October 31 - November 4, 1789
For more
on Washington and Lear
 For
an 18th century New Hampshire citizen, the
historic moment packed all the thrill of a moon
walk. The first American President took his first
step onto New Hampshire soil in a burst of celebration.
Revolutionary spin-doctors would have placed George
Washington's popularity rating in October 1789
on a scale somewhere between a king and a god.
People loved the conquering general whose name
remains a synonym for democracy.
With his precedent-setting decision to tour
all of the United States while in office, Washington
used his popularity to sew together the loosely knit
confederation of states at a critical time. His four
week New England journey, later followed by a tour
of the South, brought Washington from New York, Connecticut
and Massachusetts to the banks of the Merrimack River
on October 31. Having previously traveled up the
North Shore coast from Salem, Washington breakfasted
in Newburyport, but traveled a few miles inland to
find a shallow spot to cross the Merrimack River.
At a point on the Amesbury road, historians believe,
he was ferried across the state line as local militia
and lighthorsemen ceremoniously made the border exchange.
John Sullivan, "the
president" of New Hampshire, out-pomped his neighbor
states by assembling a long receiving line of NH's
political elite and an escort of 700 cavalry. Though
Seabrook is not mentioned in the accounts, the day
trip apparently moved from there through Hampton
Falls, Hampton and to Greenland where Washington
rode past cheering citizens on horseback.
Hail Washington!
The Presidential parade arrived in Portsmouth
at 3 p.m. along what is today Middle Street. Newspaper
accounts describe narrow streets packed with cheering
onlookers, church bells and 13-gun salutes to honor
the united colonies (though Rhode Island and North
Carolina were not yet officially members.) The changing
times are evident in the rapidly changing street
names. King Street, for example, had only years before
been changed to Congress Street . Since Portsmouth
was then the New Hampshire capital city, Washington
marched up Congress Street into Market Square where
citizens sang lengthy original odes to the tune of ìGod
Save the King.î A published sample verse reads:
"Those shouts ascending to the sky,
Proclaim great WASHINGTON is nigh!
Hail Nature's boast -- Columbia's Son,
Welcome! Welcome WASHINGTON."
Washington was received at the State House
which no longer stands in the square. Children wearing
hats with colored quills to designate their schools
had been assigned front row Because Washington's
whistle-stop New England tour had been suddenly announced,
townspeople had prepared the elaborate ceremony in
just two days.
After the festivities, the President took
lodging in the Brewster Tavern on the corner of modern
day Court and Pleasant Streets. That building too
no longer stands, but after dinner with local VIPs,
Washington records that he took tea at John
Langdon's fine home next door, an historic
site still open to the public. Langdon, a NH senator
and ship builder, had recently tussled with John
Paul Jones over equipping of the tall ship
America. November 1 was a Sunday and Washington attended
morning church services a few blocks walk toward
the harbor at St. John's Episcopal. The current brick
church at the top of Chapel Hill was rebuilt when
the wooden one burned in 1806. Attending a second
afternoon service was customary. With his secretary Tobias
Lear of Portsmouth, the Chief Executive heard
a very flattering speech at the North Church in Market
Square. Only the weathervane of this Portsmouth landmark
remains of the structure Washington visited. According
to Washington's journal, he spent the afternoon in
his room at the tavern writing letters.
Harbor Tour
Washington's third day in New Hampshire
is best summarized in his own words: "Monday 2d.
Having made previous preparations for it, attended
by the President (John Sullivan), Mr. Langdon and
some other Gentlemen, I went in a boat to view the
harbour of Portsmouth: which is well secured against
all winds; and from its narrow entrance from the
Sea and passage up to the Town, may be perfectly
guarded by any approach by water...The anchorage
is also good, and the shipping may lay close to the
Docks, etca., when at the town.
In my way to the Mouth of the harbour, I
stopped at a place called Kittery, in the Province
of Maine, the river Piscataqua being the boundary
between New Hampshire and it. From thence I went
to the old Fort (formerly built while under the English
government on an Island which is at the entrance
of the harbour, and where the Light House stands.
As we passed this Fort we were saluted by 13 Guns.
Having Lines, we proceeded to the Fishing banks a
little without the Harbour, and Fished for Cod; but
it was not being a proper time of tide, we only caught
two, with w'ch, about 1 o'clock, we returned to town. "
It isn't known whether Washington's boat
ride was the germ of the idea for the country's first
naval shipyard in Kittery. Although the current structures
are not of Washington's era, the lighthouse and Fort
William and Mary are in the harbor at what
was Great Island, now the town of New Castle. Historians
debate whether the Chief Executive also stopped by
Fort McClary in Kittery and visited a former British
Governor Col. Michael Wentworth at what is today
the preserved Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion that sits
right on the river In Portsmouth.
That afternoon Washington heard an laudatory
address and dined with a "Circle of Ladies" at the
Langdon's. According to his notes, he retired for
the evening at 7 p.m. at the tavern and wrote a response
letter to the town of Portsmouth, as well as letters
to Newburyport and Marblehead which he had not yet
finished.
Weeks earlier in Boston, Washington had
been too busy to sit for a portrait to be hung in
Fanieul Hall. But the aggressive Dutch-born artist,
Christian Gullager had pursued Washington to Portsmouth
and on Tuesday the President posed two hours for
the portrait (see picture at top of this page). After
a meeting further down Court Street at the Pitt Tavern,
now part of Strawbery Banke, Washington made a personal
visit. He passed through the residential Puddle Dock
area near the Liberty Pole at what is now Prescott
Park. Here, free of the crowds and adulattion, the
first Commander in Chief of the United States of
America took a quiet moment to visit the family of
his loyal secretary Tobias Lear in a house now part
of the Strawbery Banke Museum.
By evening Washington was back in the thick
of things, attending a gala with up to 75 handsome
local ladies and their escorts at the grand downtown
Assembly Hall. The local newspaper reported that
11 toasts were offered and it is assumed the famous
freed slaves, Prince Whipple and his brother Cuffee,
were in attendance. The President, who usually retired
early, stayed until 9 p.m.. He had requested no ceremonies
surrounding his departure and at 7:30 the next morning,
Washington and his eight staff members slipped quietly
out of town by carriage en route to Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Exit Via Exeter
Wednesday, November 4 was his last day in
New Hampshire. Washington records that they made
the 14 mile journey back via Greenland to Exeter,
arriving by 10 a.m. It seems likely he stopped in
Stratham to pay his respects to Paine Wingate, the
other NH state Senator serving with Thomas Langdon
who had monopolized the President's attention for
days. In his journal, Washington noted that Exeter
was the state's second most important town, yet he
passed through on horseback in just one hour. He
seemed unaware of the jealousy between the rival
towns and recorded mostly details of the many water
falls and factories there. Stopping at the Folsom
Tavern with Major Nicholas Gilman, Washington refused,
and later regretted, an invitation to stay the night.
Despite Exeter's key role in Revolutionary
politics, the President departed quickly, and passing
through the colonial village of Kingston, most likely
made a final stop. Kingston was home to Doctor Josiah
Bartlett, then a founding member of the U.S.
Supreme Court, past signer of the Declaration of
Independence and soon to be the first governor of
New Hampshire. In his book, George Washington in
New Hampshire, author Elwin Page notes the irony
of Washington's inconspicuous departure in contrast
to the pomp of his arrival. In ill health, without
attending VIPs, cheering crowds, body guards, militia
or media reporters, Washington passed through the
little town of Plaistow, slipped back across the
Merrimack River and out of New Hampshire.
By J. Dennis Robinson
© 1997 SeacoastNH.com. All rights reserved.
SEE ALSO
The Tobias Lear
House
Tobias,
We Hardly Knew Ye
Gov.
John Langdon House
George
Washington's Letters
at the Library of Congress
Read
The Book:
Primary Source: George Washington in New Hampshire
by Elwin Page. Originally published in 1932
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