portsmouthhistorynotes

A few years ago the Portsmouth Historical Society received the generous gift of a portrait painted by one of Portsmouth’s artists, Sarah Eddy. That portrait led us to the story of Fannie Scott, one of the former slaves that Joseph Macomber brought to Portsmouth in 1870.

Who was Fannie Scott and what was her connection to Sarah Eddy? As we researched Fannie we found her obituary in 1928. Fannie came to Portsmouth as a ten year old and lived with her sister, Matilda Ayler (the wife of Morgan Ayler) and her family. At the time she was Fannie Edna Brent. Later she would marry another one of Macomber’s group of former slaves, Robert Scott. Fannie was an active member of the Friends Church and she served on committees for the foreign missions and helped organize social gatherings for the church.. After her husband died she returned to the Ayler household.

From the markings on the portrait frame and canvas, we know that the painting was done in Portsmouth in 1920. Fannie would have been about seventy at the time. She went on to live eight more years and those last years were spent in the Home for Aged Colored People in Providence. Sarah Eddy had a long tradition of inviting the residents of that home to come to her home in Portsmouth for a summer outing. Newspaper clippings from 1913 through 1942 record the yearly visits of a group from the Aged Colored People’s Home. As an example, I will share information from a 1928 outing. Sarah Eddy was a vegetarian, so the typical refreshments were quahaug chowder, rolls, cakes and ice cream. After lunch there was a social with speakers, music (spirituals and old time songs of the south), and a bible reading (read by someone dressed in a “Mammy” costume). Fannie’s niece, Alice Morris, was one of those who assisted with the singing, so it is not unlikely that in her younger days Fannie might have helped at the outings.

Sarah Eddy’s Bristol Ferry neighbors helped with the events and her next door neighbors, the Ballous, were active in supporting the home.

In 1890 Christina Bannister (artist Edward Bannister’s wife) helped establish the Home for Aged Colored People as a nursing home for African American women – especially those who had been servants and had no family to care for them. She raised funds for the home and was a member of the staff. Near the end of her life, Mrs. Bannister was poor and she actually became a resident of the home after her husband died in 1901. Sarah Eddy was part of the artistic community in Providence and must have known the Bannisters. Today “Bannister House’ in Providence traces its roots to the Home for Aged Colored People.