William Franklin Atwood

“ In 1629 the colony received thirty-five additional members from the Leyden Congregation. They arrived with John Endicott and his company at Salem on the ship Mayflower (not the same Mayflower that had brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth) . A charter had been granted to Endicott for territory in and around Massachusetts Bay. A letter came at this time from John Sherley addressed to Governor Bradford to the effect that “Mr. Beachamp and myself, with Mr. Andrews and Mr. Hatherly, are, with your love and liking, joined partners with you.” ”

“ There are convenient seats under the shady trees where one can rest and look out over Plymouth Harbor and Cape Cod Bay. Here on the “Hill” are the graves of the early colonists, the site of the Watch Tower, the Replica of the Powder House, the site of the “Fort.” People come here from all over the world to search for the graves of their ancestors. The guide map, giving location of all the graves, which is included in the Pilgrim Book of Burial Hill and Its Epitaphs, is invaluable to those who wish to get the most out of their visit to Pilgrim Plymouth. ”

“ You greatly blame us for keeping the ship so long in the country, and then to send her away empty. She lay 5 weeks at Cape Cod, whilst with many a weary step (after a long journey) and the endurance of many a hard brunt, we sought out in the hard winter a place of habitation. Then we went in so tedious a time to make provision to shelter us and our goods, about which labor, many of our arms and legs can tell us to this day we were not negligent. But it pleased God to visit us then, with death daily, and with so general a disease, that the living were scarce able to bury the dead ”

“ This monument, towering high in its massive splendor, occupies a commanding position overlooking the town and harbor, with Duxbury, Clark’s Island, the Saquish and the Gurnet in the background.
The central figure is Faith, which stands on the main pedestal, one foot resting on a replica of Plymouth Rock. In the left hand is a Bible, while the right hand points heavenward. The whole attitude is symbolic of faith in a divine power, as the smaller statues below are representative of the principles enunciated by the Pilgrims themselves. ”

“ William Brewster, their reverend elder, and Myles Standish, their Captain and military commander, unto whom myself and many others, were much beholden in our low sick condition. And yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this general calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness or lameness. And what I have said of these, I may say of many others who died in this general visitation, and others yet living, that while they had health, yea, or any strength continuing, they were not wanting to any that had need of them. ”

“ Lying just below Watson’s Hill between Pleasant Street on the west and Sandwich Street on the east, is an open square known as Training Green, from the fact that in the earlier days companies of militia were trained there in the manual of arms. In the center stands the Soldiers’ Monument, erected in 1869 to the memory of Plymouth men who served in the army and navy and who gave their lives during the Civil War. This tract of land was used before the arrival of the Pilgrims by the Indians for growing corn. ”

“ The harvest season drawing near, attention was given to gathering their crops and to putting their houses in readiness for the approaching winter. While some were thus engaged others were employed in fishing and their store of cod, bass and other fish seems to have been plentiful, for “‘every family had their portion.’” Of water-fowl, wild turkeys and venison, there seems, at this time, to have been an abundance. They had a peck of meal a week to a person, also Indian corn in like proportion of which they had planted some twenty acres with six acres of barley and peas. ”

“ Opposite the armory is Plymouth’s Memorial Building, dedicated in 1926 to the men of Plymouth who served in all the wars in which the country has been engaged. It has a large hall with a seating capacity of 2000 and was built at a cost of $300,000. This building is a few steps north of Pilgrim Hall, that sacred depository of Pilgrimiana, a mecca for modern day Pilgrims, visited every year by thousands from the world over.
The town has diversified industries. Its mills and factories are devoted principally to the production 7 of high grade woolens, cordage, tacks and rivets, and zinc products. ”

“ This place we had a great liking to plant in, but that it was so far from our fishing, our principal profit, and so encompassed with woods that we should be in much danger of the savages. Some of us, having a good mind for safety, to plant in the greater isle, [10] we crossed the bay, which is there five or six miles over. We judged it cold for our corn and some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, and of great security.”
That night they returned again to the Mayflower determined to settle the next day on a permanent location. ”

“ Whereupon, this news reaching Plymouth, Captain Myles Standish set out with eight men for Weymouth where he “found them in miserable condition.” The Indians were openly defiant and insulting. The meeting resulted in the killing of several Indians including a large brave named Pecksuot whom Captain Standish killed in hand to hand combat. Those who remained of the Weston colony thought it best to take their leave and in the Swan sailed away for the fishing grounds off the coast of Maine provisioned with corn from the scanty store remaining with Standish. Thus the Weston colony came to end. ”

“ Leaving the Monument and passing south through Allerton Street, crossing Samoset Street, and continuing straight over the hill to the Cornish and Burton Schools, we arrive at the northwest entrance to the old burial ground. Rising 165 feet above sea level this hill commands a fine view of the harbor and bay from Kingston and Duxbury on the north to the Pine Hills on the south. At the base of the hill is Town Square where in the immediate foreground rise the spires of the First Church (Unitarian) and the Church of the Pilgrimage, with Leyden Street leading to the harbor beyond. ”

“ The early settlements on Cape Cod all came about under the aegis of the parent colony in Plymouth. Several times in Pilgrim chronicles we read how Captain Myles Standish was sent to Sandwich, Barnstable and Yarmouth on tours of inspection and to supervise the division of lands purchased for little or nothing by the newcomers from the remnants of an Indian population decimated years before by disease. ”

“ On the next pedestal is the figure representing Law with Justice on one side and Mercy on the other, symbolizing justice tempered with mercy. Education has on the one hand the wisdom of maturity and on the other Youth following experience. The fourth figure represents Freedom, a consequence of which is peace, represented on the one hand, while on the other is represented the overthrow of tyranny.
The main pedestal has four polished faces, on two of which are inscribed the names of the Mayflower Pilgrims, while another bears the inscription “National Monument to the Forefathers. ”

“ Yarmouth was a direct offshoot of Pilgrim Plymouth, and prominent among its settlers was Giles Hopkins, son 8 of Stephen Hopkins, who came over with his father on the Mayflower.
Barnstable, at its inception, was dominated by the personality of the Rev. John Lothrop, a very strongminded man of dissident Pilgrim persuasion who, together with fifty of his parishioners, had once served two years in jail in England for religious schism. For a time the spirit of controversy continued in the new Cape Colony, fanned by the radical views of Marmaduke Matthews, a firebrand Welshman. ”

“ It may be observed that North Street and Leyden Street run parallel toward the water, Carver Street following the curve on Cole’s Hill connecting with both streets at the north and south sides of the hill. Middle Street, starting at Main, runs between North and Leyden Streets and ends at the hill.
To those who have not visited Plymouth in recent years, the transition of Court and North Streets from their quiet residential charm, to avenues of commercial enterprise, will be noticeable. It is the inevitable contribution to expansion and progress. ”

“ As the patent they held covered land in the vicinity of the Virginia capes, and settlement was made outside the limits defined therein, a second patent was obtained covering land contiguous to Cape Cod Bay. This second patent was brought over in the Fortune in 1621 and is now preserved in Pilgrim Hall.
It was while the Mayflower lay in Provincetown harbor that, to quote from Mourt’s Relation under date of November 23rd, 1620, “Our people went on shore to refresh themselves and our women to wash as they had great need.” ”

“ Direct Pilgrim influence on the religious life, the administration and the courts of the Cape settlements continued from the earliest beginnings at Sandwich in 1637, with steadily diminishing strength, until the election of Thomas Prence of Eastham as Governor of Plymouth Colony in 1657. Meanwhile the parent settlement itself was coming under the domination of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its Puritan hierarchs. The Plymouth connection finally lapsed, for all practical purposes, in 1685, when Plymouth Colony was divided up into Plymouth, Barnstable and Bristol Counties. ”

“ The beach between White Horse and Manomet Point affords excellent 64 bathing, and boats with tackle for sea fishing are readily obtainable.
Nearby to the south is Hotel Mayflower, and at the “Point” below, the Manomet Coast Guard Station. Manomet Village lies to the west, and on the bluff overlooking the bay is Hotel Idlewild (formerly the Barstow House) .
Southward stretch wide acres of fields and meadows, hills and vales dotted here and there by farms and gardens, a variation of landscape that is typical of New England. ”

“ That at their coming there they choose out such a number of fit persons as may furnish their ships and boats 25 for fishing upon the sea; employing the rest in their several faculties upon the land, as building houses, tilling and planting the ground, and making such commodities as shall be most useful for the colony.
5. That at the end of the seven years, the capital and profits, viz., the houses, lands, goods and chattels, be equally divided among the adventurers and planters; which done, every man shall be free from other of them of any debt or detriment concerning the adventure. ”

“ Moreover, King James was beginning to exercise an unwarrantable influence in the Low Countries. This went to the extreme of confiscating their types [3] and presses and the suppression of the religious matter printed and issued by William Brewster, the Elder of the Leyden congregation. A compelling force seemed to drive them on to seek some place of permanent settlement. And to quote from Bradford:
“Although the people generally bore all their difficulties very cheerfully and with a resolute courage, being in the best of their strength, yet old age began to come on some of them ”

“ It is further possible that an early age some of the eldest of the Mayflower passengers may have imparted this information to Elder Faunce directly. During the war of the Revolution, an attempt was made to remove the rock to Town Square, there to be viewed as an emblem of liberty, civic and religious. In the operation of lifting, the upper portion split away, leaving the base in its original bed. This top portion was, however, transferred to the square, where it remained until 1834, when it was taken to Pilgrim Hall and placed within an iron fence at the left of the entrance. ”

“ Bradford states: “Many sold their clothes and bed coverings; others (so base were they) became servants to the Indians and would cut them wood and fetch them water for a cap full of corn; others fell to plain stealing, both night and day from the Indians, of which they grievously complained.”
About this time word came that their friend Massasoit 62 was gravely ill. Following the Indian custom, Edward Winslow, together with one John Hamden, with Hobomock for guide, went to his aid and through their ministrations he recovered. ”

“ Precautionary measures were taken however to protect the settlement, and in 1622 a fort was erected on Burial Hill. This was supplemented by a watch tower in 1643. During the King Philip War a larger fort was erected on the same site. Fortunately the Plymouth colony escaped Indian attack although in 1676 73 a small community to the south near Eel River was attacked and eleven settlers killed.
It is hard to realize in these days of material comforts, not to speak of luxuries, the hardships of our forebears. It was a case of work for survival. ”

“ This was the first arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth. Sunday was spent on the ship.
37 A Permanent Settlement
It is evident that they were favorably impressed both with the security of the harbor and the general surroundings, although there was some division of opinion as to the best location for a permanent settlement as the following discloses: “This bay is a hopeful place, innumerable store of fowl, skate, cod, turbot and herring we have tasted of; abundance of muscles, the greatest and best that ever we saw; crabs and lobsters, in their time infinite.” ”

“ In 1636, owing to the growth of the original colony or plantation and the establishment of separate settlements at Scituate and Duxbury, the purely democratic rule which had obtained under the Mayflower Compact, wherein matters pertaining to the interests of the colony were settled in general assembly, was superseded by a law passed providing for government by deputies representing the several towns.
The first legislative body met in 1639 and brought together representatives from the outlying towns of Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Taunton, Scituate, Duxbury and Plymouth. ”

“ On Monday the 23rd a landing was made, the men to make repairs to the shallop and the women to wash, thus establishing Monday as the generally accepted “Washday.”
The Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed in all probability before Mayflower dropped anchor in Provincetown Harbor. This document was partly the result of friction that had arisen during the voyage and the intimation that some among them might exercise their individual liberty without restraint and against the peace and welfare of the community as a whole. ”

“ For 75 years this financial institution has contributed to the community welfare of Plymouth and vicinity. It has encouraged ... and made possible, home ownership for many. It has extended a financial helping hand to broaden the cultural, educational and social horizons of its citizens. It is aiding many to acquire security and independence through systematic saving. We welcome long term investment funds seeking sound placement at better than average yield. ”

“ First Cape settlement was in 1637, when a band of Puritan families from Saugus and Lynn on the North Shore got permission from the Pilgrim Fathers to migrate to the precincts of the Plymouth Colony, of which the Cape was a part. Some Pilgrim families from Duxbury and Plymouth came along with these first settlers to carve out homesteads in the Sandwich area. ”

“ On Friday, Feb. 26th, a party of twelve Indians were seen near the plantation and on the same day the tools of Captain Myles Standish and Francis Cooke, who had been at work in the woods, were stolen during their absence.
On the morning of the next day, Saturday, Feb. 27th, a meeting was called, Myles Standish was chosen Captain and given authority to command in military affairs. Two Indians were seen on this day “upon the top of a hill” (Watson’s Hill) but upon the approach of Captain Standish and Stephen Hopkins, they ran away. ”

“ Here lie those who died the first fateful winter. The hardships of the voyage and the lack of proper accommodations after the 41 landing developed much sickness, which made frightful inroads on the little colony, their number being reduced one-half during the first few months, and those remaining being “scarce able to bury the dead.”
SARCOPHAGUS—COLE’S HILL
They were reduced so fast and to such an extent that it was deemed wise to conceal the graves, so they planted corn that Indians might remain in ignorance of their great losses. ”

“ The next harvest turned out to be a poor one owing partly to their weakened condition and to other necessary work that they were called upon to do. But again Providence came to the rescue. Another ship, the Discovery, Captain Jones (Not Captain Christopher Jones of the Mayflower) came into the harbor. She had been sent out from England to “discover all the harbors between this and Virginia and the sholes of Cape Cod and to trade along the coast where they could.” ”