Edward West’s article “The Lands of Portsmouth” provides a quick tour around early Portsmouth’s landowners. Heading from the West Path across to the East Path, he mentions a bridge to cross the stream. It was built in 1713 and called the New Bridge. It seems that the west part of Union Street did not cut across to the West side until that bridge was built. Old postcards show a bridge just to the east of Julia Ward Howe’s home and across from Thurston’s tree farm. To the north of the bridge was Wading River Swamp and north of that Round Swamp. Thomas Cornell had more land in this area and it was called Circuit Farm. On the south side of Union were the grants of William James, Hugh Parsons and Thomas Lawton’s “Hunting Swamp Farm.”

At the corner of Union and East Path was the Southermost School. It was across the street from where it is now at the Portsmouth Historical Society grounds. One story West tells concerns the widow Sarah Strange. She took up residence at the schoolhouse when her husband died. At a town meeting in 1746 she was ordered out so that the school might be improved and used as a schoolhouse once again. We know from other records that the widow of the first schoolmaster moved in when her husband died as well.

West now takes us down “the Newport Path” through Brayman’s Lane (laid out in 1713) to Wapping Road. Wapping was laid out as early as 1661 and ran between many of the larger farm grants. Descriptions of Wapping include the “Great Rock” which today is still located on Wapping near the Middletown line. The land grants belonged to Bartholomew West, Samuel Hutchinson and John Sanford. On the west side was the “Long Swamp Farm” of Thomas Lawton. On the east side was the farm of Thomas Burton and old records mention his ferry which probably went to Fogland. Turning east you could go to Sandy Point Farm that was first given to William Aspinwall and after he left, to Edward Hutchinson.