history, especially so that of August 5 of the latter year, which was
grandly impressive alike in its magnitude and its purpose and character.
President Taft, the successor of President Roosevelt, arrived in his
yacht Mayflower with imposing naval display amid rejoicing and the
booming of guns. He was greeted by Governor of the State Eben S. Draper,
Captain J. H. Sears, president of the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial
Association, and members of the local committee. Accompanying him were
Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer, United States Senators Henry
Cabot Lodge and George Peabody Wetmore, and Justice White of the United
States Supreme Court. The scene and the ceremonies, soul-stirring and
significant, are worthy of permanent record.
Escorted by a company of bluejackets, of whom two thousand, with marines
from the warships, lined the street from the wharf, President Taft and
the other guests were driven up the hill to the Monument, where, from
the grandstand at its base, Captain Sears reviewed the plans which
resulted in its erection.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
THE PILGRIM MEMORIAL MONUMENT AT PROVINCETOWN]
President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University gave an historical
address. In graphic language he contrasted the desolate prospect
confronting the Pilgrims at Cape Cod with the picture upon which the
present concourse gazed, a happy and prosperous population filling the
smiling land and in the harbour traversed by the Mayflower a varied
throng of ships, "with them numerous representatives of a strong naval
force maintained by the eighty million free people who in nine
generations from the Pilgrims have explored, subdued, and occupied that
mysterious wilderness so formidable to the imagination of the early
European settlers on the Atlantic coast of the American continent."
With force and pathos Dr. Eliot spoke of the debt they all owed to the
Pilgrim Fathers. "We are to hear the voices of the Chief Magistrate of
this multitudinous people and of the Governor of the Commonwealth
acknowledging the immeasurable indebtedness of the United States and of
the Colony, Province, and State of Massachusetts to the adult men and
the eighteen adult women who were the substance or seed-bearing core of
the Pilgrim company; and we, the thousands brought hither peacefully in
a few summer hours by vehicles and forces unimagined in 1620 from the
wide circuit of Cape Cod--which it took the armed parties from the
Mayflower a full month to explore in the wintry weather they
encountered--salute tenderly and reverently the Pilgrims of the
Mayflower, and, recalling their fewness and their sufferings, anxieties
and labours, felicitate them and ourselves on the wonderful issues in
human Joy, strength, and freedom of their faith, endurance, and
dauntless resolution."
Dr. Eliot was followed by M. Van Weede, charge d'affaires of the
Netherlands Legation at Washington, whose Government was represented on
this occasion because the Pilgrims sailed from Holland. (The cornerstone
laying three years before was attended by the British Ambassador.)
Formal transfer of the Monument from the National Commission, which
directed its construction, to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the
Pilgrim Memorial Association, was made on behalf of the United States
Government by Senator Lodge, who enlarged upon the two great political
principles embodied in the Mayflower compact, the conception of an
organic law and of a representative democracy, and on the noble
purpose--that of securing freedom of worship and the preservation of
their nationality and native language--of the little band of exiles who
signed the document and settled there.
William B. Lawrence of Medford accepted the Monument on behalf of the
Memorial Association, and a quartet sang "The Landing of the Pilgrims,"
by Mrs. Felicia Hemans.
Congressman James T. McCleary of Minnesota, who supported the bill in
Congress for a Government appropriation to assist in the building of the
Monument, also spoke.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
PLYMOUTH ROCK]
Governor Draper then introduced the President. "This Monument," he said,
"shows that our people and our State and National Government honour and
revere the Pilgrims and the great principles of government they
enunciated," and for that reason, he added, "It is most fitting that
this Monument, whose cornerstone was laid by one President, should be
dedicated by another."
President Taft declared that the spirit which animated the Pilgrim
Fathers had made the history of the United States what it was by
furnishing it with the highest ideals of moral life and political
citizenship. "It is meet therefore," said he, "that the United States,
as well as the State of Massachusetts, should unite in placing here a
Memorial to the Pilgrims. The warships that are here with their cannon
to testify to its national character typify the strength of that
Government whose people have derived much from the spirit and example of
the heroic band. Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Captain Miles
Standish are the types of men in whom as ancestors, either by blood, or
by education and example as citizens, the American people may well take
pride."
The ceremonies were brought to a close by Miss Barbara Hoyt, a
descendant of Elder Brewster, unveiling a bronze tablet over the door of
the Monument facing the harbour which bears an appropriate inscription
written by Dr. Eliot.
And so this magnificent Monument stands as a landmark which, seen from
afar across the ocean, will remind the traveller of the small beginnings
of New England when, in the words of Dr. Eliot, fired and led by the
love of liberty, the Mayflower Pilgrims here "founded and maintained a
State without a king or a noble, and a Church without a bishop or a
priest."
* * * * *
It is upon record that in the early days of the Plymouth Plantation an
expedition was made in the Mayflower's shallop, a big boat of about
fourteen tons, to a point lower down on the coast, where the party made
friends with the Shawmut Indians and found a fine place for shipping,
and forty-seven beautiful islands, which they greatly admired as they
sailed in and out amongst them. This was the future Boston Harbour.
It is interesting to reflect that when, a decade and more after the
Pilgrim Fathers had landed in America, some hundreds of Puritan
colonists embarked for Massachusetts, many of the leading burgesses of
the then only Boston--that Old Boston, scene of the Pilgrims' detention
and suffering--were of the number. The town cannot claim a contribution
to the Mayflower, but it has a boast as proud, for it was because the
ancient seaport sent so large a contingent of Puritans to America that
it was ordered "that Trimountain," the site overlooking the sheltered
waters and the island group which delighted Pilgrim eyes, "shall be
called Boston."
[Illustration: _Photograph by Hackford, Boston_
A BIT OF OLD BOSTON]
It was in the spring of 1630 that the main body of Puritan emigrants,
John Winthrop's party, sailed from Southampton. A year before that the
Massachusetts Bay Company dispatched to the West an expedition of five
ships, and one of them was our old friend the wonderful little
Mayflower, of immortal memory, which nine years earlier had carried out
the Plymouth Pilgrims and was now assisting in the settlement of
Massachusetts!
Among the Bostonians and their friends who sailed with or in the wake of
Winthrop were Richard Bellingham, Recorder of the town (Nathaniel
Hawthorne in "The Scarlet Letter" draws Governor Bellingham of the New
Boston); bold Atherton Hough aforementioned, Mayor of the borough in
1628; Thomas Leverett, an alderman, "a plain man, yet piously subtle";
Thomas Dudley and young John Leverett, who became Governors of
Massachusetts; William Coddington, father and governor of Rhode Island;
and John Cotton, the far-famed Puritan preacher of Boston church, who
became one of the leading religious forces of New England life.
And Old Boston, we have seen, is still much as it was outwardly over
three hundred years ago, when the Pilgrim Fathers gazed upon it, and
later Cotton preached long but edifying sermons in the vast church, and
the Puritan warden struck the Romish symbol from the hand of a carven
image on the noble tower.
The first days of the Trimountain Colony resembled in some of their
features those of the planting of New Plymouth. Although their shelter
was of the scantiest, the settlers had not, like the settlers of
Plymouth, to face at the outset the rigors of a Western winter. The
Pilgrims arrived in December, on the shortest day of the year, whereas
the day of the Puritans' landing was the very longest. Sickness and
famine had nevertheless to be fought. Disease quickly carried off twenty
per cent. of the people. About a hundred others returned home
discouraged. The rest persevered, and proved themselves worthy followers
of the New Plymouth Pilgrims. The Colony was, moreover, recruited by
fresh comers from the old country; and through many vicissitudes,
dissensions, and set-backs, much that was blasting to the spiritual and
moral life and development of the Colony, it prospered materially and
gathered strength. And there grew up the New England States.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
THE SITE OF THE OLD FORT, BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH]
On the slope of Burial Hill,[9] surrounded by memorials of the Pilgrim
Fathers and with the graves of their dead in the background; facing down
that stream-skirted street of the Pilgrims once bordered by their humble
dwellings and echoing to the tread of their weary feet; looking out upon
the waters which bore to this haven, long years ago, the storm-tossed
Mayflower and her eager human freight, there stands to-day a church
which through the centuries has preserved unbroken records and
maintained a continuous ministry. This is the First Church in Plymouth
and the first church in America, the church of Scrooby, Leyden, and the
Mayflower company, the church of Brewster and Bradford, of Winslow and
Carver, whose first covenant, signed in the cabin of the little emigrant
ship, is still the basis of its fellowship. Here Roger Williams, the
banished of Boston and missionary of Rhode Island--a man according to
Bradford of "many precious parts, but very unsettled in
Judgment"--ministered for a time under Ralph Smith in the early stormy
days of the sister colony; and here John Cotton, son of the famous
Boston teacher and preacher--"a man of scholarly tastes and habits,
somewhat decided in his convictions, diligent and faithful in his
pastoral duties"[10]--was pastor for nearly thirty years from 1669.
As the First Church in Boston is the fifth of its line, so is the First
Church in Plymouth the fifth meeting-house used by the Pilgrim
community. Its predecessor, a shrine of Pilgrim history around which
precious associations clustered, was destroyed by fire in 1892; from
the burning ruins was rescued the town bell cast by Paul Revere in
1801, and this sacred relic hangs and tolls again in the tower of the
present edifice.
Amid such scenes as these well may we of to-day pause and reflect. For
on this hallowed spot, with its historic environment and its striking
reminders of a great and honoured past, was rocked the cradle of a
nation of whose civil and religious liberty it was the first rude home.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
FIRST CHURCH, PLYMOUTH
_The entrance to Burial Hill is shown on the Right_]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Morton in his "New England's Memorial," declares that the Dutch
fraudulently hired the captain of the Mayflower to steer to the north of
what is now New York, and adds: "Of this plot between the Dutch and Mr.
Jones I have had late and certain information."
[5] Longfellow, "The Courtship of Miles Standish."
[6] This is the Cole's Hill of the present day, the spot where half the
Mayflower Pilgrims found their rest during the first winter. Five of
their graves were discovered in 1855, while pipes for the town's
waterworks were being laid, and two more (now marked with a granite
slab), in 1883. The bones of the first five are deposited in a
compartment of the granite canopy which covers the "Forefathers' Rock"
on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed.
[7] The letter was addressed by De Rassieres to Herr Blommaert, a
director of his company, after his return to Holland, where the Royal
Library became possessed of it in 1847.
[8] This document, preserved still in the Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth, is
dated June 1, 1621, and bears the signatures and seals of the Duke of
Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, a name for many years prominent in American history. The patent
only remained in force a year. That issued by the Council eight years
later was transferred by Governor Bradford to the General Court in 1640.
[9] Burial Hill was the site of the embattled church erected in 1622,
and contains many ancient tombstones and the foundations of a watchtower
(1643), now covered with sod.
[10] John Cuckson, "History of the First Church in Plymouth." Dying in
1699, two years after his resignation at Charleston, South Carolina,
Cotton was "buried with respect and honour by his old parishioners, who
erected a monument over his grave."
V
THE PILGRIM ROLL CALL--FATE AND FORTUNES OF THE FATHERS
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
THE PILGRIM FATHERS' MEMORIAL, PLYMOUTH]
V
THE PILGRIM ROLL CALL--FATE AND FORTUNES OF THE FATHERS
_On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled._
EDMUND SPENSER.
_There were men with hoary hair_
_Amidst that pilgrim band:_
_Why had they come to wither there,_
_Away from their childhood's land?_
_There was woman's fearless eye,_
_Lit by her deep love's truth;_
_There was manhood's brow serenely high,_
_And the fiery heart of youth._
So sings Mrs. Hemans in her famous poem "The Landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers in New England." That devoted little Pilgrim band comprised,
indeed, the Fathers and their families together, members of both sexes
of all ages. When the compact was signed in the Mayflowers cabin on
November 21, 1620, while the vessel lay off Cape Cod, each man
subscribing to it indicated those who accompanied him. There were
forty-one signatories, and the total number of passengers was shown to
be one hundred and two. What became of them? What was their individual
lot and fate subsequent to the landing on Plymouth Rock on December 26?
For long, long years the record as regards the majority of them was
lost to the world. Now, after much painstaking search, it has been
found, bit by bit, and pieced together. And we have it here. It is a
document full of human interest.
John Alden, the youngest man of the party, was hired as a cooper at
Southampton, with right to return to England or stay in New Plymouth. He
preferred to stay, and married, in 1623, Priscilla Mullins, the
"May-flower of Plymouth," the maiden who, as the legend goes, when he
first went to plead Miles Standish's suit, witchingly asked, "Prithee,
why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Alden was chosen as assistant
in 1633, and served from 1634 to 1639 and from 1650 to 1686. He was
treasurer of the Colony from 1656 to 1659; was Deputy from Duxbury in
1641-42, and from 1645 to 1649; a member of the Council of War from 1653
to 1660 and 1675-76; a soldier in Captain Miles Standish's company 1643.
He was the last survivor of the signers of the compact of November,
1620, dying September 12, 1687, aged eighty-four years.
Bartholomew Allerton, born in Holland in 1612, was in Plymouth in 1627,
when he returned to England. He was son of Isaac Allerton.
[Illustration: _Copyright, 1904, by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
JOHN ALDEN]
[Illustration: _Copyright, 1904, by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
PRISCILLA MULLINS]
Isaac Allerton, a tailor of London, married at Leyden, November 4, 1611,
Mary Norris from Newbury, Berkshire, England. He was a freeman of
Leyden. His wife died February 25, 1621, at Plymouth. Allerton
married Fear Brewster (his second wife), who died at Plymouth, December
12, 1634. In 1644 he had married Joanna (his third wife). He was an
assistant in 1621 and 1634, and Deputy Governor. He was living in New
Haven in 1642, later in New York, then returned to New Haven. He died in
1659.
John Allerton, a sailor, died before the Mayflower made her return
voyage. Mary Allerton, a daughter of Isaac, was born in 1616. She
married Elder Thomas Cushman. She died in 1699, the last survivor of the
Mayflower passengers. Remember Allerton was another daughter living in
Plymouth in 1627. Sarah Allerton, yet another daughter, married Moses
Maverick of Salem.
Francis Billington, son of John and Eleanor, went out in 1620 with his
parents. In 1634 he married widow Christian (Penn) Eaton, by whom he had
children. He removed before 1648 to Yarmouth. He was a member of the
Plymouth military company in 1643. He died in Yarmouth after 1650.
John Billington was hanged[11] in 1630 for the murder of John Newcomen.
His widow, Eleanor, who went over with him, married in 1638 Gregory
Armstrong, who died in 1650, leaving no children by her. John
Billington, a son of John and Eleanor, born in England, died at Plymouth
soon after 1627.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
GOVERNOR BRADFORD'S MONUMENT, BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH]
William Bradford, baptised in 1589 at Austerfield, Yorkshire, was a
leading spirit in the Pilgrim movement from its inception to its
absorption in the Union of the New England Colonies. We have seen how,
on the death of John Carver, he became the second Governor of Plymouth
Colony, and he five times filled that office, in 1621-33, 1635, 1637,
1639-44, and 1645-47, as well as serving several times as Deputy
Governor and assistant. A patent was granted to him in 1629 by the
Council of New England vesting the Colony in trust to him, his heirs,
associates and assigns, confirming their title to a tract of land and
conferring the power to frame a constitution and laws; but eleven years
later he transferred this patent to the General Court, reserving only to
himself the allotment conceded to him in the original division of land.
Bradford's rule as chief magistrate was marked by honesty and fair
dealing, alike in his relations with the Indian tribes and his treatment
of recalcitrant colonists. His word was respected and caused him to be
trusted; his will was resolute in every emergency, and yet all knew that
his clemency and charity might be counted on whenever it could be safely
exercised. The Church was always dear to him: he enjoyed its faith and
respected its institutions, and up to the hour of his death, on May 9,
1657, he confessed his delight in its teachings and simple services.
Governor Bradford was twice married, first, as we know, at Leyden in
1613 to Dorothy May, who was accidentally drowned in Cape Cod harbour on
December 7, 1620; and again on August 14, 1623, to Alice Carpenter,
widow of Edward Southworth. By his first wife he had one son, and by his
second, two sons and a daughter. Jointly with Edward Winslow, Bradford
wrote "A Diary of Occurences during the First Year of the Colony," and
this was published in England in 1622. He left many manuscripts, letters
and chronicles, verses and dialogues, which are the principal
authorities for the early history of the Colony; but the work by which
he is best remembered is his manuscript "History of Plymouth
Plantation," now happily, after being carried to England and lost to
sight for years in the Fulham Palace Library, restored to the safe
custody of the State of Massachusetts.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
GOVERNOR CARVER'S CHAIR AND ANCIENT SPINNING WHEEL]
William Brewster more than any man was entitled to be called the Founder
of the Pilgrim Church. It originated in his house at Scrooby, where he
was born in 1566, and he sacrificed everything for it. He was elder of
the church at Leyden and Plymouth, and served it also as minister for
some time after going out. Through troubles, trials, and adversity, he
stood by the Plymouth flocks, and when his followers were in peril and
perplexity, worn and almost hopeless through fear and suffering, he kept
a stout heart and bade them be of good cheer. Bradford has borne
touching testimony to the personal attributes of his friend, who, he
tells us, was "qualified above many," and of whom he writes that "he was
wise and discrete, and well-spoken, having a grave and deliberate
utterance, of a very cheerful spirite, very sociable and pleasante among
his friends, of an humble and modest mind, of a peaceable disposition,
under-valewing himself and his own abilities and sometimes
over-vallewing others, inoffensive and innocent in his life and
conversation, which gained him ye love of those without, as well as
those within." Of William Brewster it has been truly said that until
his death, on April 16, 1644, his hand was never lifted from Pilgrim
history. He shaped the counsels of his colleagues, helped to mould their
policy, safeguarded their liberties, and kept in check tendencies
towards religious bigotry and oppression. He tolerated differences, but
put down wrangling and dissension, and promoted to the best of his power
the strength and purity of public and private life. Mary Brewster, wife
of William, who went out with him, died before 1627.
Love Brewster, son of Elder William, born in England, married (1634)
Sarah, daughter of William Collier. He was a member of the Duxbury
company in 1643, and died at Duxbury in 1650.
Wrestling Brewster, son of Elder William, emigrated at the same time; he
died a young man, unmarried.
Richard Britteridge died December 21, 1620, his being the first death
after landing.
Peter Brown probably married the widow Martha Ford; he died in 1633.
William Button, a servant of Samuel Fuller, died on the voyage.
John Carver, first Governor of the Plymouth Colony, landed from the
Mayflower with his wife, Catherine, and both died the following spring
or summer. Carver was deacon in Holland. He left no descendants.
Robert Carter was a servant of William Mullins, and died during the
first winter.
James Chilton died December 8, 1620, before the landing at Plymouth, and
his wife succumbed shortly after. Their daughter Mary, tradition states,
romantically if not truthfully, was the first to leap on shore. She
married John Winslow, and had ten children.
Richard Clarke died soon after arrival.
Francis Cook died at Plymouth in 1663.
John Cook, son of Francis Cook by his wife, Esther, shipped in the
Mayflower with his father. He married Sarah, daughter of Richard Warren.
On account of religious differences he removed to Dartmouth, of which he
was one of the first purchasers. He became a Baptist minister there. He
was also Deputy in 1666-68, 1673, and 1681-83-86. The father and son
were both members of the Plymouth military company in 1643.
John Cook died at Dartmouth after 1694.
Humility Cooper returned to England, and died there.
John Crackston died in 1621; his son, John, who went out with him, died
in 1628.
Edward Dotey married Faith Clark, probably as second wife, and had nine
children, some of whom moved to New Jersey, Long Island, and elsewhere.
He was a purchaser of Dartmouth, but moved to Yarmouth, where he died
August 23, 1655. He made the passage out as a servant to Stephen
Hopkins, and was wild and headstrong in his youth, being a party to the
first duel fought in New England.
[Illustration: _Photograph by A. S. Burbank, Plymouth_
ELDER BREWSTER'S CHAIR AND THE CRADLE OF PEREGRINE WHITE]
Francis Eaton went over with his first wife, Sarah, and their son,
Samuel. He married a second wife, and a third, Christian Penn, before
1627. He died in 1633.
Samuel Eaton married, in 1661, Martha Billington. In 1643 he was in the
Plymouth military company, and was living at Duxbury in 1663. He removed
to Middleboro, where he died about 1684.
Thomas English died the first winter.
One Ely, a hired man, served his time and returned to England.
Moses Fletcher married at Leyden, in 1613, widow Sarah Dingby. He died
during the first winter.
Edward Fuller shipped with his wife, Ann, and son, Samuel. The parents
died the first season.