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[Illustration: _Wm T. Davis._ (signature)]
Plymouth Memories
of an Octogenarian
BY
WILLIAM T. DAVIS
Author of “History of Plymouth,” “Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth,”
History of “The Massachusetts Judiciary,” History of “The
Massachusetts Bar,” etc.
Former President of the Pilgrim Society
Honorary Member of the Connecticut Historical Society
Honorary Member of the Old Colony Historical Society
“A tree that’s severed from its root
Can bear no longer flowers or fruit;
A nation that forgets its past
Is without root and cannot last.”
PRINTED BY THE MEMORIAL PRESS, PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS.
Copyrighted, 1906.
BY BITTINGER BROTHERS,
PLYMOUTH, MASS.
PREFACE
By the death of every person something within the range of his
study and knowledge is lost beyond recovery. In publishing this
book of memories it is my desire to rescue from oblivion persons
and events coming under my observation during a long life, and to
make a record of habits, customs and fashions which have prevailed
at different periods within my knowledge. The book is not intended
to be either in any sense an autobiography, or a mere collection of
interesting reminiscences, but a legacy which I wish to leave for the
benefit of those coming after me. I cannot permit its publication
without a grateful acknowledgment of the service rendered during
its preparation by friends too numerous to be mentioned by name in
contributing material essential to its approximate completeness and
accuracy.
WM. T. DAVIS.
DEDICATION
_I dedicate this book to my children with the hope that they will
remember with love and pride their native town, and be always ready
to render it useful service._
_WM. T. DAVIS._
Contents
Chapter Page
PREFACE 3
DEDICATION 4
I. 5
II. 10
III. 21
IV. 31
V. 44
VI. 52
VII. 59
VIII. 72
IX. 79
X. 86
XI. 96
XII. 102
XIII. 110
XIV. 120
XV. 131
XVI. 143
XVII. 151
XVIII. 166
XIX. 179
XX. 191
XXI. 204
XXII. 214
XXIII. 223
XXIV. 230
XXV. 238
XXVI. 245
XXVII. 254
XXVIII. 264
XXIX. 280
XXX. 302
XXXI. 310
XXXII. 320
XXXIII. 330
XXXIV. 338
XXXV. 349
XXXVI. 356
XXXVII. 372
XXXVIII. 389
XXXIX. 405
XXXX. 419
XXXXI. 433
XXXXII. 450
XXXXIII. 462
XXXXIV. 473
XXXXV. 479
XXXXVI. 489
XXXXVII. 496
XXXXVIII. 506
XXXXIX. 517
Errata and Addenda 531
INDEX 533
PLYMOUTH MEMORIES OF AN OCTOGENARIAN
CHAPTER I.
_Introductory._
In writing these memories I have in mind both the old and the young.
With the old I may perhaps clear away some of the cobwebs which
obscure their backward glance and reopen to their vision vistas of
the past. With the young I may perhaps show how their fathers and
grandfathers lived, and how through the results of their careers, the
comforts and luxuries of the present generation have been evolved
from the simple habits and ways of living of those who have gone
before. An important lesson may be learned by the young, that, in
this process of evolution, the achievements of today are only the
culmination of the continuous labors of earlier generations; that
all we are, and all we know, came to us from our fathers; and that
the wonderful inventions and discoveries of which we boast, as if
they were ours alone, would have been impossible without the lessons
taught by the inventors and discoverers who blazed the way for our
feet to tread.
Let me premise, without intending to enter the domain of history, by
answering three questions, which, perhaps oftener than any others,
are asked by visitors, and by young Plymoutheans who are beginning
to study the career of their native town. The first question is—how
and from whom did Plymouth receive its name? This question has been
somewhat confused by the intimation of some writers that the name
owes its origin, at least in part, to the Pilgrims. The facts show
conclusively that such is not the case. In 1614 John Smith arrived on
the coast of New England in command of an expedition fitted out under
the patronage of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the Governor of the castle
in old Plymouth. Anchoring his ships near the mouth of the present
Penosbcot river he embarked in a shallop to explore the coast, with
the hope of making such discoveries of mines of gold and copper, and
of finding such opportunities of obtaining a cargo of fish and furs,
as would at least defray the expenses of his expedition. While on his
exploring trip he “drew a map from point to point, isle to isle, and
harbor to harbor, with the soundings, sands, rocks and landmarks,”
and gave the country the name of New England instead of Virginia,
the name by which it had been previously known. Making a chart of
the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, he placed it on his return
in the hands of Gorges, who submitted it to the inspection of Prince
Charles, afterwards Charles the first, who affixed to it the names of
three localities, which have adhered to them up to the present time.
These were, Plymouth, probably named in honor of Gorges, the governor
of the Plymouth castle, and the patron of Smith’s expedition; Charles
River, named after himself, and Cape Ann named after his mother, Ann
of Denmark. Other names affixed by the Prince were Stuard’s Bay for
Cape Cod Bay, Cape James for Cape Cod, Oxford and London for two
localities between Plymouth and what is now Boston, Cheviot Hills for
the Blue Hills, and Bristol, Southampton, Hull, Ipswich, Dartmouth,
Sandwich, Cambridge and Leith.
Nathaniel Morton, in his New England’s Memorial, published in
1669, suggested that the Pilgrims adopted the name for the above
reason, and also because “Plymouth in old England was the last town
they left in their native country, and because they received many
kindnesses from some Christians there.” It seems to me that Morton
was unfortunate in the use of language. If he had said that the name
given by Prince Charles was agreeable to the Pilgrims on account of
its associations with their last port of departure, he would have
undoubtedly spoken the truth, but it should not be stated that a
name, already conferred on the landing place of the Pilgrims, was
originated five years after its well known place on Smith’s map.
That the Pilgrims knew of the name there can be no doubt. Capt.
Thomas Dermer was at Plymouth in the summer of 1620, and wrote a
letter to Gorges, dated, Plymouth, in July of that year, advising
any colony of fifty or more to settle there. That letter must have
reached Gorges before the Mayflower sailed from old Plymouth on
the 6th of September, and of its contents the Pilgrims must have
been made acquainted by Gorges, who was their adviser and friend.
Besides, Edward Winslow wrote a letter to England from “Plymouth in
New England,” dated December 11th, 1620, the very day of the Landing,
a date too early for any formal action to have been taken by the
Colony concerning a name for the locality; and further, Winslow uses
the term, “New England,” a title which Smith alone had given to the
Northern part or Virginia, and which probably appeared nowhere else
than on his map.
The second question is—when was Plymouth incorporated. The direct
answer to this question, that Plymouth was never incorporated, would
be very unsatisfactory without some explanation of the relations
existing between the Colony and the town of Plymouth. It is all
very well to speak of the settlement of the town instead of its
incorporation, and fix the date at 1620, but the precise time, when
the line was drawn between the colony and town, and when the town was
clothed by official authority with the functions of a municipality,
it is impossible to fix. In the records of 1626 Plymouth is called
a plantation; in a deed dated, 1631, from John to Edward Winslow,
the town of Plymouth is referred to; in accordance with the law
passed by the General Court requiring towns to choose constables,
one was chosen in Plymouth in 1633; and in 1638 at a meeting held
for the purpose of considering the disposition of the gift of stock
by James Sherley of London for the benefit of the poor of the town,
it was decided “that the town should be considered as extending from
the lands of Wm. Pontus and John Dunham (now the lands of Thomas
O. Jackson) on the south, to the outside of New street (now North
street) on the north. Finally in the year 1637 the first entry
in the town records was made, and on the second day of November,
1640, it was ordered at a meeting of the Court of Assistants that
“whereas by the Act of the General Court held the third of March
in the sixteenth year of his Majesties now reign, the Governor
and Assistants were authorized to set the bounds of the several
townships, it is enacted and concluded by the Court that the bounds
of Plymouth township shall extend southwards to the bounds of
Sandwich township, and northward to the little brook falling into
Black Water from the commons left to Duxbury, and the neighborhood
thereabouts, and westward eight miles up into the lands from any
part of the bay or sea; always provided that the bounds shall extend
so far up into the woodlands as to include the South Meadows toward
Agawam, lately discovered, and the convenient uplands thereabouts.”
But notwithstanding all these references, it is enough to say that
Plymouth was settled in 1620, but never formally incorporated.
The third question is: What was the disease which carried off
one-half of the Plymouth Colony during the first four months after
the landing. In answer to this question only plausible conjectures
can be made. Various theories have been suggested by medical men and
others, but unfortunately insufficient data as to the symptoms and
general characteristics of the epidemic have been handed down to us
to enable any definite diagnosis to be made. Some have suggested
smallpox, and some yellow fever, some cholera and some quick
consumption. Some also have raised the question whether the germs
of the disease, which swept off the Indians living in Plymouth four
or five years before, still lurking in the soil or in vegetation,
might not have retained sufficient vitality to develop in the human
system. This last suggestion would afford little satisfaction, for
the question would remain unsolved as to the nature of the disease.
After much thought given to the matter, I have come to what I think
is the most natural conclusion, that the disease was what was well
known in the days of Irish immigration, before ocean steam navigation
was available, as ship fever. Many readers will remember that packet
ships and transient vessels were constantly arriving at New York and
Boston, crowded with immigrants—after long passages from England,
and that long confinement below deck resulted frequently in the
breaking out of ship fever and caused serious mortality. The voyage
of the Mayflower from Southampton to Cape Cod harbor was more than
ninety days in length, and during that time imperfect ventilation and
inadequate nourishment in a vessel of only one hundred and eighty
tons, carrying within her walls one hundred and twenty crew and
passengers, must have furnished all the conditions necessary for the
presence of that terrible infection, which in our own day was so
fatal to the immigrants from Ireland.
Let me further premise, in closing this introductory chapter, by
saying that, of events occurring during a period of seventy-five
years, of the changes in the external character of Plymouth, and of
the manners and customs and ways of living of its people, I have a
distinct recollection. Some of these, at a still earlier period, I
can imperfectly recall. For instance in 1825, when I was a few months
more than three years of age, my mother carried me on a visit to her
father in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and while I recall nothing of the
voyage made in a fishing schooner on her way to the Grand Banks, the
accuracy of my memory concerning many localities in Shelburne, was
confirmed on a visit to that place twenty-six years later in 1851.
My grandfather, Gideon White, a native of Plymouth, and a descendant
from Peregrine White, was a loyalist during the revolution, and,
holding a Captain’s commission in the British army, served with
his regiment in Jamaica during the war. With other loyalists he
settled in Shelburne, where, receiving the appointment of Provincial
Judge, he afterwards lived, making occasional visits to England,
but none to the United States, until his death in 1833. He married
Deborah Whitworth, the daughter of Miles Whitworth, a British Army
surgeon, and four of his children married in Boston and Plymouth and
Cambridge, while a son graduated at Harvard in 1812.
I remember, too, that at the age of four, in 1826, I was carried to
my first school. It was kept by Mrs. Martha Weston, who was known
as Mrs. Patty, or more generally Ma’am Weston, the widow of Coomer
Weston, and grandmother of our townsman, Myles S. Weston, in the
house on North street, the third below that of Miss Dr. Pierce, not
long since occupied by Wm. W. Brewster. I remember well the school
room, its sanded floor and the cricket on which I sat. From that dear
old lady, with a pleasant smile and kindly voice, I first tasted the
“sweet food of kindly uttered knowledge.” She died July 27, 1841, and
but few of her scholars can now be left to join with me in blessing
her memory.