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DEFENSE OF PORTSMOUTH
An act was passed the next day for a regiment of three hundred men, to be raised speedily and stationed at or near Portsmouth, till December 31, if there should be occasion for keeping them there so long. These were to be taken as equally as might be, from the three counties of Rockingham, Strafford and Hillsborough, and to be paid as officers and soldiers in the service of the colony received the last year. Several colonels, including Colonel Moulton, of Hampton, were directed to warn all the militia under their command to hold themselves in readiness to march at a minute's warning, properly equipped, and with three days' provisions, which militia, in case of their going into actual service, were to be paid as other troops. It was also ordered that sentries should be stationed at New Castle and Hampton, to give the speediest notice of the appearance of the enemy's fleet; and that persons should be agreed with to hold themselves in readiness, when ordered by the proper authority, to notify General Washington, and alarm the country, in case of the enemy's appearance.
A week later this town voted "to pay all those men that went to Ipswich or Portsmouth in the time of the alarms, that have not been paid." To what particular occasion allusion is here made, on which men "went to Ipwich," is uncertain, but it was probably that already mentioned, when soldiers having gone thus far on their way to Boston, had been ordered to return.
At the same meeting, the selectmen were instructed to build a Guard House at the sea shore, "and to do it in the cheapest manner possible." A guard house was accordingly built -- or an old one removed and repaired -- and placed on the bank a little to the eastward of the site now occupied by the Rockingham House [on Great Boar's Head], where it remained till near the close of the war. The cost, £5 14s. 2d. was paid by the Committee of Safety.
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