William Franklin Atwood

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Weston had withdrawn from the Merchant Adventurers and had acquired a patent to land in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay, that the men sent over were destined therefore, that they were a rough lot and, according to a letter from Mr. Cushman “were no men for them.” They were, however, as well provided for as the circumstances under this added burden and their strained supply of provisions would permit, until their removal to the Weymouth Colony. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Smyth was highly esteemed by the non-conformist group. He was a graduate of Cambridge, “an eminent man in his time,” and his pastorate at Gainsborough extended from 1602 until 1606 when he was forced to retire.
The Scrooby fraternity, an off-shoot from Gainsborough, was presided over by Richard Clyfton as first pastor. Prominent among the non-conformists at Scrooby were William Brewster, born in Scrooby in 1560, William Bradford, born in Austerfield, a village three miles distant, in 1588, and John Robinson, born in Lincolnshire about 1576. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Weston returning later, fell into the hands of the Indians who stripped him of his belongings and reduced him to such extent that he appealed to the Plymouth Colony for help. They gave him a generous supply of beaver skins which he was able to exchange for supplies from the other vessels along the coast which was “the only foundation for his future course.” ”

“ The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later 64 time; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth, would make them happy and flourishing as if they were wiser than God. ”

“ The influx into the Massachusetts Bay colony gave impulse to this movement and to the increase in the price of cattle and products of the plantations. It resulted in the establishments of settlements where the quality of the soil encouraged cultivation. Thus the nucleus of future towns began to appear with separate places of worship, in the territory both to the north and south of Plymouth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Plymouth Colony had been warned as to the type of men who composed the Weymouth Colony. As it turned out, they were constantly fomenting discord with the Indians and some even went so far as betray the friendship of their Plymouth neighbors. They were repeatedly in want of food and other supplies although having been at first well provided. ”

“ While the colony assumed this added burden of indebtedness, their income seems to have increased likewise. “The Lord prospered their trading” and “they made yearly large returns.” Cattle and corn increased in value and thus encouraged “there was no longer holding them together, but now they must of necessity, go to their great lots; they could not otherwise keep their cattle, and, having oxen grown, they must have land for plowing and tillage.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Robinson received orders from the Church of England, was suspended for non-conformity and later joined the Congregation at Scrooby where he was made pastor.
This triumvirate became the ruling spirits of the Scrooby community, Brewster became the Elder of the Church and later the religious leader of the Plymouth settlement, of which Bradford became Governor. Robinson, to whom both looked for inspiration and guidance, was destined by circumstances to remain in Holland where he had later been forced to take refuge. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In May the Sparrow, a fishing vessel, arrived bringing seven more passengers. In July two more vessels, the Charity, and the Swan, belonging to Mr. Weston, arrived with about sixty men who were left at the Plymouth settlement. They remained there through the summer when, upon the return of one of Weston’s ships from Virginia, they were transferred to Weymouth, their original destination. ”

“ The persons transported and the adventurers shall continue their joint stock and partnership together the space of seven years, (except some unexpected impediments do cause the whole company to agree otherwise,) during which time all profits and benefits that are got, by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means, of any person or persons, shall remain in the common stock until the division. ”

“ The Mayflower with its added burden, now numbering one hundred and two souls, left Plymouth September 16th, 1620, and began its historic journey westward. For a goodly part of the voyage of over two months duration the ship was buffeted by equinoctial winds and high seas and, as they neared the coast, a death is recorded, that of William Butten, a youth, servant of Samuel Fuller. The records also disclose the birth of a son, Oceanus, to Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins. “After long beating at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod ”

“ It is further probable that they may have imparted this information to him directly as a number of the Mayflower passengers lived for many years subsequent to his birth.
This information has passed from generation to generation. “Plymouth Rock has now become a symbol of the Pilgrim venture into the unknown of their day and has inspired present-day Americans with a new Faith in democracy and in the American way of living.”
It was during their absence on December 17th, that Dorothy Bradford, wife of William Bradford, was drowned in Provincetown harbor. ”