PORTSMOUTH — Local residents will have another chance to view the original document that marked the founding of Portsmouth 380 years ago.

The Portsmouth Compact, signed in 1638, is kept in the Rhode Island State Archives but will be displayed at Town Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7.

The Portsmouth Compact was signed on March 7, 1638, by a group of men banished from the Boston Colony for their heretical beliefs and association with Anne Hutchinson. Their idea was to join together in a civil “bodie politik,” or community, to be governed by “God’s law” where individuals could worship their Christian religion in their own way, without interference from the government. 

The document provided the ideological basis for the establishment of a town meeting-based democratic government starting in May off that year. The Compact is considered by many to be the first document in American history that severed both political and religious ties with England and argued for religious freedom. 

During the program at Town Hall March 7, residents will be able to view the Compact up close, and Town Historian Jim Garman will present a brief historical overview.

The original Portsmouth Compact was first put on public display during Portsmouth’s 375th Anniversary celebration in 2013. Up until that time, the original document was stored in the “Newport Book,” so called because when the founders of Newport left Portsmouth in 1639 to settle on the southern end of Aquidneck Island, they had taken all the important records with them. 

This rare historic document is now stored in its own folder at the Rhode Island archives and is brought to Portsmouth under police escort, accompanied by a state archivist.