Place · city

Portsmouth, Rhode Island

1638 · 17th century

Portsmouth is a town on the northern part of Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It was founded in 1638 by Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington and other religious dissenters exiled from Massachusetts, who signed the Portsmouth Compact. A split among the settlers led Coddington and his followers to found Newport in 1639.

Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Image: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Portsmouth, Rhode Island. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portsmouth-rhode-island
MLA
“Portsmouth, Rhode Island.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portsmouth-rhode-island. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Portsmouth, Rhode Island.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portsmouth-rhode-island.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Portsmouth, Rhode Island’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portsmouth-rhode-island (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻