The Founding of Plymouth — 1620

August 8 & 9, 2022 | Plymouth, MA

Driving from Concord and Waltham, we arrived on the coast at Plymouth in the late afternoon. After dinner on a breezy outside patio, we walked on the waterfront. We saw the Mayflower II replica ship and Plymouth Rock.

Late the next morning, we took a brief, sweltering walk around town to see some historic sites. We had a beautiful view of the ocean from the Burial Hill cemetery where my 9th great grandaunt, Hester Cooke Wright, is interred, as well as other ancient cousins — Jacob Cooke, Caleb Cooke, Hannah Winslow Sturtevant, and Rebecca Delano Churchill.

Both major Mayflower museums were closed — one for the day and the other for the year. The Jenney’s walking tour was canceled due to the heat and replaced with a paid PowerPoint presentation that we decided not to do.

Having been subjected to too many “old timey” re-enactment villages in WI, MN, and SD, and being much older now, my kids had zero interest in visiting the Plimouth Plantation.

I have to be honest. After seeing the much older Fairbanks House (see post), Macy-Colby House (see post) as well as the many historical homes in Ipswich (see post), the various Plymouth replicas, plaques, and monuments erected to the Puritan Pilgrims and the few later period homes just weren’t as impressive. The town’s waterfront was touristy and lacked the authenticity and charm we saw in so many other Massachusetts cities and towns. Or maybe I was just feeling crabby and tired from the heat.

With all that said, I have two Mayflower ancestors with roots in the Plymouth, East and West Bridgewater, Duxbury, and Marshfield areas:

James Chilton > Mary Chilton (see post) > Susanna Winslow (married Gov. Edward Winslow’s brother John) > Hannah Latham > Ebenezer Washburn Sr. > Miles Washburn > Sarah Washburn > Jacob Tubbs > Peter Stillman Cottrell Tubbs > John Herbert Tubbs

Francis Cooke > Experience Mitchell > Elizabeth Mitchell > Jospeh Washburn > Ebenezer Washburn Sr. > Miles Washburn > Sarah Washburn > Jacob Tubbs > Peter Stillman Cottrell Tubbs > John Herbert Tubbs

Incredibly, I discovered in my research that Experience Mitchell was neighbors with and purchased land in Duxbury from William & Mercy (nee Sprague) Tubbs, Great Migration Puritans and 6th great grandparents to Jacob Tubbs.

In reading about the history of the Mayflower Pilgrims, it seems to me that they were quite the religious zealots to give up their homes twice and risk their lives and those of their families in a cramped, small cargo sailing ship across a vast ocean. Further, they were incredibly ill-prepared to survive once they landed and were extremely fortunate to be aided by native Americans. It’s no wonder that one-half of the Mayflower colonists perished that first winter. In fact, the Puritans took to burying their dead at night in unmarked graves in Coles Hill Burial Ground so that their native American neighbors wouldn’t witness just how much their numbers were dwindling.

After an hour or two of walking around town, we needed to get out of the heat, and we knew that a thunderstorm was rolling into the Plymouth area. After a stop at the wonderful Keto 1620 bakery for some delicious low-carb & GF treats, we set out for Newport, Rhode Island, where it was cooler and breezy — a welcome relief after five days of intense heat in Massachusetts.