We're not alone: A look at other places named Portsmouth around the world

Portsmouth is a beautiful coastal city with a rich history and longstanding ties to the Navy and the shipbuilding industry. This is true whether you are talking about Rhode Island, New Hampshire or Virginia, and it is also true of the original Portsmouth in England’s county Hampshire. For a long period of time, including the entire stretch of British colonial history in North America, Portsmouth was the United Kingdom’s largest naval base, and its influence on the American coastal cities that bear its name is unmistakable.

Portsmouth, England

The original Portsmouth was built on southern England’s Portsea Island but now sprawls onto the mainland as well. Founded in the 12th century and a strategically important naval base since the time of King Henry VII, Portsmouth is still home to a Royal Navy base and the oldest dry dock in the world, which was first built in 1495. By 1900, after centuries of expansion and development, the Portsmouth dockyard employed 8,000 people – a figure which increased to 23,000 during World War I. The historic dockyard is now a tourist attraction, home to HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson’s ship in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, and the port’s naval facilities include the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine refit base.

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Portsmouth, New Hampshire

At its official incorporation in 1653, the English settlement of Strawbery Banke on the west bank of the Piscataqua River was renamed "Portsmouth" in honor of John Mason, founder of the colony of New Hampshire. Mason was a prominent military commander and citizen of the British Portsmouth at a time when it was arguably the largest and most important naval base in the world.

In 1800, the New Hampshire settlement followed in the footsteps of its British namesake with the establishment of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the first federal navy yard in the United States. Although it has always been associated with Portsmouth, the shipyard, which today is responsible for the overhaul, refueling and modernization of the United States’ nuclear submarine fleet, is on Seavey’s Island, which is technically in Kittery, Maine.

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Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Portsmouth, Rhode Island, just like its northern neighbor on New Hampshire’s seacoast, was founded by English colonists in the 1600s. The settlement was known as Pocasset before its founders split into two groups, with Anne Hutchinson and her followers founding Portsmouth in 1638 and William Coddington founding Newport in 1639.

Hutchinson and her followers were politically and spiritually radical by the standards of the day, and the Portsmouth Compact they signed to establish their settlement is considered to be the first document in American history to sever both political and religious ties with England. The initially independent settlement eventually joined together with Providence, Newport and later Warwick to become the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Hutchinson, ever fearful of the Puritan authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony she had been expelled from, ended up moving to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (New York – to this day, there is a Hutchinson River in the Bronx) where she and her family were slaughtered by Native Americans. One of her daughters survived, and a surprising amount of famous American politicians, including the Bush family, FDR, and Mitt Romney, trace their lineage back to the Hutchinsons.

Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth, Virginia was recognized as a suitable shipbuilding site by English colonists as early as 1620 but was not officially founded and named after the UK port until 1753. There had been an earlier patent to settle the area, but the patent-holder was hanged by the colonial government for his role in Bacon’s Rebellion. The shipyard there was first built in 1767 and was owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia until its sale to the newly established US government after the Revolutionary War. It served as a Confederate shipyard during the Civil War, and then was reestablished under its current name, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is located entirely within the limits of Portsmouth, not Norfolk, but has retained its name to avoid confusion with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, which is located entirely in Kittery, not in Portsmouth.

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Portsmouth, Ohio

There is one Portsmouth you won't find located along the coast. But it is on the water.

Portsmouth, Ohio is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Scioto rivers at the southernmost tip of Ohio. While traffic on the rivers helped the community grow, it's not what gave the town its name. Instead, the name came from Henry Massie, who laid the town out in 1803 and named it after his hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: A look at other places named Portsmouths around the world