154 Market St
Portsmouth, NH, USA

Moffat-Ladd Mansion

Built in 1763, by Captain John Moffatt (1691-1786) as a wedding present for his son Samuel Cutt Moffatt (1738-1780) on the occasion of his marriage to Sarah Catherine Tufton Mason (1742-1802). Samuel spent much of his time managing his business in the West Indies prompting his father to buy the house back in 1768

After the death of his wife in 1769, Captain Moffatt was joined in the house by his daughter Catherine and her husband (and first cousin), Founding Father General William Whipple (1731-1785). Whipple predeceased his father-in-law and the property was passed to the descendants of Samuel and Sarah Moffatt, who finally gained control of the property after a series of legal disputes that were finalized in 1818. The following year, the house passed to Samuel's grand-daughter, Mrs Maria Tufton (Haven) Ladd (1787-1861), who until then had been living at the General Porter House. After she died, her son Alexander H. Ladd (1815-1900) lived here until his own death in 1900, during which time he laid out the magnificent gardens still seen today. In 1911, his children gifted the house to the National Society of Colonial Dames in New Hampshire, and its open to the public.