FAMILY

5 Generations and the Birth of Nation

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Pictured: Polly Moffatt's etching in the Servant's Quarters on the third floor. circa 1780

This remarkable story of the birth of a nation and the American spirit lives on in this beautifully restored and maintained mansion first occupied in 1764 by Samuel Moffatt and his new bride, Sarah Catherine, but that is only the beginning of this the story of this illustrious family and their contribution to the birth of a nation.

The Moffatts

Tour the house to learn why John and Katherine's son had to leave his glorious mansion...

When John Moffatt (1691-1786) planned the house that his son Samuel and his new bride would occupy, he hoped to create a grand statement of the family’s wealth, position, and sophistication. At the age of 70, John Moffatt could look back upon a successful mercantile career. He came to America as a ship captain engaged in the timber trade; about 1724 he married a young woman of means named Katharine Cutt (1700-1769), and through trade and land speculation rose to become one of the wealthiest men in the colony. Of their five children, four survived–three daughters and one son. In young Samuel rested all his father’s hopes for the future. John Moffatt employed the best Portsmouth craftsmen to build the new mansion on Front Street (now Market Street). Michael Whidden III billed Moffatt for bringing the pre-cut frame “from ye warf” and raising it on a bluff facing the river. Whidden lists the names of the eleven joiners who worked with him on the house, the counting house, shop, barn, and fences over the next three years. Ebenezer Dearing’s bill enumerates the woodwork that he carved for the house, including modillions, rosettes, stair brackets, capitals used throughout the house, and two chimney pieces, probably for the front parlor (now the dining room) and the chamber above it. Raising the three-story structure, the first house of its height in Portsmouth, challenged the workmen because of the sharp rise of the land. Made of red pine, probably cut from Moffatt’s own forest land, the frame was adapted during construction to create an unusual floor plan. Entering the Great Hall, guests were welcomed into a grand room stretching over more than one quarter of the first floor, graced by a broad and sweeping staircase with an exquisitely carved soffit panel. Samuel Moffatt and his young wife Sarah Catherine enjoyed their impressive home. The floor plan of their house gave it a particularly impressive entrance, one well suited to lavish entertaining. However, this extravagant lifestyle did not last. Come on a tour to discover why!

The Whipples

...Declaration of Independence signer, General William Whipple marries Katharine Moffatt and so our story continues...

About one year after moving into the Georgian mansion with her father to care for her brother Samuel’s children, Katharine Moffatt quietly married her cousin William Whipple. William brought with him an impressive array of sophisticated furniture and his enslaved manservant, Prince. In 1773, the couple lost their only child, William Jr., at the age of eleven months. They raised their nephew, John Tufton Moffatt, until he joined his parents in Demerara in October 1779 and their niece, Mary Tufton (Polly) Moffatt, until she married Nathaniel Haven in 1786 at the age of 17. Due to John Moffatt’s failing eyesight and advancing deafness, he relied on his nephew and new son-in-law William Whipple to take care of the property and to help him with his business affairs. As William became increasingly embroiled in the Revolutionary cause, some of these responsibilities devolved upon Katharine, which proved her to be a savvy businesswoman. Whipple served on Portsmouth’s Committee of Safety, was on the delegation sent by the town of Portsmouth to the new Revolutionary Assembly and was chosen as one of New Hampshire’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress in which capacity he served from 1774 until 1779. Whipple also held the rank of Brigadier General of the First Brigade of New Hampshire Militia. In 1777, he led the regiment to Saratoga and in 1778, he participated in the abortive Rhode Island Campaign. William Whipple retired from the Second Continental Congress in 1779, but he did not retire from public life. He continued to serve in the state legislature and was appointed a justice of the Superior Court. When he died in 1785 at the age of only 54, his wife Katharine was devastated. She was left without a husband who was esteemed by the entire community and whom she loved very much. Her father, very weak and feeble, still provided for her until his passing the following year, at 93 years of age. With some assistance from her friends, Woodbury Langdon and Samuel Sherburne, Katharine was able to remain living in the house until about 1813, when she lost a lengthy lawsuit with her brother Samuel’s children. She moved to the farm “near the Plains” deeded to her by her father, 150 acres from Peverly Hill Road to either Middle Road or Islington Street. It is unclear how long she remained in the house. Katharine died in 1821. She is interred at the North Cemetery in the Langdon Family tomb. William is also buried at the North Cemetery in a single tomb near his son.

The Ladds

...learn why Maria's father would not consent...

Polly Tufton Moffatt and Nathaniel Haven Samuel and Sarah Moffatt’s second daughter, Polly, married Nathaniel Haven in 1786, at the age of 18. Polly and Nathaniel settled in Portsmouth, where they raised a daughter, Maria, who was well-educated and intelligent. Maria met Alexander Ladd in the late 1700s, and the two were married on December 29, 1807. Together, they quickly began their family, having 13 children over the next 20 years. Tragically, only five would live to adulthood. In 1818, through lawsuits filed on behalf of Samuel’s descendants, Nathaniel Haven acquired the family mansion. The following year, he conveyed it to his daughter, Maria Tufton Haven Ladd, for the symbolic price of one dollar. Maria, Alexander, and their children moved into the mansion in 1820, where they made significant changes. The Ladds moved a nearby warehouse to the working side of the house and built the Counting House, Alexander’s office. Inside the main house, they transformed the Front Parlor into a Dining Room by adding a sideboard niche and removing closets. They also redecorated the Great Hall and staircase with Federal grisaille wallpaper, featuring the Vues d’Italie pattern by DuFour. This wallpaper still adorns the Great Hall to this day! Maria was a well-educated woman who kept up with the latest literature and became the family curator. She lovingly preserved and labeled many items now in the house’s collection, including a set of London-made furniture in the Chinese taste, her wedding dress, and several dresses of her daughters. Alexander Ladd had wide-ranging civic interests and was an accomplished writer. He served in the State Legislature in 1826-27 and again in 1830 and held the positions of Selectman, Fire Ward, and Justice of the Peace in Portsmouth. In 1825, he was appointed by the Portsmouth selectmen, along with two other prominent citizens, as delegates to go to Boston to persuade the Marquis de Lafayette to include Portsmouth on his American tour.