PORTSMOUTH — The town celebrated its 386th birthday at Town Hall on Thursday with a special guest: The Portsmouth Compact.

The 1638 document that established the town’s settlement was released from the Rhode Island State Archives in Providence for its annual visit to Portsmouth in celebration of Founders’ Day, hosted by the Portsmouth Historical Society. 

Remarks were given by R.I. Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Town Historian Jim Garman, Town Council Vice President Leonard Katzman, and Rebecca Sattel, vice president of the historical society.

Besides the Compact, also on display were the town’s 1776 Southwick copy of The Declaration of Independence; a bound volume of state records dating back to 1638 — the oldest preserved at the state archives; and a document containing the signatures of people who voted for or against ratifying the federal Constitution at a Portsmouth town meeting on March 24, 1788. 

Concerned about ceding power to the state or federal government and favoring the more decentralized Articles of Confederation, “Portsmouth Freemen” voted 60-12 against adopting the Constitution. (Every other community in Rhode Island also voted that day, with just 8 percent of freemen in support of adopting the Constitution.)

Portsmouth and other communities later changed course after some neighboring states threatened to tax their exports, however, and Rhode Island finally became the 13th and last of the original founding colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution on May 29, 1790.

The event featured an appearance by Col. Robert Edenbach, Lt. Col. Mike Pine, and Capt. Murray Norcross of the Newport Artillery Company. Special thanks went out to Secretary Amore, R.I. State Archivist Ashley Selima, and Portsmouth Town Clerk Jennifer West.