James Hawkes

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1790, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Residence: 1800, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Residence: 1820, Saugus, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Residence: 1824, Saugus, Essex, Massachusetts, USA

Nathan married Sarah Hitchings on 3 Sep 1769 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Sarah was born on 18 Apr 1749 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 19 Dec 1837 in Saugus, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Moses married Susannah Hitchings on 9 Apr 1730 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Susannah (daughter of Daniel Hitchings and Susannah Townsend) was born on 22 Mar 1711 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died in 1762 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Moses Hawks
• Residence: 1691, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Residence: 1709, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA

Moses married Margaret Cogswell on 10 May 1698 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Margaret (daughter of John Cogswell and Margaret Gifford) was born on 6 Sep 1675 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 19 Oct 1748 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; was buried in Saugus, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Daniel married Susannah Townsend on 19 Oct 1708 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Susannah was born on 5 Nov 1672 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA; died on 12 Jul 1737 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Rebecca Maverick on 3 Jun 1658 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Rebecca (daughter of Moses Maverick and Remember Allerton) was born on 7 Aug 1639 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 4 Nov 1659 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Margaret Gifford on 22 Jul 1674 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Margaret (daughter of John Gifford and Margaret Temple) was born on 27 Sep 1653 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 19 Oct 1748 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: , , Massachusetts, USA
• Arrival: 1630, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Probate: Mar 1672, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA

Adam married Ann Browne in 1630 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA. Ann (daughter of Edward Brown and Jane Elizabeth Leids) was born in 1603 in Inkburrow, Worcestershire, England; died on 4 Dec 1669 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: , , Massachusetts, USA

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 3 Nov 1611, Islington, England
• Arrival: 1630, Nantasket Beach, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

Moses married Remember Allerton on 6 May 1635 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Remember (daughter of Isaac Allerton and Mary Leigh Norris) was born in 1614 in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands; died on 12 Sep 1652 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Married: 6 May 1635, , , , USA

Notes:

"Mayflower" Ship Log of 1st days at sea

Excerpt from Azel Ames, M.D.'s "The May-flower and her Log" . It was released 7 Oct. 2006 and produced by David Widger as an eBook. It takes place from July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 and is mostly from original sources. It can be found here---

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/410 7/4107-h/4107-h.htm#image-0003



TUESDAY, Sept. 5/Sept. 15 At anchor in Plymouth roadstead. Ready for
sea.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 6/Sept. 16
Weighed anchor. Wind E.N.E., a fine gale.
Laid course W.S.W. for northern coasts of
Virginia.
THURSDAY, Sept. 7/Sept. 17
Comes in with wind E.N.E. Light gale
continues. Made all sail on ship.

FRIDAY, Sept. 8/Sept. 18
Comes in with wind E.N.E. Gale continues.
All sails full.

SATURDAY, Sept. 9/Sept. 19
Comes in with wind E.N E. Gale holds.
Ship well off the land.

SUNDAY, Sept. 10/Sept. 20 Comes in with wind E.N.E. Gale holds.
Distance lost, when ship bore up for
Plymouth, more than regained.

MONDAY, Sept. 11/Sept. 21
Same; and so without material change, the
daily record of wind, weather, and the
ship's general course—the repetition of
which would be both useless and wearisome
—continued through the month and until the
vessel was near half the seas over. Fine
warm weather and the "harvest-moon." The
usual equinoctial weather deferred.

SATURDAY, Sept. 23/Oct. 3 One of the seamen, some time sick with a
grievous disease, died in a desperate manner.
The first death and burial at sea of the
voyage.



[We can readily imagine this first burial at sea on the MAY FLOWER,
and its impressiveness. Doubtless the good Elder "committed the
body to the deep" with fitting ceremonial, for though the young man
was of the crew, and not of the Pilgrim company, his reverence for
death and the last rites of Christian burial would as surely impel
him to offer such services, as the rough, buccaneering Master (Jones
would surely be glad to evade them).

MONDAY Nov. 6/16
William Butten; a youth, servant to Doctor
Samuel Fuller, died. The first of the
passengers to die on this voyage.


MONDAY Nov. 7/17Must be Tuesday The body of William Butten committed to the
deep. The first burial at sea of a
passenger, on this voyage.


MONDAY Nov. 8/18
Must be Wednesday
Signs of land.


MONDAY Nov. 9/19
Must be Thursday
Closing in with the land at nightfall.
Sighted land at daybreak. The landfall
made out to be Cape Cod the bluffs [in what
is now the town of Truro, Mass.]. After a
conference between the Master of the ship
and the chief colonists, tacked about and
stood for the southward. Wind and weather
fair. Made our course S.S.W., continued
proposing to go to a river ten leagues
south of the Cape Hudson's River. After
had sailed that course about half the day
fell amongst dangerous shoals and foaming
breakers [the shoals off Monomoy] got out of
them before night and the wind being
contrary put round again for the Bay of
Cape Cod. Abandoned efforts to go further
south and so announced to passengers.

[Bradford (Historie, Mass. ed. p. 93) says: "They resolved to bear
up again for the Cape." No one will question that Jones's assertion
of inability to proceed, and his announced determination to return
to Cape Cod harbor, fell upon many acquiescent ears, for, as Winslow
says: "Winter was come; the seas were dangerous; the season was
cold; the winds were high, and the region being well furnished for a
plantation, we entered upon discovery." Tossed for sixty-seven days
on the north Atlantic at that season of the year, their food and
firing well spent, cold, homesick, and ill, the bare thought of once
again setting foot on any land, wherever it might be, must have been
an allurement that lent Jones potential aid in his high-handed
course.]


SATURDAY Nov. 11/21
Comes in with light, fair wind. On course
for Cape Cod harbor, along the coast. Some
hints of disaffection among colonists, on
account of abandonment of location



[Bradford (in Mourt's Relation) says: "This day before we come to
harbor Italics the author's, observing some not well affected to
unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was
thought good there should be an Association and Agreement that we
should combine together in one body; and to submit to such
Government and Governors as we should, by common consent, agree to
make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows word for
word." Then follows the Compact. Bradford is even more explicit in
his Historie (Mass. ed. p. 109), where he says: "I shall a little
returne backe and begin with a combination made by them before they
came ashore, being ye first foundation of their governments in this
place; occasioned partly by ye discontent & mutinous speeches that
some of the strangers amongst them [i.e. not any of the Leyden
contingent had let fall from them in ye ship—That when they came
ashore they would use their owne libertie: for none had power to
command them, the patents they had being for Virginia, and not for
New-England which belonged to another Government, with which ye
London [or First Virginia Company had nothing to doe, and partly
that such an acte by them done . . . might be as firm as any
patent, and in some respects more sure." Dr. Griffis is hardly
warranted in making Bradford to say, as he does (The Pilgrims in
their Three Homes, p. 182), that "there were a few people I
'shuffled' in upon them the company who were probably unmitigated
scoundrels." Bradford speaks only of Billington and his family as
those "shuffled into their company," and while he was not improbably
one of the agitators (with Hopkins) who were the proximate causes of
the drawing up of the Compact, he was not, in this case, the
responsible leader. It is evident from the foregoing that the
"appearance of faction" did not show itself until the vessel's prow
was turned back toward Cape Cod Harbor, and it became apparent that
the effort to locate "near Hudson's River" was to be abandoned, and
a location found north of 41 degrees north latitude, which would
leave them without charter rights or authority of any kind. It is
undoubtedly history that Master Stephen Hopkins,—then "a
lay-reader" for Chaplain Buck,—on Sir Thomas Gates's expedition to
Virginia, had, when some of them were cast away on the Bermudas,
advocated just such sentiments—on the same basis—as were now
bruited upon the MAY-FLOWER, and it could hardly have been
coincidence only that the same were repeated here. That Hopkins
fomented the discord is well-nigh certain. It caused him, as
elsewhere noted, to receive sentence of death for insubordination,
at the hands of Sir Thomas Gates, in the first instance, from which
his pardon was with much difficulty procured by his friends. In the
present case, it led to the drafting and execution of the Pilgrim
Compact, a framework of civil self-government whose fame will never
die; though the author is in full accord with Dr. Young (Chronicles,
p. 120) in thinking that "a great deal more has been discovered in
this document than the signers contemplated,"—wonderfully
comprehensive as it is. Professor Herbert B. Adams, of Johns
Hopkins University, says in his admirable article in the Magazine of
American History, November, 1882 (pp—798 799): "The fundamental
idea of this famous document was that of a contract based upon the
common law of England,"—certainly a stable and ancient basis of
procedure. Their Dutch training (as Griffis points out) had also
led naturally to such ideas of government as the Pilgrims adopted.
It is to be feared that Griffis's inference (The Pilgrims in their
Three Homes, p. 184), that all who signed the Compact could write,
is unwarranted. It is more than probable that if the venerated
paper should ever be found, it would show that several of those
whose names are believed to have been affixed to it "made their
'mark.'" There is good reason, also, to believe that neither
"sickness" (except unto death) nor "indifference" would have
prevented the ultimate obtaining of the signatures (by "mark," if
need be) of every one of the nine male servants who did not
subscribe, if they were considered eligible. Severe illness was, we
know, answerable for the absence of a few, some of whom died a few
days later.

The fact seems rather to be, as noted, that age—not social status
was the determining factor as to all otherwise eligible. It is
evident too, that the fact was recognized by all parties (by none so
clearly as by Master Jones) that they were about to plant themselves
on territory not within the jurisdiction of their steadfast friends,
the London Virginia Company, but under control of those formerly of
the Second (Plymouth) Virginia Company, who (by the intelligence
they received while at Southampton) they knew would be erected into
the "Council for the Affairs of New England." Goodwin is in error
in saying (Pilgrim Republic, p. 62), "Neither did any other body
exercise authority there;" for the Second Virginia Company under Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, as noted, had been since 1606 in control of this
region, and only a week before the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod (i.e.
on November 3) King James had signed the patent of the Council for
New England, giving them full authority over all territory north of
the forty-first parallel of north latitude, as successors to the
Second Virginia Company. If the intention to land south of the
forty-first parallel had been persisted in, there would, of course,
have been no occasion for the Compact, as the patent to John Pierce
(in their interest) from the London Virginia Company would have been
in force. The Compact became a necessity, therefore, only when they
turned northward to make settlement above 41 deg. north latitude.
Hence it is plain that as no opportunity for "faction"—and so no
occasion for any "Association and Agreement"—existed till the
MAY-FLOWER turned northward, late in the afternoon of Friday,
November to, the Compact was not drawn and presented for signature
until the morning of Saturday, November 11. Bradford's language,
"This day, before we came into harbour," leaves no room for doubt
that it was rather hurriedly drafted—and also signed—before noon
of the 11th. That they had time on this winter Saturday—hardly
three weeks from the shortest day in the year—to reach and
encircle the harbor; secure anchorage; get out boats; arm, equip,
and land two companies of men; make a considerable march into the
land; cut firewood; and get all aboard again before dark, indicates
that they must have made the harbor not far from noon. These facts
serve also to correct another error of traditional Pilgrim history,
which has been commonly current, and into which Davis falls
(Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 60), viz. that the Compact was
signed "in the harbor of Cape Cod." It is noticeable that the
instrument itself simply says, "Cape Cod," not "Cape Cod harbour,"
as later they were wont to say. The leaders clearly did not mean
to get to port till there was a form of law and authority.]



Mayflower Genealogy
Mary Allerton Back to the Mayflower Passenger List
Birth: About 1616 or 1617. Some sources claim she was baptized in June 1616 in Leiden; I have not been able to verify the authenticity of the claim. Mayflower Families: Isaac Allerton for Five Generations, contains the best, most thorough and completely researched genealogy on Isaac Allerton and wife Mary Norris. It covers every known descendant of Isaac Allerton for the first five generations, to the birth of the sixth generation. This book is packed full of pure genealogical research. Published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
ORDER NOW! Marriage:

Thomas Cushman, about 1636, Plymouth.

Death: 28 November 1699, Plymouth. Children: Thomas, Mary, Sarah, Isaac, Elkanah, Fear, Eleazar, and Lydia. Biographical Summary

Mary Allerton was born about 1616 in Leiden, Holland, to parents Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton. She came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, at about the age of four. Around 1636, she married Thomas Cushman. Thomas had come to Plymouth at the age of 13 on the ship Fortune in 1621 with father Robert Cushman, a prominent member of the Pilgrims' congregation in Leiden. Thomas and Mary had a surprisingly prosperous family: seven of their eight children survived to adulthood, got married, and provided at least 50 grandchildren. Thomas and Mary both lived to very old age, having never moved from Plymouth. Thomas died in December 1691, nearly reaching 85 years in age. Mary, who gave birth to and raised eight children, lived to the age of 83. Prior to her death in November 1699, she was the last surviving Mayflower passenger.
Additional Resources


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The Times of Their Lives
The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
Times of Their Lives in Plymouth Colony


Table of Contents
Illustration Credits
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Partakers of Our Plenty: The Pilgrim Myth
2. I Will Harry Them Out of the Land! The Early Years, 1606-1627
3. There be Witches Too Many: Glimpses of the Social World
4. In an Uncivil Manner: Sex-related Crimes, Violence & Death
5. A Few Things Needful: Houses and Furnishings
6. Still Standing in the Ground: The Archaeology of Early Plymouth
7. The Time of Their Lives: Plimoth Plantation
Sources & Notes
Index

An Excerpt:
Chapter 1: Partakers of Our Plenty: The Pilgrim Myth

So who were the Pilgrims? This question has been a vexing one for modern historians, and depending on the source consulted, different definitions emerge. Were they all of the Mayflower’s passengers, or were they only the minority of religious dissenters among the group? Does the term refer to those who came on four other ships, the Fortune, Anne, Little James and Charity which arrived during the first seven years of the Colony? Might the term apply to all of the residents of Plymouth Colony during its existence as a separate colony until 1691? There is no modern consensus regarding this matter, and little wonder, for the people of Plymouth never perceived themselves as a group who would at the end of the eighteenth century come to be known as Pilgrims. However, if we change the tense of the verb in the question from were to are, a reasonably concise definition can be offered. The Pilgrims are a quasi-mythic group of people who are looked upon today as the founders of America, and whose dedication to hard work and noble purposes gave rise to our nation as we know it. What most of us know about them we learned as early as grade school, especially around Thanksgiving time. Stern and godfearing, possessed of the loftiest motives, the women dressed in somber attire with white collars, and the men also dressed in grey and black, with buckles on their hats, belts, shoes, and for all we know, even on their undergarments. Some modern Plymouth residents refer to them as the "Grim Pills." This is the image with which we are all so familiar, but its origins lie more in early nineteenth century America than in the reality of a time two hundred years earlier.

With the final stroke of the pen at the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 by representatives of France, England and her newly independent former American colonies, the American Republic came into being. A decade later the early Plymouth settlers were first referred to as Pilgrims in a sermon delivered in Plymouth by the Reverend Chandler Robbins, who used a phrase from a copy of Bradford’s history, ". . . but they knew they were pilgrims," a quotation from the New Testament. Note the use of the lower case "p" in the term; Bradford was using it in a generic sense, and in no way singling out the Plymouth party as the sole bearers of the name. In fact, until the early nineteenth century, the term "pilgrim" was used to designate any early group of settlers. Those who were adults in 1783 almost certainly retained a strong bond with England, since they were displaced English people. Although separated by an ocean, English colonists still followed the precepts of English law and custom. By 1660, however, a large proportion of the colonial population had never laid eyes on England.

By the time the first generation born in the new Republic had come of age, such a bond with the old mother country held little if any significance. By the early nineteenth century, the new nation needed a myth of epic proportion on which to found its history. Who better than the Pilgrims, a term which by that time had narrowed its definition to apply solely to the settlers of Plymouth, whose piety, fortitude and dedication to hard work embodied a set of ideals that could make every American proud? To be sure, Plymouth was the second oldest permanent English colony in North America, but Virginia, established at Jamestown in 1607, was hardly a candidate for a national symbol, since it was initially settled by men only, who were looked upon as a rowdy crowd, interested simply in personal gain. Too, relations with the native Powhatan Indians were marked by periods of conflict from the very beginning in Virginia, whereas the Plymouth settlers concluded a peace treaty with the local Wampanoag people which lasted for over half a century, and was honored throughout that time. So it was that Plymouth was chosen to represent the beginnings of the infant nation, and the nineteenth century construction of the Pilgrims’ way of life reflects more of the values of that time than the reality which it was meant to represent. The word "construction" is of particular importance. Although we frequently hear references to reconstructing the past, this is an impossibility since a complete reconstruction is beyond our grasp, simply because we do not have access to all of the complexities of life in earlier times. What we do is construct the past, and in so doing, decide what is important and what is not. Such constructions invariably reflect, to a greater or lesser extent, the values and biases of the time when they were written. Our image today of the Pilgrims was strongly influenced by the people of the time when it was created, and incorporates as much if not more of how people in the early 1800s saw the world in which they lived.

The Pilgrim myth had matured into a robust tale by 1820, the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Plymouth band of settlers. The Pilgrim Society had been established in 1819, and one of the first items on its agenda was the construction of Pilgrim Hall, claimed by many to be America’s oldest museum, and which stands today on Main Street in Plymouth. When it first opened, it contained a remarkable assortment of objects, some with genuine "Pilgrim" provenience, but others which had no relationship to Plymouth whatsoever, including Algerian pistols, a pitchfork from Bunker Hill, and assorted sea shells. The quantity of "Mayflower Furniture" which lacked any provenience was so great that a Pilgrim Society member suggested that it was enough to have sunk the ship.

* * * *

The year 1820 also marked the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of Plymouth, and was celebrated with great enthusiasm. On that occasion the great American orator Daniel Webster gave an address which extolled the virtues of the Pilgrims as they were perceived in those early decades of the nineteenth century. Appropriately, it was delivered while standing by a fragment of Plymouth Rock which at the time reposed in Town Square. He referred to the rock in his remarks, making both the rock and the Pilgrim myth accessible for the first time to an audience far beyond the confines of the town of Plymouth itself.

The Pilgrim myth did not materialize overnight, but rather was the final and defining episode of an ongoing process which stretches back at least to the later seventeenth century. The Plymouth settlers used several terms to designate themselves. One pair of the terms relates to the make-up of the Mayflower’s passengers. A minority among them were serious dissenters against the established church, the majority made the crossing in the hope of improving their lot over what it had been in England, where chronic unemployment and increasing shortage of land was making life very difficult for many. The former group was referred to as "Saints," the latter as "Strangers." Two other names were used by the Plymouth settlers to designate themselves, "Old Comers" and "Old Planters," or simply "Planters," but future generations of Plimothians, and later the entire country, would refer to them simply as the "Forefathers." The evolution of the national view of the Forefathers combined with another potentially powerful symbol, Plymouth Rock, form two more strands in the fabric of the Pilgrim myth.

In 1769, a small group of young Plymouth men, all from the more well-to-do families of the town, joined together to form a social organization which they called the Old Colony Club. Among its stated purposes was the establishment of a social environment of a more refined nature than that of the local inns and taverns. One of their first accomplishments was the designation of December 22 to celebrate the date of the landing of the Mayflower passengers in Plymouth Harbor. They were even more specific than that, however, and stated that the day would commemorate the landing on Plymouth Rock. The day soon became an annual celebration observed by the people of Plymouth, and as time passed, by people in all parts of America, where it became known as Forefathers’ Day, and was observed by speeches, parades, and other festive events. It was, in fact, the predecessor of Thanksgiving, but with its emphasis on keeping alive in people’s memories both the landing and the rock on which it was supposed to have occurred. While December 22 was the date on which it was usually celebrated, from time to time it would slip back to December 20. The celebration of Forefathers’ Day continued into the nineteenth century, and it is still observed in Plymouth, although it had been eclipsed by Thanksgiving in the rest of the country by the opening years of the twentieth century. The Pilgrim myth was given concrete form when in 1859 construction began on an eighty-one foot tall monument on a hill overlooking the town of Plymouth. Thirty years in the making, and still standing, when completed it was appropriately named the "National Monument to the Forefathers."

In describing the monument, James Baker writes, "Although it was dedicated to the Pilgrims, they were represented only in the smallest bas-relief elements. Their attributed virtues — Faith, Law, Education, Freedom and Morality — completely overshadowed the human Pilgrim men and women." The monument in fact is an eighty-one foot high metaphor, the symbolism of which cannot be missed, for the "virtues" mentioned are represented by very large, full, rounded statues, four seated on pedestals around the base, and the fifth, representing Faith, standing on top. In spite of efforts by a number of writers, some clearly of the "debunking" school, but more objective and serious historians as well, it is this image and the relationships which it implies, which has come down to us to this day.

The earliest symbol to be associated with the Plymouth settlers is the famous, or perhaps infamous, chunk of granite known as Plymouth Rock. Most Americans know of it, and even a breed of chicken has been named after it. Lacking hard numbers, it is not possible to say that it is the most popular attraction in modern Plymouth, but one has the intuitive sense that such is the case.

What, if any, factual basis supports the attribution of the Rock as the first spot on which theMayflower passengers set foot? There is one slender thread which, however thin, cannot be entirely dismissed. In 1741, ninety-five year old Thomas Faunce asked to be taken for what he thought might be his last look at a certain granite boulder on the beach in Plymouth. Faunce lived two miles south of the town and was brought to the waterfront in a chair. Before a small gathering of people, with tearful eyes, he identified a rock, directly below Cole’s Hill, as that which was the very spot "which had received the footsteps of our fathers on their first arrival." He had been told this by his father, who had arrived in Plymouth on the Anne in 1623, and who in turn had been told by one of the original party of settlers. This is, of course, a third hand account, and as such, not of the greatest reliability, yet it does lend a touch of authenticity to what otherwise would be a story made up of whole cloth. What are the facts? We know from the account in Mourt’s Relation, published in London in 1622, that a group of passengers and crew left the Mayflower in a shallop on Wednesday 6 December 1620, searching for a suitable harbor and place to settle. Shallops were small craft, primarily propelled by a number of oarsmen, although they did have a mast and a single sail, and featured a leeboard which allowed the boat to sail into the wind in the same way a centerboard or a fixed keel would, and the usual rudder on the stern used for steering. Two days later, on a stormy Friday night, the group reached Plymouth Harbor, found themselves close to an island, and "fell upon a place of sandy ground, where our shallop did ride safe and secure all that night." On the Monday, after sounding the depth of the harbor, they "marched also into the land." There is no mention of the rock. William Bradford’s account in his history, Of Plymouth Plantation, is identical. And in case Faunce was referring to the first time the Mayflower docked in Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620, Mourt’s Relation only picks up the story two day’s later: "Monday the 18th day, we went a-land, [the shallop] manned with the master of the ship and three or four sailors." Bradford simply mentions that after their arrival they "afterwards took better view of the place, and resolved where to pitch their dwelling." These are the only contemporary accounts of the time when the Mayflower passengers actually arrived on the mainland at Plymouth.

So the matter stands, but whether or not Plymouth Rock as we know it today was ever trod upon by one or more Mayflower passengers, is immaterial in the context of the Pilgrim myth. What does matter is that it is possessed of a symbol of great power, as witness the hundreds of thousands of people who pay homage by gazing upon it from above, separated from it by only a sturdy iron railing.

The final component of the myth of the Pilgrims which made its appearance very early in the nineteenth century, is what is referred to today as the Mayflower Compact. Finding themselves outside the area which was covered by a patent which gave them rights to settle in Virginia, and in William Bradford’s words, "Occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall from them in the Ship," a covenant was drawn up of a type with which they were very familiar, as covenant agreements were used as a basis for social regulation in England by numerous Puritan and Separatist groups. The document was signed on November 11, 1620 while the Mayflower lay at anchor off Cape Cod.

As is befitting a story of mythic proportions, the Mayflower Compact has been endowed with an importance which far transcends reality. In 1802, President John Quincy Adams had this to say:

[The Mayflower Compact] is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive social compact which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate course of government. Here was a unanimous and personal assent by all the individuals of the community to the association, by which they became a nation.

Having become an integral part of the Pilgrim myth, this perception of the significance of the Mayflower Compact remains with us to this day. A well known historian, Henry Steele Commager, commented in a television production in the early 1970's:

They drew up one of those familiar church or sea compacts, but it was of epic making proportions, the Mayflower Compact that some claim to be the first of all written constitutions. It was drawn up democratically, it was signed by the heads of families and also by some of the servants and hired help. Imagine that, in seventeenth century England or on the European continent. It was based on the principle that political authority comes from below not from above, and that government derives all of its authority from the consent of the governed. New ideas these in politics, but ideas which were to be the very foundations of American political theory and political practice, and that were to spread throughout the globe.


Many see it as a forerunner to the American Constitution and it did indeed provide for "political authority [coming] from below not from above" and embody the principle that "government derives all of its authority from the consent of the governed." But a close examination of the list of signatories shows that only four of the ten adult servants aboard the Mayflower signed, and none of the women. As for it containing "ideas which were to be the very foundation of American political theory and political practice, and that were to spread throughout the globe," this is, to put it mildly, a bit of an overstatement. In fact, in 1619, Virginia had established the House of Burgesses which, within limits, provided for a similar type of representative government, although membership in this case was restricted to male landowners. This is not, however, to decry the fact that the basis of Plymouth government was a belief in the rule of law, not nearly as clearly formulated as it is today, but visibly present in what can be seen by 1671 as an embryonic bill of rights.

The myth of the Pilgrims, with its three central themes, the Forefathers, the Rock and the Compact, became increasingly pervasive in the American collective consciousness during the nineteenth century. It would receive even greater attention, this time on an international scale, when in 1858, just one year before construction began on the Forefathers’ monument, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote an epic poem, The Courtship of Myles Standish. Its popularity was almost instantaneous, and more than 10,000 copies sold in London in a single day. Along with The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, it would endow four rather ordinary colonists with heroic and romantic qualities which, although greatly exaggerated, would be perceived as such by those who read the poems. Most of us are familiar with the central story line of The Courtship, but far fewer have read the poem in its entirety, which in a way is a mercy. According to Longfellow, Myles Standish, who was in his late twenties or early thirties upon his arrival in Plymouth, became enamored of Priscilla Mullins, the daughter of William Mullins, who died in the sickness of the winter of 1620-1621. Priscilla was seventeen. Standish, however, could not muster the courage to approach Priscilla and make a personal offer of marriage, so he prevailed on his friend John Alden, who was twenty-one, to act on his behalf. When Alden approached Priscilla with Standish’s offer, she spoke the now immortal words, "Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?" Whether as a result of Standish’s request or not, and it seems highly unlikely that such was the case, John and Priscilla were married in 1623, and produced ten children, six girls and four boys. There was until the 1960's a line of canned goods produced in Massachusetts with the brand name John Alden, which carried a slogan in small print on its label: "It speaks for itself," referring of course to the can’s contents, whether peas, corn, beans or some other vegetable.

It was not until the opening years of the twentieth century that Thanksgiving was added as a central component of the myth of the Pilgrims, joining the other four, the Pilgrims themselves, the Forefathers, the Rock, and the Compact. Just why it should have taken so long for this to occur is not entirely clear, but James Baker offers an explanation which is both logical and convincing. Nineteenth century depictions of the event almost always involve conflict between the settlers and the native peoples. A print from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, 1869, shows people seated around a table, complete with a turkey at one end, under attack by a group of native people, with an arrow stuck in the door and another in the table which appears to have barely missed the turkey. One man is lifting his musket from its rack on the wall to defend his family, and the others show expressions of alarm, except for the man at the head of the table, who stands with hands folded in prayer, and a woman at the opposite end whose head is bowed. It would appear that the attack took place just as the family was giving thanks.

How this violent image became transformed into a peaceful encounter between colonists and Indians is explained by Baker as follows:

It was only after the turn of the century, when the western Indian wars were over and the "vanishing red man" was vanishing satisfactorily, that the romantic (and historically correct) idyllic image of the two cultures sitting down to an autumn feast became popular. . . . By the first World War, popular art . . . school books, and literature had linked the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving indivisibly together, so much so that the image of the Pilgrim and the familiar fall feast almost ousted the Landing and older patriotic images from the popular consciousness.

This is the image that we carry today, and at holiday time stores are filled with depictions of clean shaven Pilgrim men, buckled hats and all, equally well scrubbed women with little white caps, Indians, usually with a single feather stuck in a headband, and of course turkeys, turkeys, and more turkeys, both in cardboard cutouts and in the frozen food section of supermarkets. Schools the nation over present Thanksgiving plays; most Americans are familiar with such productions, and many have participated in them. By far the most memorable of these is to be seen in the film Addams Family Values in which Wednesday Addams and some of the other "misfits" at a summer camp are cast as Indians in a Thanksgiving play. After being greeted by a pretty young blond Pilgrim maiden, she tells the Indians that they are not different from themselves, except that the Pilgrims wear shoes and have last names. The Indian members of the cast have revised their part of the script, unbeknownst to the camp counselors, and Wednesday delivers a short speech which is both funny and sadly true:

I am Pocohantas, a Chippewa maiden.Wait, we cannot break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the roadside. You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d’oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They say, Do not trust the Pilgrims.

The Indians then proceed to tie the Pilgrim maiden who greeted them to a stake and pour gasoline around her feet (we are spared seeing the match applied), the Indians burn the village, and the scene closes with two Pilgrims being spit roasted together over a fire. Regardless of the mixup between Plymouth and Virginia, and between the Chippewa and the Wampanoag, there is far more than a little truth in Wednesday’s, a.k.a. Pocohantas’s words. For an important segment of the American people, Thanksgiving is hardly a day to celebrate in a festive way. To Native Americans, Thanksgiving has come to symbolize the beginning of what would eventually become the tragic destruction of their culture.

In 1970, Thanksgiving was declared a National Day of Mourning by Native Americans, and Plymouth was chosen as the location where it would be observed. Native peoples, both local and others from as distant as various western states, converged on Plymouth, assembling on the waterfront adjacent to the Rock and Mayflower II, anchored and secured to the wharf nearby. Attendance some years has exceeded five thousand, and while some occasions are marked by more overt protest than others, the Day of Mourning overshadows all other events in town on that day. Drums and singing are a constant part of the event, and speeches, often delivered with great passion, are also a regular feature of the program. On many occasions, Native Americans boarded the ship and climbed into the rigging, and more than once Plymouth Rock has been either painted red or buried in sand, and sometimes both. The participants fast during the day, taking food only after sundown.

There is a significant and understandable irony in the selection of Plymouth and Thanksgiving as the site and date of the Day of Mourning. This selection underlines the power of the Pilgrim myth in the minds of all Americans. Only in the way it is observed is there a dramatic difference. It is historical fact that the Plymouth settlers and their Wampanoag compatriots enjoyed one of the longest periods of peace in colonial history. There were Indian residents within the jurisdiction of the town of Plymouth, and the court records of the Colony tell us that they were treated in much the same way as were Europeans for various offences, and occasionally, received a lighter punishment for the same transgression as was meted out to the settlers. In fact, the second execution in the Colony, involving three Englishman, was carried out in 1638 because they had murdered and robbed a Nipmuck messenger from the chief sachem of the Narragansett. But in other colonies, particularly Virginia, Indian-European relations were strained from the outset. So one could argue that Jamestown would be a more suitable place for the Day of Mourning to be observed, but the power of the Pilgrim myth is such that Plymouth and Thanksgiving were perceived as the appropriate place and time.

A remarkable event took place on Thanksgiving Day 1971 which completely escaped media attention. Only those who participated in it, and those to whom they might have mentioned it, were, and still are, aware of it. James Deetz, then a senior staff member of Plimoth Plantation, an outdoor living history museum in Plymouth which shows what the settlement might have been like in 1627, taught a course on Native American history during the Harvard Summer School session that year. Among the class members were a number of Native Americans who had been enrolled in Harvard’s newly established American Indian Program. In the course of the summer, Deetz developed friendships of varying degrees with a number of these Indian students, and they visited his home, a large Victorian-style house in Plymouth, for socializing at regular intervals, including nearly every weekend. By the time Thanksgiving approached, it was decided that the house, which had been the scene of so many parties, be used to entertain some eighty-odd Native American high school students who were coming to Plymouth to observe and participate in the Day of Mourning. The high school students, from groups all over America, were part of a program then in existence known as "A Better Chance," formed to expose American Indian students to a variety of educational experiences which would be very different from those obtained in mostly reservation classrooms. Plans were accordingly made. A traditional Thanksgiving dinner would be provided after sundown, [with food] enough to feed more than a hundred people. Late in the afternoon, some ninety Native Americans appeared at the Deetz home, and when it became apparent that the house, large as it was, could not possibly accommodate all that was planned, last minute arrangements were made to use a nearby church hall. At the beginning, there was a palpable tension in the air, and understandably, if one puts oneself in the place of the high school students, finding themselves suddenly in an alien environment, and perceived as not necessarily friendly. For two hours, conversation was minimal, and it was to the credit of the Harvard American Indian students that they served as mediators between the two parties. Once everyone adjourned to the church hall, however, the atmosphere underwent an immediate change. The Harvard group had brought a drum and there was singing and dancing, this alternating with live bluegrass music, the Plymouth group having among them a number of excellent musicians. Before the evening had ended, around ten p.m. when the high school students boarded their bus to return to Boston, it was concluded by all that the festivity had been an outstanding success. But the remarkable, wonderful thing about the entire affair was that it was the first time in three and a half centuries that such a celebration had taken place in Plymouth. It had not been planned in any way to be such an event, but the ethnic make-up of the participants was very close to that of the group who celebrated Harvest Home in Plymouth in the fall of 1621.

© 2000 Copyright and All Rights Reservedby James F. Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz.
Excerpted by permission of W. H. Freeman and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproducedor reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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John married Elizabeth Thoth in 1642 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Elizabeth was born in 1624 in Leigh, Wiltshire, England; died in 1652 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Margaret Temple in 1651 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Margaret was born in 1629 in , , , England; died in 1724 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]