We are very fortunate to have this and really fortunate the State Archives allows us to bring this down.”

Jim Garman, Portsmouth's town historian

PORTSMOUTH — David Sanford Chase drove up from his home in Marlborough, Conn. to feast his eyes on the original Portsmouth Compact, which came out of the State Archives for its annual appearance at Town Hall on Thursday.

The document, which he was viewing for the first time, has special meaning to Mr. Chase, who was accompanied by his wife and daughter. He’s a direct descendent of one of the 23 original settlers who on March 7, 1638 signed the Compact, which established the town’s founding.

“My line goes back to John Sanford, who signed the document. My mother learned about it in the 1960s, and only after I started going through her things that it’s come to my attention,” he said.

John Sanford wasn’t only a signer of the Compact. He was also Anne Hutchinson’s son-in-law, having married one of her daughters, Bridget, after his first wife died. Later on he became governor of the combined towns of Portsmouth and Newport in the Rhode Island colony. He died in office in 1653.

“We are very proud of that,” Mr. Chase said during a brief speech during the ceremony marking “Founders’ Day,” which is celebrated only in Portsmouth.

The event was hosted by the Portsmouth Historical Society, which in 2013 began the annual tradition of unleashing the Portsmouth Compact from its home at the State Archives in Providence and putting it on display for a couple of hours at Town Hall every March 7. 

The sacred document was accompanied both ways by State Archivist Ashley Selima as well as a police escort. Standing guard next to it, and making sure no visitors used flash photography, were Police Officer Patrick O’Neil and Col. Robert Edenbach of The Artillery Company of Newport.

Town Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa thanked the Historical Society for its efforts. “This gives us a rare opportunity to view a document that’s so important to our town’s history,” she said before quoting philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

“Thank you for educating yourself and others about history and protecting our democracy,” Ms. Ujifusa added.

Town Historian Jim Garman, who’s also president of the Historical Society, described the Compact as a “wonderful” document. 

“When you see Anne Hutchinson’s husband’s signature there, that’s really special. We are very fortunate to have this and really fortunate the State Archives allows us to bring this down,” he said.

The Compact was signed in Boston by a group of men associated with Hutchinson, who had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her heretical beliefs. “She was a rebel — a woman who spoke out,” said Mr. Garman, noting that Hutchinson would routinely hold meetings to criticize what the minister was preaching about the day before.

William Aspinwall, one of the signers of the Compact, had also been banished, while the other men left willingly, Mr. Garman said. 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 some to be the first document in American history that severed both political and religious ties with England and argued for religious freedom. 

‘Into the wilderness’

When the original settlers first set out — Anne Hutchinson would join them later — they didn’t have a solid plan, Mr. Garman said. “They were going out into the wilderness and they didn’t know what they were going to find out there,” he said.

The settlers didn’t get too far from the autocratic rulers they were escaping. Back then, Tiverton — just across the river — was part of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mr. Garman noted.

After Roger Williams helped the signers negotiate a purchase from the Narragansett Indians, they settled in what is now known as Portsmouth from mid-April to May 1638, when the first town meeting was held. Most of them were farmers; Common Fence Point got its name from a “commonly fenced point” where sheep were raised, Mr. Garman said.

The popular claim, however, that Portsmouth is the “birthplace” of democracy “is a bit of a stretch,” Mr. Garman said. No women or slaves were allowed at early town meetings, he pointed out.

Many of the first settlers didn’t stay long. In 1639, William Coddington left Portsmouth along with eight others and founded Newport. They took the action partly because of conflicts with the “Hutchinsonians,” but also for economic reasons: Newport had a much better port for ships, which would lead to better trade, Mr. Garman said.

When they left, so did the Portsmouth Compact.

“When they went, they adjourned a town meeting and took the book of records, including the Compact, to Newport,” he said. “It kind of got scattered, but we’re glad that it got saved and it exists.”