Seacoast History Blog #116  
June 8, 2011

Until today I thought “Portsmouth Betty” was a woman who went up in a UFO with her husband Barney. Who knew the name applied to a 19^th century tin lantern? There was one for sale on eBay recently and a quick search of the Web shed more light on the topic. What we don’t know about how our ancestors lived would fill a book, lots of books, and the topic of artificial lighting is a biggie. I think about this every year during out week without electricity on Smuttynose island because I work until 2 or 3 am every night. On Smuttynose, where the sun refuses to stay up, and there are no wall sockets, this quickly becomes a problem. (Continued below)

I used to use kerosene lamps after dark at Smuttynose, and hunkered between two of them each night trying to write as if I was still in the 21^st century. Now I use a battery-powered look-alike, but the batteries are inevitably too pooped to provide much more than a glimmer. It’s hard not to imagine how my predecessors managed to get much writing done as they burned the midnight oil.

The “betty lamp” according to The Encyclopedia Americana was of Dutch origin and used by early New England settlers. There are many styles and the so-called Portsmouth Betty is distinctive because the lamp is firmly attached to the base, rather than being removable as in earlier versions. The Portsmouth Betty appears to be descended from a style made at Newbury, MA around 1680 and may have been used right up until the end of the 18^th century. The lamp was pear-shaped, rarely ornamented, made of iron or pewter or tin, and used to read when attached to a chair or set by the fire. They might be filled with sand to keep them upright. You try reading with a hot, smelly, metal lamp that barely gives off a flickering light. Do that every night with a cluster of old lamps inside a w wooden house with no fire extinguisher or smoke alarm.

Curiously, one account says these lamps were made at ‘Rivermouth” which is the term used to describe Portsmouth in the novel A Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

We could use one or two of these Portsmouth Betty lamps in the collection of the Portsmouth Historical Society, so feel free to donate yours or buy one at auction and donate it. We’ll keep digging into the origin and manufacturers of the Portsmouth Betty, and spread that name around. It looks like the perfect item for a local craftsman to recreate for decoration in colonial homes. You heard it here first – or 300 years late – depending on how you measure time. – JDR

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