they had first planned on going.

It was founded by the signers of the Portsmouth Compact. Its original Indian name was Pocasset, and it was officially named Portsmouth on May 12, 1639. It became part of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (see Aquidneck Island) and eventually part of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which, as of 2020, is simply the State of Rhode Island.

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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.



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Old Almy House - Country Store, ca 1980
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