"In 1655 the town granted John Pickering 1st, a lot of land lying on Great Bay; and in 1660, fifty acres more were added. John Pickering himself lived in Portsmouth, on Pickering’s Neck, and was buried at Point of Graves. He was one of the most influential of the early settlers, and his posterity retained much of his firm and energetic character. He left two sons, John, who inherited Pickering’s Neck, and Thomas, who took the land in Newington. Thomas’ first son, James, born about 1680, was a lieutenant in the French war, and from him and his brother Joshua, almost all the Pickering families in Greenland and Newington have descended. The beautifully situated ancestral farm is retained in the family; and the old house, built by the first Thomas, stands yet, though it has been altered so many times that nothing remains of the original four-roomed structure, but the frame, which is made of oak as sturdy as its builders themselves."

Excerpted from The Portsmouth Guide Book, 1896, by Sarah Haven Foster.

Inscription reads, "Pickering house - Newington."