In 1756, was built this gambrel-roof house by Captain Purcell, a well-known merchant. After his death, his widow maintained it as a boarding house, and in 1779, entertained Captain John Paul Jones, (Note: accurate date is 1783. Jones original visit was in 1777.) during his stay in Portsmouth, while he impatiently awaited the building of the frigate "America" on Badger's Island.

Honorable John Langdon later owned the house, then Samuel Lord, Cashier of the Piscataqua Bank, and its successors, for fifty years; during part of which time he as also Treasurer of the Portsmouth Savings Bank.

(Note: Four years after the publication of "Vignettes" the Lord House became the home base of the new Portsmouth Historical Society in 1917 and remains open to the public today.)

VISIT the Portsmouth Historical Society web site or our John Paul Jones section.

NOTE: Text includes only information popularly known at the time of its publication. Excerpt from "Vignettes of Portsmouth," (1913) Illustrated by Helen Pearson with text by Harold Hotchkiss Bennett, Courtesy of Portsmouth Public Library Collection. Published here courtesy of SeacoastNH.com

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