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 Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents.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

ABRAHAM ISAAC, THE JEW. 231
the North burying ground, may be seen the following
model epitaph, written by our poet, J. M. Sewall:
Entomb'd beneath, where earth-born troubles cease,
A son of faithful Abra'm sleeps in peace,
In life's first bloom he left his native air,
A sojourner, as all his fathers were;
Through various toils his active spirit ran,
A laithful steward and an honest man.
His soul. we trust. now freed from mortal woes,
Finds, in the partriarch's bosom sweet reposu.
A better epitaph can rarely be found. Rachael, his
widow, for ten years after his death continued her variety
store in this house, and after its destruction in 1813, having
no children of her own, took up her residence with an
adopted son who lived near New Ipswich, in this State.
He was the agent of one of the first cotton factories in that
vicinity, and at her death, in that place, all her property
became his by bequest.
Repassing again the Adams corner, we go up what is
now the front of Exchange Buildings, under the shade of
large beautifully spread elms, and nearly on the spot where
the Rockingham Bank now stands we can see a large white
gambrel-roofed house, back to the market, end to the street,
approached by a lattice gate. In general appearance, position, and garden on the south, very nearly resembling the
mansion of Samuel Lord, Esq., on Middle street.
This house was the property of John Fisher, Esq., who
owned the land on which the Market was built. The Fisher
family went to England after the Revolution. About
seventy years ago this house was occupied by Jonathan
Goddard, Esq., the first husband of Mrs. Robert Rice. It
was afterwards occupied by Dr. Josiah Dwight until
the fire.
The brick market checked the fire in this direction. It
was a truly dismal sight the next morning from this standpoint to see a spot cleared which contained one-fourth at
least of all the buildings in Portsmouth, and nothing intervening between the market and Portsmouth Pier but naked
chimneys and smoking ruins!