A GUIDE TO
PLYMOUTH
And Its History

Compiled from Inscriptions on Tablets, Monuments
& Statues erected in Honor of Its Founders
THE PILGRIMS, or given in prose or verse
on Occasions of Memorial Celebrations

By Helen T. Briggs and Rose T. Briggs

Illustrated by Raymond C. Dreher

PUBLISHED BY
THE PILGRIM SOCIETY
and
THE PLYMOUTH ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY

Copyright, 1938
By The Plymouth Antiquarian Society

THE MEMORIAL PRESS
PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts

FOREWORD

Plymouth preserves with loyal respect the places which are associated with her Forefathers, the Pilgrims.

In the town they founded, tablets, statues, and public monuments bear witness to the veneration that historical societies, the State, and the Nation, hold for the memory of that small group of men and women, simple in their origin, exalted in their purpose, who were destined to prove themselves great among the greatest, and whose example of a free commonwealth and a free faith, is one of the far-reaching influences in history.

Many questions are asked by visitors to Plymouth about Plymouth history and the localities of Pilgrim Life. It is the purpose of this short guide to review the Pilgrim story and give in the words of permanent inscriptions, the public estimation of the Pilgrims and their accomplishment.

Plymouth, 1938.

PILGRIM HALL

In grateful memory
Of our ancestors
Who exiled themselves from their
native country
for the sake of Religion
And here successfully laid the
foundation
of Freedom and Empire
December XXII A.D. MDCCCXX
their descendants the Pilgrim Society
have raised this edifice
August XXXI MDCCCXXIV

PLYMOUTH

“Forever honored be this, the place of our fathers’ refuge! Forever remembered the day which saw them, weary and distressed, broken in everything but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impressing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man!”

—Daniel Webster

From the oration delivered
at Plymouth December 22,
1820, in commemoration of
the first settlement of New
England.

CONTENTS

THE MAYFLOWER

The Pilgrims of the Mayflower

“So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place near twelve years; but they knew that they were Pilgrims, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”

Bradford: History of Plymouth Plantation

The little ship Mayflower of about 120 tons burden according to the present register, Capt. Christopher Jones commanding, set sail from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620.

She carried a crowded company: men with their wives and children, young men and maidens, eager with a sober spirit to found a colony, and make their permanent homes in the new world of America. Because of religious differences, they had already separated themselves from the established Church of England, and in consequence had suffered persecution, fines, and imprisonment.

Their small congregations had met in secret that they might worship according to their own principles and ideals.

Some of them had previously left their homes in the villages of York, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire, and had spent twelve years of exile in Holland, where they found hospitable and friendly tolerance in the cities of Amsterdam and Leyden.

But after long and serious debate, it was decided that they must seek greater liberty for themselves and their children; so banding together part of the congregation in Leyden with others in England, the passengers of the Mayflower sailed, not as conquerors of a new province, or adventurers of fortune, but as Pilgrims with a fixed purpose to secure civic and religious freedom in a new land.

THE MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS

“The names of those who came over first in
the year 1620
and were by the blessing of God the first
beginners and (in a sort) the foundation
of all the Plantations and Colonies
in New England.”

*Died the first winter

• *Mr. John Carver
• *Katharine, his wife
• Desire Minter
• John Howland, servant
• *Roger Wilder, servant
• William Latham, a boy
• a maid-servant
• *Jasper More, a child
• Mr. William Brewster
• Mary, his wife
• Love Brewster, their son
• Wrestling Brewster, their son
• Richard More, a child
• *His brother, a child
• Mr. Edward Winslow
• *Elizabeth, his wife
• George Soule, servant
• *Elias Storey, servant
• *Ellen More, a child
• William Bradford
• *Dorothy, his wife
• Mr. Isaac Allerton
• *Mary, his wife
• Bartholomew Allerton
• Remember Allerton (daughter)
• Mary Allerton
• *John Hooke, servant
• Mr. Samuel Fuller (surgeon)
• *William Button, servant (died at sea)
• *John Crackston
• John Crackston, his son
• Captain Myles Standish
• *Rose, his wife
• *Mr. Christopher Martin
• *his wife
• *Solomon Prower, servant
• *John Langmore, servant
• *Mr. William Mullins
• *his wife
• *Joseph Mullins
• Priscilla Mullins
• *Robert Carter, servant
• *Mr. William White
• Susanna, his wife
• Resolved, their son
• Peregrine, their son (born off Provincetown)
• *William Holbeck, servant
• *Edward Thompson, servant
• Mr. Stephen Hopkins
• Elizabeth, his wife
• Giles Hopkins
• Constance Hopkins
• Damaris Hopkins (daughter)
• Oceanus Hopkins (born at sea)
• Edward Doty (Doten), servant
• Edward Lister, servant
• Mr. Richard Warren
• John Billington
• Ellen, his wife
• John Billington, their son
• Francis Billington, their son
• *Edward Tilley
• *Ann, his wife
• Henry Sampson, cousin; child
• Humility Cooper, cousin; little girl
• *John Tilley
• *his wife
• Elizabeth Tilley
• Francis Cooke
• John Cooke, his son
• *Thomas Rogers
• Joseph Rogers, his son
• *Thomas Tinker
• *his wife
• *his son
• *John Rigdale
• *Alice, his wife
• *James Chilton
• *his wife
• Mary Chilton
• *Edward Fuller
• *his wife
• Samuel, their son
• *John Turner
• *his two sons
• Francis Eaton
• *Sarah, his wife
• Samuel Eaton, their infant son
• *Moses Fletcher
• *John Goodman
• *Thomas Williams
• *Degory Priest
• *Edmond Margeson
• Peter Brown
• *Richard Britteridge
• *Richard Clarke
• Richard Gardiner
• Gilbert Winslow
• John Alden, cooper
• *John Allerton, seaman
• *Thomas English, seaman
• William Trevor, seaman, (hired for one year)
• —— Ely, seaman, (hired for one year)

“Immortal scroll! the first where men combined

From one deep lake of common blood to draw

All rulers, rights and potencies of law.”

—John Boyle O’Reilley

Poem read at the dedication of the National Monument to the Forefathers August 1, 1889.

The Pilgrims held a charter issued to a member of a company of London merchants who had agreed to support their venture.

They intended to make a settlement somewhat to the north of the already established colony in Virginia, but storms buffeted the little ship, and head winds drove her from her course. When at last land was sighted after a weary voyage, they found themselves many leagues further north than they had intended.

With winter upon them, they knew that they must establish themselves at once, outside of the territory originally granted them, and that their charter would not cover this emergency. They determined to act for themselves.

In the cabin of the Mayflower before they came to anchor in “Cape Codd” bay, on Nov. 21, 1620 (N.S.), the men of the Company drew up and signed a compact for their government, electing their own officers, and binding themselves to work together for their common good and their common faith.

From this simple mutual agreement, took form the first American commonwealth, the beginning “of government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

THE COMPACT

“In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, anno Domini 1620.”

SIGNERS OF THE COMPACT

• John Carver
• William Bradford
• Edward Winslow
• William Brewster
• Isaac Allerton
• John Alden
• Myles Standish
• Samuel Fuller
• Christopher Martin
• William Mullins
• William White
• Richard Warren
• John Howland
• Stephen Hopkins
• Edward Tilley
• John Tilley
• Francis Cooke
• Thomas Rogers
• Thomas Tinker
• John Rigdale
• Edward Fuller
• John Turner
• Francis Eaton
• James Chilton
• John Crackston
• John Billington
• Moses Fletcher
• John Goodman
• Degory Priest
• Thomas Williams
• Gilbert Winslow
• Edmund Margeson
• Peter Brown
• Richard Britteridge
• George Soule
• Richard Clarke
• Richard Gardner
• John Allerton
• Thomas English
• Edward Doten
• Edward Lester

The “Compact” was succeeded, in law, if not in the respect of the colonists, by a regular patent taken out in the name of one of the Adventurers (the English investors) in 1621. This is now in Pilgrim Hall. It was superseded by another, also to the Adventurers; and finally, in 1629, after the colonists had bought out the English investors, by one to “Wm. Bradford and associates,”—that is, the freemen of the colony. By thus transferring the “home office” of the company from London to America, the colony became an all but independent government. Consciously or unconsciously, it had from the beginning exercised most of the functions of a sovereign state, and continued to do so, except during the “tyranny” of Sir Edmund Andros, until it merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

From Plymouth, England

to

Plymouth, Massachusetts

In England:

“On the 25th of August 1620
From the West Quay near this spot
The famous Mayflower began her voyage
Carrying the little company of
Pilgrim Fathers
Who were destined to be the founders
Of the New England States of America.”

Memorial tablet at Southampton, England. Placed by the Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America.

At Provincetown:

“They established and maintained on the bleak and barren edge of a vast wilderness, a state without a king or a noble, a church without a bishop or a priest, a democratic commonwealth the members of which were ‘straightly tied to all care of each other’s good, and for the whole by every one.’

“With long suffering devotion and sober resolution they illustrated for the first time in history the principles of civic and religious liberty and the practices of a genuine democracy.

“Therefore the remembrance of them shall be perpetual in the vast republic that has inherited their ideals.”

From the inscription written by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, for the Memorial Monument to the Pilgrims in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Exploration:

While the Mayflower lay at anchor in Cape Cod bay, two exploring parties had been sent out to search for a suitable place for a settlement.

On Wednesday, Dec. 16 (N.S.) the third expedition sailed along the shore in the shallop owned by the Pilgrim company. There were eighteen men on board: two officers, the master-gunner, and three seamen from the Mayflower, and ten Pilgrim volunteers. These were Gov. Carver, Capt. Standish, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Howland, Stephen Hopkins, Edward Dotey, Richard Warren, and two of the Pilgrims’ own seamen, John Allerton and Thomas English.

The weather was cold and rough, and the voyage proved an adventurous and memorable one.

On the second day, they escaped unharmed a sudden and violent attack from a band of Indians on the shore. When they resumed their voyage a storm arose, and in the blinding snow, with high winds and a rough sea, they were nearly shipwrecked.

At last in the darkness they found shelter in the lee of a small island at the mouth of Plymouth harbor, and passed the night safely on shore.

When the sun shone the next morning, they dried their soaked clothing, looked after their firearms, repaired the damaged shallop, and gave thanks to God “for his mercies in their manifold deliverances.” “And this being the last day of the week, they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.”

Plymouth Rock:

On Monday, December 21, they crossed to the mainland, finding a channel “fit for shipping” and a sheltered harbor. There they made their first landing on a rock on the shore.

The situation seemed promising. They marched into the land and found deserted corn fields “and little running brooks.” “A place fit for situation; at least it was the best they could find.” “So they returned to their ship again, with this news to the rest of their people, which did much comfort their hearts.”

The Mayflower then weighed anchor for Plymouth, where three days were spent in anxious deliberation. They asked Divine Guidance on the momentous question of the settlement, and it was at last decided to accept the first site considered, and build their houses on the bank of the brook running into the sea, near the rock where they first landed.

Thus Plymouth Rock became “the stepping-stone of a nation.” The Rock has long been fully identified; notably in 1741 by Elder Thomas Faunce, who, at the age of ninety-five, in the presence of his sons and many spectators, declared his knowledge of it was received from his father and the Pilgrims still living in his boyhood.

THE MONUMENT OVER PLYMOUTH ROCK

For the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America built a beautiful portico of Doric columns over the Rock.

This replaced the “monumental canopy,” whose corner stone had been laid Aug. 2, 1859, under the care of the Pilgrim Society.

At the beginning of the Revolution, a large section, split from the main rock, had been carried by the patriots of Plymouth with great ceremony and enthusiasm to the Town Square, and there placed beneath a Liberty Pole to rouse and maintain patriotic feeling.

In 1834 this fragment was removed to the front of Pilgrim Hall, and surrounded by an iron railing inscribed with the names of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was returned to the shore again in 1880, and the severed fragment fitted into its original position.

Finally in 1921, all parts of the Rock were strongly cemented together, and now rest, where the tide reaches it, under the new portico on the shore.

The park reservation surrounding the Rock, from the roadway eastward to the water, is the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is cared for and controlled by the State.

“Plymouth Rock does not mark a beginning or an end. It marks a revelation of that which is without beginning and without end, a purpose shining through eternity with a resplendent light, undimmed even by the imperfections of men, and a response, an answering purpose from those who oblivious, disdainful of all else, sought only an avenue for the immortal soul.”

—Calvin Coolidge

Address read at the opening of the Tercentenary Celebration at Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1920.

COLE’S HILL
The first Burying Ground.

“But what was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three months half of their number died, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts.”

—from William Bradford’s
Of Plymouth Plantation

Before the Mayflower left Cape Cod, and while she lay at anchor in Plymouth harbor, a violent and fatal sickness broke out among her passengers.

Confinement in their close and crowded cabin, the hardship of a long and stormy voyage, poor food, and the exposure of building their first houses on shore, caused many of the Pilgrim company to lose their lives, in sight of the promised land they had ventured so much to gain.

Hardly a family but lost one or two of its members; wives, their husbands, children, their parents; before spring came, one half of the little colony had perished and were secretly buried on this hill by the shore.

Three hundred years later, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants placed a handsome sarcophagus to honor and receive these dead from their nameless graves, which time and accident had disturbed, and the Massachusetts Tercentenary Commission set aside a park reservation on the crest of the hill, to surround the monument. It was formally dedicated September 8, 1921.

On the side facing the street, the inscription reads:

“This Monument marks the First Burying Ground in Plymouth of the Passengers of the Mayflower.

“Here under cover of darkness the fast dwindling company laid their dead, levelling the earth above them lest the Indians should know how many were the graves.

“Reader! History records no nobler venture for faith and freedom than that of this Pilgrim band.

“In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and cold they laid the foundations of a state wherein every man, through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his own way.

“May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our republic throughout the world!”

At one end of the memorial is inscribed:

“The Bones of the Pilgrims found at various times in or near this enclosure and preserved for many years in the canopy over the Rock were returned at the time of the Tercentenary celebration and are deposited within this monument.”

“Erected by the General Society of
Mayflower Descendants A.D. 1920.”

On the opposite end of the monument is:

“About a hundred sowls came over in this first ship, and began this work which God in his Goodness hath hithertoe Blessed. Let his Holy Name have ye praise.”

Bradford 1650.

THOSE WHO DIED IN THE FIRST WINTER

On the opposite side of the monument, facing the sea, is a list of the Pilgrims who died in the first winter, as follows:

“of the hundred and four passengers these died in Plymouth during the first year:

• John Allerton
• Mary, first wife of Isaac Allerton
• Richard Britteridge
• Robert Carter
• John Carver and
• Katherine, his wife
• James Chilton’s wife
• Richard Clarke
• John Crackston, Sr.
• Sarah, first wife of Francis Eaton
• Thomas English
• Moses Fletcher
• Edward Fuller and
• his wife
• John Goodman
• William Holbeck
• John Hooke
• John Langmore
• Edmund Margeson
• Christopher Martin and
• his wife
• Ellen Moore and a brother (children)
• William Mullins
• Alice, his wife
• Joseph, their son
• Solomon Prower
• John Rigdale and
• Alice, his wife
• Thomas Rogers
• Rose, first wife of Myles Standish
• Elias Story
• Edward Tilley and
• Ann, his wife
• John Tilley and
• his wife
• Thomas Tinker
• his wife and
• son
• John Turner and
• two sons
• William White
• Roger Wilder
• Elizabeth, first wife of Edward Winslow
• Thomas Williams”

The following died before reaching Plymouth:

• Dorothy, first wife of William Bradford
• William Button
• James Chilton
• Jasper Moore
• Edward Thompson

STATUE OF MASSASOIT

Not far from the Sarcophagus stands a fine statue of the Indian Sachem Massasoit. It was modeled by the sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, and given by the National Order of Red Men. It was unveiled September 5, 1921, and dedicated in October of same year.

Massasoit, the grand sachem of the confederated tribes of Pokanoket, visited Plymouth on a fine spring day, April 1st, 1621. He was received with ceremony, a feast and gifts. A treaty of peace and friendship was drawn up and signed by him and the Pilgrims. He remained their loyal friend, and preserved peace with the colony for half a century.

MEMORIAL SEATS

Two stone seats have also been given as memorials, and placed on the hill, one near the statue of Massasoit, and the other under the great linden tree at the northern end. This was dedicated August 31st, 1921, and inscribed:

Presented by
The Pennsylvania Society
of
New England Women
To commemorate the Tercentenary
of the
Landing of the Pilgrims
1620–1920

The inscription of the other seat reads:

In Memory
of
The Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers whose
heroic idealism established the basic principles
of the government of our land.
Presented by
The Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Seated here, with the wide view of harbor, Plymouth Beach, and distant ocean spread before them

“Let musing strangers view the ground,

Here seek tradition’s lore,

Where Pilgrims walked on holy ground

With God in days of yore.”

Samuel Davis

The First Street
NOW LEYDEN STREET

Since it was the twenty-first of December when the first exploring party landed in Plymouth, and winter was fast closing in, the first work to be undertaken by the men of the Mayflower was to provide shelter for their families and a storage place for their supplies.

A Common House was the first to be built, and other houses were added as those who survived the fatal epidemic were able “in their great weakness” to accomplish the heavy task. They tenderly cared for the sick and dying, and toiled through the winter weather with incredible courage, and an unshaken faith; when spring came the Mayflower sailed on her homeward voyage, but not one of the Pilgrim Company relinquished his fixed purpose and returned to England. The women bravely supported the men, and were determined to make and maintain their homes and rear their children in this new land of opportunity for civil and religious liberty.

Along the bank of the brook, the Pilgrims found cleared land, the abandoned cornfields of a tribe of native Indians who had perished about three years before in another mysterious epidemic. High land rose from the shore to a hill beyond, and following the ascent, the first street was laid out.

Along this pathway, Governor Carver portioned to each person a lot of land, each plot to be of the same size: three rods long and half a rod wide. The company was divided into nineteen families, and each family was to build its own house, which was to front the street, with a garden behind, those on the south side sloping down to the brook. The lots were to be inclosed with high palings for protection. The houses are described as built of hewn plank, the roofs thatched with swamp grass.

A partial plan of the location of the allotments was roughly drawn by William Bradford, and may still be seen at the Registry of Deeds on Russell St. in Plymouth. Seven houses were built during the first winter. It was not until March that the last of the women and children who had been sheltered during the winter on the Mayflower, were brought on shore to live.

The Common House was the first to be finished. It sheltered the men working on shore; the community assembled there on the Sabbath, until the lower room in the Fort was ready for this purpose; there the Colony business was transacted, and the first “Court Days”, from which the New England institution of the Town Meeting was to develop, were held. It was used, too, as a hospital for the sick, and after the dwelling houses were built, it served as a store house. It is marked with a tablet:

COMMON HOUSE

This tablet is erected by the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts to mark
the site of the first house built by
The Pilgrims

In that house on the 21st of February 1621 (New Style) the right of popular suffrage was exercised and Myles Standish was chosen Captain by a majority vote. On or near this spot, April 1, 1621, the memorable treaty with Massasoit was made.

Next to the Common House came that of Peter Brown, and third, that of John Goodman. Farther up the street, at its intersection by the path to the Indian ford over the brook, was the house and land of William Brewster, Elder and spiritual leader of the Colony.

Across the path, continuing up the hill, were the houses of John Billington, Francis Cooke, and Edward Winslow. On the opposite side, conveniently near his duties at the fort, was the house of Captain Myles Standish. Next to that, descending the hill again towards the shore, was the large lot and house of the Governor, William Bradford. Part of his garden was used in 1637 for the site of the first Meeting House. Next to Bradford’s house came those of Stephen Hopkins, and of the faithful physician, Dr. Samuel Fuller. On most of these lots, descriptive tablets have been placed by the Town of Plymouth.

Six years after the first labor of building the settlement had been accomplished, the Colony received a visitor from the Dutch trading post at Manhattan, which sent its Secretary, Isaac De Rasiere, to confer with them about their respective trading transactions.

In a letter to Holland after his return from Plymouth, he describes vividly and minutely the town as he saw it in October 1627.

“New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill, stretching east toward the seacoast, with a broad street about a cannon shot of about eight hundred feet long leading down the hill.... The houses are constructed of hewn plank, with gardens also enclosed behind and at the sides with hewn planks, so that their houses and court yards are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden attack; and at the ends of the street are three wooden gates.

In the center at the cross street stands the Governor’s house, before which is a square enclosure upon which four patteros are mounted so as to flank along the streets.”

The old street, following unchanged its original direction, has been in constant use for more than three hundred years, and its present inhabitants number several descendants of the first dwellers.

Town Brook
and
The Brewster Gardens

“The meersteads and garden plottes of those which came first, layed out 1620.”

To honor the memory of the courageous men and women who established their homes and made their gardens along the Town Brook in 1621–22, Mrs. William Forbes of Milton, with the co-operation of the Town, created in 1920–22, a beautiful little park on the site of the first meersteads.

The land apportioned to Elder Brewster was half way up the hill, and his garden sloped down to the brook. A flowing spring in the hollow has been reclaimed for a drinking fountain, and a branch has also been piped to the Main Street in front of the Government Building which was built on Brewster land.

The inscription on the fountain reads:

“Pilgrim Spring
on the Meerstead
set off to
Elder William Brewster
in the original allotment
December, 1620
erected by the Town 1915
“Freely drink and quench your thirst
Here drank the Pilgrim Fathers first.”

Near a little pool below the spring stands a fine statue of a Pilgrim Maiden, by H. H. Kitson. It is inscribed:

“To those intrepid English women whose courage, fortitude, and devotion brought a new nation into being, this statue of the Pilgrim maiden is dedicated.”

Presented to the Town of Plymouth by the
National Society of New England Women.

The statue is full of life, vigorous and alert, typical of the strength and cheerful courage with which the youthful Pilgrims met the hardships and dangers of their new homes.

Above the spring, on the upward path to the street, the National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists have placed a stone seat in remembrance of the women who came in the ship Ann in 1623. From here the brook in its little valley can be seen winding to the sea; on its banks, the gardens which still bloom behind the old houses on Leyden Street, occupy the same ground as those “garden plottes” where the Pilgrim women cultivated the herbs which they consigned to England, three hundred years ago. Perhaps no gardens in America can claim a longer history of continuous use.

At the mouth of the brook was the herring weir, built before 1627 to control the annual run of herring up the stream to the fresh water ponds above. The herring still run in the spring through a similar weir, and are still a source of revenue to the town.

The Town Brook with its springs of “sweet water,” the herring fishing, and the ford which lead to the Indian encampment on the southern hill, made one of the important centers of the community life, and the gardens and sunny exposures of the little houses on the bank, protected by the guns on the Fort Hill above them, must have given some quiet and happy moments to the anxious and homesick Pilgrim women.

Burial Hill
Called Fort Hill until 1698

THE FORT

On the top of the hill, beyond the row of the first houses, and overlooking the town, the Pilgrims in 1622–23 built with great labor, a fort and stockade; Governor Bradford describes it:

“A fort of good timbers, both strong and comely, which was a good defense, made with a flat roof, and battlements, and on which their ordinance was mounted, and where they kept constant watch, especially in time of danger.”

In 1633, he further says—“Our ancient work of fortification, by continuance of time is decayed, and Christian wisdom teaches us to depend upon God in the use of all good means for our safety.” It was therefore ordered by the Governor that the fort should be repaired, and the stockade enlarged. In 1635 and in 1642, it was again repaired, and in 1643 a watch tower was built nearby. This was of brick, two stories high, and contained a fireplace with a chimney.

Though hostile Indians never attacked the town, both they and the neighboring friendly tribes held the white men in increased respect for this protection.

During the first winter, the Pilgrims elected Capt. Myles Standish their military leader. He organized and trained his little army of twelve men, led their marches, protected the town, and rendered valiant service for thirty-five years.

“The only trained soldier
In the Pilgrim Community
Always their military Commander
But also a valuable civil servant
And a wise promoter
Of the business interests
Of the Pilgrim Stock Company.
In fight fearless impetuous and resolute
In civil affairs cautious and firm
In business shrewd just and far-seeing
A conscientious and high-minded leader
Of devout men and women
Who founded in a wilderness
A tolerant church and a free state.”

From
Standish Monument
Duxbury, Massachusetts

Dr. Charles W. Eliot

THE GUNS

On the side hill near the site of the fort now stand two ancient cannon; they were presented to Plymouth Oct. 4, 1921, by the British Government, through the good offices of the Honorable Artillery Company of London (chartered in 1537) and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (chartered in 1638).

Col. Sidney Hedges, speaking at the presentation of the guns, said:

“While we are not sure that they are the original pieces, which stood on the spot in 1621, they certainly are of the same type and age: one is called a Minion, manufactured in 1557, and the other a Sackeret, manufactured in 1550.”

Bradford and Winslow mention such guns.

“The master came on shore with many of his sailors, and brought with him one of the great pieces, called a minion, and helped us to draw it up the hill, with another piece that lay on shore, and mounted them, and a saller (saker, or sackeret) and two bases (very small pieces).”

At the presentation ceremony, Oct. 4, 1921, Mr. Joseph Smith read an original poem which contained these lines:

“Minion and Sackeret, bravely done.

Guns of a king and queen,

Brazen and bold in the autumn sun,

Mute on the hill grass-green,

Moulded in strength by skillful hands,

Fashioned in beauty for war’s demands,—

The terrible beauty that Death commands,—

And the nod of king and queen.

Here will they stand at the dead man’s gate

Where the Pilgrims sleep and dream and wait

For the day when the lowly and the great

Are as one at the throne serene.

*****

The land that holds the bones of all their sires

The land they loved despite their hapless lot,

Has kindled once again ancestral fires

And tells these dead they have not been forgot.

And here she sends to her dead exiled sons

To guard their sanctuaries, these ancient guns.”

The Pilgrim Progress

More far reaching than the voice of the guns, was the message to the future from the small lower room of the fort, where the Pilgrims held their services of worship. Here their Elder, William Brewster, extolled freedom of thought and conscience; here were read letters received from their beloved pastor in Leyden, John Robinson; here they sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving; but still surrounded by danger, “they must constantly be on their guard, night and day.”

“With arms they gathered in the congregation to worship Almighty God. But they were armed, that in peace they might seek divine guidance in righteousness: not that they might prevail by force, but that they might do right though they perished.”

—Calvin Coolidge
Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1920

The congregation assembled “at beat of drum,” and marched together from their homes on Leyden Street, protected by the muskets of the men. “They march three abreast, and are led by a sergeant.—Behind comes the Governor in a long robe, beside him on the right hand comes the preacher with his cloak on, and on the left hand the captain with his side arms.”

The women with babes in their arms and their children clinging to them, the boys and young men and the maidens follow,—“and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him.”

It is minutely described in a letter written in 1627, by Isaac de Rasieres, a visitor of state from the Dutch colony at Manhattan.

This “Pilgrim Progress” is yearly reproduced by a memorial service to the Pilgrims on the site of the first fort-meeting house.

On successive Fridays in August, at five o’clock, a group of men, women and children, many of them still bearing the names of their Pilgrim forefathers, wearing the white caps and kerchiefs, the steeple-crowned hats and cloaks of the congregation of 1621, assemble again on the first street, and mount the hill, where a short service of commemoration is held. Old hymns are sung, among them those which the Pilgrims brought with them from Leyden.

“Bow down thine ear, Jehovah, answer me:

For I am poor, afflicted, and needy.

Keep Thou my soul, for merciful am I;

My God, Thy servant save, that trusts in Thee.”

Psalm 68 from the Psalm book, published in Amsterdam by Henry Ainsworth, and used by the Pilgrim congregation in Leyden and at Plymouth.

The Graves

“Here sleep the dead, their sacred dust is laid

Beneath the grass-green bosom of this hill;

They lived in faith, they faced death unafraid,

They wrought in pain, nor deemed their labors ill.”

—Joseph Smith
Oct. 4, 1921

As the Pilgrims established themselves more firmly in the wilderness, there was no further need of secret burials on Cole’s Hill, and the hill about the fort was early used for the graves of the colony.

Though there are many ancient graves on Burial Hill, most of the resting-places of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower are not to be found in Plymouth, but in the later settlements of Kingston, Duxbury, Marshfield, Eastham, Middleboro, and Dartmouth, whither they had followed their sons, or established themselves again as pioneers from the first settlement.

A small granite shaft on the brow of the hill bears the name of Governor Bradford, and it is believed that he is buried here, near the grave of his son, Major William Bradford. The inscription on the north side of the monument reads:

“Beneath this stone rests the ashes
of William Bradford
A zealous puritan and sincere Christian
Gov. of Ply. Col. from April 1621 to 1657
aged 69, except 5 years which he declined.
Qua patris difficilime
Adapti sunt nolite turpiter relinquere.”
(What your fathers with so much difficulty
attained, do not basely relinquish.)

and on the south side:

“William Bradford of Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, was the son of William and Alice Bradford. He was Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1633, 1635, 1637, 1639 to 1643, 1645 to 1657.”

The inscription on the tomb-stone of his son Major William Bradford reads:

“Here lies the body of
Honorable Major William Bradford
who expired Febr. ye 20th 1703/4 aged 71 years.
He lived long, but still was doing good
& in his country’s service lost much blood.
After a life well spent, he’s now at rest.
His very name and memory is blest.”

Major Bradford lived in Kingston. At the time of his funeral, the roads were obstructed by deep snow. He was carried by bearers along the sea shore from Jones River to Plymouth, to be buried at his wish beside his father on Burial Hill.

Near the site of the Old Fort, is the grave stone of Elder Thomas Cushman, with the inscription:

“Here lyeth buried ye body of that precious servant of God, Mr. THOMAS CUSHMAN, who after he had served his generation according to the will of God, and particularly the church of Plymouth for many years in the office of a ruling elder fell asleep in Jesus, Decmr. ye 10, 1691 & ye 84. year of his age.”

Here is also a monument erected Aug. 15, 1855, to Robert Cushman, Elder Thomas Cushman, his son, and Elder Cushman’s wife, Mary Allerton, of the Mayflower.

On the east is inscribed:

“Erected by
The descendants of
Robert Cushman
In memory of their Pilgrim Ancestors,
XVI—September, MDCCCLVIII.”

North side:

“Fellow-exile with the Pilgrims in Holland,
Afterwards their chief agent in England,
Arrived here—IX—November,—MDCXII,
With Thomas Cushman his son:
Preached—IX—December,
His memorable sermon on ‘The Danger of self-love
And the sweetness of true friendship:’
Returned to England—XIII—December,
To vindicate the enterprise of Christian emigration;
And there remained in the service of the Colony Till—
MDCXXV,
When, having prepared to make Plymouth His permanent
home,

Continued west side:

He died, lamented by the forefathers as ‘their ancient friend,—who was as their right hand with their friends the adventurers, and for divers years had done and agitated all their business with them to their great advantage.’”

South side:

“THOMAS CUSHMAN.
Son of Robert, died—X—December, MDCXCI,
Aged nearly—LXXXIV—years.
For more than XLII—years he was
Ruling Elder of the First Church in Plymouth,
By whom a tablet was placed to mark his grave on
this spot,
Now consecrated anew by a more enduring
memorial.
MARY,
widow of Elder Cushman, and daughter of Isaac
Allerton,
Died—XXVIII—November, MDCXCIX, aged about—XC—
years,
The last survivor of the first comers in the Mayflower.”

Another important Pilgrim landmark is the grave of JOHN HOWLAND which is situated on the westerly slope of the hill, near the rear entrance to the cemetery. Near it are three other old graves; that of Edward Gray, 1681, whose stone is the oldest on Burial Hill; that of William Crowe, 1683–84; and that of Thomas Clark, 1697, who came over in the ship “Ann”.

John Howland’s grave is marked by a modern stone, ornamented with a bas relief of the “Mayflower”. On it is inscribed this excerpt from the Town Records:

“Hee was a godly man & an ancient professor in the wayes of Christ. Hee was one of the first comers into this land & was the last man that was left of those that came over in the Shipp called the Mayflower that lived in Plymouth.”

There is no more peaceful and beautiful burying place than this green hill, crowned with elm trees, overlooking the lovely view of town and sea. Hundreds of quaint and interesting stones appeal to the antiquarian and the scholar, and the site of the Pilgrim’s fort, and the graves of the Pilgrims, connect it for all time with the nation’s “first beginnings.”

“And when we sail as Pilgrim’s sons and daughters

The spirit’s Mayflower over seas unknown,

Driving across the waste of wintry waters

The voyage every soul shall make alone,

The Pilgrim’s faith, the Pilgrim’s courage grant us;

Still shines the truth that for the Pilgrim shone.

We are his seed; nor life nor death shall daunt us.

The port is Freedom! Pilgrim heart, sail on!”

—L. B. R. Briggs
December 21, 1920

From the ode read at the celebration
of the 300th anniversary
of the Landing of the Pilgrims.

The Memorial
to the
Pilgrim Women

On the corner of North Street and the Water side, not far from Plymouth Rock, is a small park enclosed by hedges of box and privet; in the center against a background of lilac trees, a tall granite fountain supports on the front, a standing figure representing a Pilgrim woman.

Capable, courageous and devoted, steadfast in her faith and to her duties though a life-long exile from the home of her birth, through dangers and privations she made possible the domestic comfort and the permanence of the Pilgrims’ homes in the wilderness.

On the curb of the pool an inscription reads:

“Erected by the National Society
Daughters of the American Revolution
In memory of the heroic
Women of the Mayflower
1620–1920”

and on the back of the fountain:

“They brought up their families

in sturdy virtue and a living faith in

God without which nations perish.”

On the shaft is given the names of the women who came in the Mayflower.

• “Mary Norris Allerton
• Mary Allerton
• Remember Allerton
• Eleanor Billington
• Mary Brewster
• —— Chilton
• Mary Chilton
• Sarah Eaton
• Susannah Fuller White
• Dorothy Bradford
• Katherine Carver
• Maid servant of the Carvers,
• name unknown
• Humility Cooper
• —— Martin
• —— Fuller
• Elizabeth Hopkins
• Constance Hopkins
• Damaris Hopkins
• Alice Mullens
• Priscilla Mullens
• Elizabeth Tilley
• —— Tilley
• Desire Minter
• Ellen Moore
• Alice Rigdale
• Rose Standish
• Ann Tilley
• —— Tinker
• Elizabeth Winslow”

The National Monument to
the Forefathers

“This Monument

Where Virtue, Courage, Law and Learning sit

Calm Faith above them, grasping Holy Writ;

White hand upraised o’er beauteous trusting eyes,

And pleading finger pointing to the skies.”

—John Boyle O’Reilly

Poem read at the dedication of the
Monument to the Forefathers
August 1, 1889.

“What of her by the western sea,

Born and bred as the child of Duty,

Sternest of them all?

She it is, and she alone

Who built on faith as her corner stone;

Of all the nations, none but she

Knew that the truth shall make us free.”

Tercentenary Ode
—L. B. R. Briggs

On the summit of a hill, back of the center of the town, stands the National Monument to the forefathers. Surmounting the pedestal, a figure of Faith, of heroic size, raises her arm with her forefinger pointing to heaven. Beneath her are seated Liberty, Law, Education, and Morality, representative of the Pilgrim ideals; below them are marble bas-reliefs of episodes in Pilgrim history. “The Departure from Delft Haven,” “The Signing of the Compact,” “The Landing of the Pilgrims,” and “The Treaty with Massasoit.”

Around the level plateau on which the monument stands, a wide view unrolls itself like a scroll of Pilgrim history. There lies the town of their founding; beyond it, the distant line of the ocean horizon seems almost as empty as when the Mayflower ploughed through the winter storms three hundred years ago. Her anchorage was inside the long, low strip of the beach, where she rode till the spring of 1621; a protection to the colonists, and a shelter for the women and children until houses could be built for them on shore.

Beyond the point of the beach is Clark’s Island, where the exploring party from the Mayflower spent the first Sabbath in Plymouth history. Still beyond, Saquish, the Gurnet, and the line of the coast had been mapped and charted by Capt. John Smith in 1615 and were known to earlier voyagers, as well as to the Pilgrims.