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Offering a one-page 7 ¾ x 12 draft manuscript document, undated but c. 1803, relating to unexplained, damaging fires to buildings in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and referencing similar fires in Boston. The document records minutes of a voluntary meeting seeking to aid “the sufferers of Portsmouth.”
“At a voluntary meeting of a large number of the Citizens of the Town of Charlestown at the Town Hall on the evening of 27 Instant, being impressed with the necessity of some energetic measure being adopted to preserve the Town from Incendiaries (who may by their be disposed to destroy the Town by Fire & being impressed with the necessity of Vigilance to prevent a similar calamity to that which has recently to the Capital of a sister State [Boston], they Unanimously agreed to turn out in suitable numbers on each night, thro the winter, & spare no pains in securing their fellow citizens from the dreadful alarms of fire. The meeting took into consideration the unhappy situation of their suffering brethren of Portsmouth & adopted measures for their relief & chose a committee to receive subscriptions for assisting them in their present distressed situation.”
In 1802-1803, a series of deliberately started fires broke out in Portsmouth, NH, and Boston, MA, which left residents in an anxious state. No conspiracy was ever proven, and the fires were not tied to any overt political or ideological protests.
The Portsmouth fire started on December 26, 1802, in the New Hampshire Bank Building, which was an old wooden structure located downtown. It quickly swept through the city and a large portion of the town burned, with 114 buildings lost and damages estimated at $200,000, approximately $6.26 million in today’s dollars.
In Boston, a fire destroyed the museum at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield Streets.
Congress stepped in for the first disaster relief ever. In January 1803, Congress passed a law to temporarily suspend “the collection of bonds due by merchants of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, who have suffered by the late conflagration of that town.”
Women and men fought the fire in bucket brigades until they dropped, relieved by volunteers from neighboring towns. When the Boston fire was over, only the North Church and the Old State House still stood. Most of the building owners had no insurance and they had to rely on private charity to recover. Five men – Nathaniel Adams, John Goddard, Daniel Humphreys, John Langdon and James Sheafe,-- were appointed as a committee to receive and distribute donations for relief. Donations came in from all over the country, amounting to $45,000. The group of men selected were wealthy Federalist merchants and importers.
Expected toning. Archival tape reinforcement to folds.
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