our  minister."  Nov.  lo,  1656:  "This  day  the  townsmen
have  agreed  with  Mr.  Dudlow  to  be  our  minister,  and  to
come  unto  us  this  ne.Kt  spring,  and  to  have  fourscore
pounds  the  yeare."  This  was  Rev.  Samuel  Dudley  of
Exeter,  son  of  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley  of  Massachusetts.  If
he  came  to  Portsmouth  in  the  spring  of  1657,  according  to
the  agreement  just  named,  his  stay  was  brief  He  had
been  preaching  some  years  at  Exeter,  and  remained  there
till  his  death  in  1683.  In  September,  1657,  "The  selectmen
sent  Henrie  Sherburne  to  goe  to  Mr.  Woster  with  a  call
from  the  towne  to  be  our  minister,  in  case  the  town  and
he  can  agree,  he  giving  us  a  visit."  This  was  probably
Rev.  William  Worcester  of  Salisbury,  Mass. ;  but  he  did
not  permanently  leave  his  parish  there.
All  the  ministers  in  Portsmouth,  down  to  this  time,  had
preached  in  the  chapel  on  Pleasant  Street.  In  August,
1657, '"  the  town  authorized  the  selectmen  to  build  a  new
meeting-house,  which  was  erected  on  the  rise  of  ground  a
few  rods  south-east  from  the  South  Milldam,  on  the  spot
where  the  house  of  Francis  S.  Roberts  now  stands.
In  Rockingham  County  Records,  vol.  ii.  folio  34,  is  the
following  document :  "  —

'"  In  1657,  the  citizens  of  Portsmouth  above  twenty-one  years  of  age  num-
bered eighty-two,  indicatmg  a  population  of  perhaps  three  hundred.
