Dullness and inactivity

The busy activity of the place occurs only ... when a fleet comes in or is about to sail, at which periods the town becomes all crowd and hurry for a few days, and then suddenly reverts to a languid intermission of dullness and inactivity.

Dr George Pinckard, 1795, describing Portsmouth

Anti Slavery

Portsmouth played its part in stopping slavery. From 1808 the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, who were tasked to stop the slave trade, operated out of Portsmouth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6430401.stm

Christopher Hitchins

Christopher Hitchens, the Anglo American author, journalist and literary critic was born in Portsmouth, the son of a Naval officer, on 13 April 1949. In 2005 he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual.

To link to his work: http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/christopher-hitchens

A hot press

Press gangs were the scourge Portsmouth streets when these gangs of harsh men swept the town and scooped up any able bodied man who crossed their path regardless of marital status, dependants, home location or employment. One particularly 'hot press' occurred on 23 September 1803 when 'no protestations were listened to, and a vast number of persons were sent on board the different ships in this port ' (Portsmouth).

Sometimes even underhand methods were used. For example, a Capt Bowen made a spectacle of marching a party of marines ostenstibly to quell a riot and, when a crowd gathered to see the fun, turned on them to round up all the fit men.

East India Company

The East India Company, which had extensive interests in the Far East, India and China, used Portsmouth as a base. The Company had its own army and detachments would leave from Portsmouth together with company officials and passengers. Often these would be protected by naval escorts. The Company's involvement in the Town was such that they built repair facilities and extensive storehouses. For example, Lord Clive returning from India to Portsmouth in 1767 brought with him raw silk, redwood and saltpetre.

To find out more, read The East India Company and the Provinces in the Eighteenth Century: Portsmouth and the East India Company 1700-1815 v. 1 (Studies in British History) by James H thomas

The Siege of Lucknow

Heroes of the famous seige of Lucknow, part of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8, are commemorated in Portsmouth. The three fields on which Havelock Park stands, located to the east of Victoria Road North, were brought in 1857 the same year as the seige, for £4,520, and the foundation stone laid a year later. The estate was named after Sir Henry Havelock who led the first relief column into Lucknow, while Sir Henry Lawrence, John Inglis, Sir James Outram and Sir Colin Campbell all gave their names to local roads.

A hanging and unusual souvenirs

On this day in 1782, a crowd reported to be somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 strong gathered on Southsea Common, many of them having walked great distances to be there. They had come to watch David Tyrie, who had been convicted of high treason, be hanged, decapitated and disembowelled.But, when Tyrie arrived from Winchester prison, it was realised that nobody had thought to bring a rope. The executioner, with great presence of mind, acquired some from a lugger moored offshore. This gave Tyrie extra time to read his bible.

The Hampshire Chronicle reported that Tyrie was hanged for 22 minutes, his head severed from his body, his heart taken out and burned, his genitals cut off and his body quartered. The same account reported that after the body parts were buried on the beach some sailors dug up the coffin and cut the body into 1,000 pieces to distribute as souvenirs.

http://www.executedtoday.com/2011/08/24/1782-david-tyrie-the-last-hanged-drawn-and-quartered/