Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

136 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
found in the county-as utterly different in wealth and
prosperity from what it is now as black is from white.
The Doctor listened to the story of being sold, and answer~
ed as follows:
"' If Rye to Great Britain was really sold,
As we by some great men are seriously told,
Great Britain, not Rye, was ill-treated:
For it in fulfilling the known maxim of lrade,
Any gold for such a poor purchase was paid,
Great Britain was confoundedly cheated."
This exercise of his ready wit perhaps cost him a few
panes of glass on this occasion.
There might have been seen on the Parade on that day,
sitting in his chaise, a lawyer of our town, taking down
the names of those who were in the current of the procesv
sion. And a day or two after Gen. George Reed of Londonderry, the High Sheriff, attending the Court then in
session at Exeter, visits Portsmouth officially, and summons
some ten or twelve of the leading men of Portsmouth to
appear before the Court, on a charge of being engaged in
a riot and unlawful assemblage, and injuring the property
of James Sheafe, &c. The names of all these individuals
we have not been able to obtain, as the Court records do
not present them; but among them were the names of
Deacon Samuel Bowles and Samuel Drown (who passed
the Parade at the time, but were not connected with the
mob,) Capt, Thomas Manning, Nathaniel Marshall, Thales
G. Yeaton, Wm. Trefethen, Wm. Tredick, Charles Chauncey. Some of them joined in the afternoon procession,
but none of them were connected with'the evening mob.
When the Sheriff saw who the men generally were, he
took their word for their appearance at Exeter on'the
morning of the next day. So, before daylight, they were
all on the way, and ere the Court opened in the morning,
the- culprits presented themselves at the Court House.
Judge Orcutt was on the bench. Their case was stated
by Mr. Drown, and readily understood by the Court, who