It’s easy to forget that for roughly 70 years, the beating heart of what became Portsmouth, N.H., was centered on Great Island. The fort, the government, the prominent people, and the center of commerce were there. Then in 1693, with permission of the English monarchs William and Mary, the residents of Great Island were allowed to form their own township, separate from Portsmouth. They renamed their town New Castle and paid the king and queen the annual rent of one peppercorn.
Times were tough on the isolated island of one square mile. During the Civil War, to buy many young townsmen out of serving in battle, New Castle built up a huge war debt. The money owed to the federal government all but crippled the tiny town. Then along came the Wentworth Hotel in 1874. Purchased by millionaire businessman Frank Jones, the expanded and improved summer resort drew thousands of tourists from pollution-clogged cities near and far. New Castle became one of New England’s top attractions and the looming war debt was quickly cut in half.
On Aug. 17, 1893, the islanders held a huge bicentennial bash at Fort Constitution with races, free food, a concert, a bonfire, and lots of patriotic speeches. “The fact is,” one of the speakers proclaimed, “that the settlement of New Castle is prior to that of Portsmouth, and that for the first 75 years it was the center of the province, and two-thirds of the provincial officials were citizens of the town. New Hampshire has forgotten that story.”
Thanks to modern bridges, railroads, and ferries, the tranquil, historic, and scenic town became desirable real estate again. According to a 1893 souvenir booklet, New Castle was “the envy of our [Portsmouth] city neighbors.” Portsmouth responded in 1900 with a proposal to annex New Castle.
“The time is ripe to give the city a great boom and all hands ought to take an interest in the work of making the only seaport what it ought to be – the metropolis of the state,” the Portsmouth Herald announced. The unsigned sentiment was likely the work of Herald owner FW Hartford. An acolyte of Frank Jones, Hartford had wrongly predicted that by 1900, the city would reach a population of 40,000, eclipsing other cities in the state. In fact, the 1900 census showed the Portsmouth population plateaued at just over 10,500.
The annexation would add 500 residents to Portsmouth, the Herald article claimed, while providing New Castle with all the modern conveniences of the city, including better roads, police protection, improved water, and a new sewer system. Portsmouth selectmen, the newspaper stated, “should be pushed” to ANNEX NEW CASTLE.
Smelling a good story, the Boston Sunday Globe quickly published a follow-up article. “The people of New Castle,” according to an interview with a resident, “do not favor annexation; they had rather their town should remain a town, as it has been ever since it was set off from Portsmouth in 1693.”
There was a time right after the Civil War, the Globe reported, that New Castle residents would have happily had their war debt absorbed by Portsmouth. “A strong move was made in that direction, but Portsmouth ridiculed it,” a local said. But by 1900, with its debt reduced, town taxes falling, house values rising, and tourism booming, there was little incentive to fall back under city regulations. In fact, it was the quaint nature of the little village that attracted big city visitors to the ancient island.
“We do not need a costly sewerage system, for every house can drain right into the river,” a New Castle resident told the Globe. “If on any special occasion we need more police protection then our town constables are supposed to be able to afford, we can get policemen on application to Portsmouth. Electric lights for streets and buildings we can get by paying for them just as well without annexation. … If we have a fire, the Portsmouth Fire Department will send us help, and that is all it would do if our island were made part of the city.”
“Without such a wish on the part of a majority of the townspeople, of course, annexation is out of the question,” the islander concluded.
Copyright 2021 by J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.
Portsmouth’s Hard Times Token