History of the Town of Plymouth, from Its First Settlement in 1620, to the Present Time

THE imperious causes, justly assigned by the Pilgrims for their abandonment of their native country, and the numerous cruel obstacles, which they were called to encounter, even in their attempts at emigration, have been at various periods, and by the pens of able historians, promulgated to the world. I shall therefore omit these particulars without apology. It was in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James and Charles the First, that the wicked dominion of tyranny and oppression, both in church and state, had become so intolerable, that a portion of their subjects in the north of England, were compelled to abandon the soil of their fathers, and subject themselves to the miserable condition of exiles in a foreign land. This little band of pilgrim brothers, cheerfully sacrificed all they held dear in their native land, for the inestimable enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. They constituted themselves into a church, of which Mr. John Robinson was the pastor, and under extreme embarrassment and difficulty, effected their emigration to Holland, and took up their residence in the city of Leyden, in the year 1610, where they remained in peaceful and quiet enjoyment about eleven years. Having numerous and insurmountable objections to the country of the Dutch, as a permanent residence for themselves and posterity, they deliberately decided on the ever memorable enterprise, of transporting themselves to this remote and unexplored region, where they might enjoy their worship, and opinions unmolested; well aware, that their religion and virtue might make the wilderness, and the solitary place be glad, and the desert rejoice, and blossom as the rose. And where, I would ask, is the event in Divine Providence, more worthy of particular and grateful commemoration?

It is a delightful task to retrospect to those interesting scenes, where in every step we can discover a christian faith, and holy

zeal, and in every exigence the guidance and protection of Almighty power and wisdom. While the establishment of a colony, and an independent church, were their primary objects, it was ordained by God, that our fathers should be, in silence and in peace, the founders of a nation. It is my agreeable employment to search the records of our ancestors, and collate the memorials of their cheerless days, to follow our pious fathers, and their immediate descendants, through the vicissitudes of two centuries, and compare their forlorn condition with the improved state of society in our own times. Not a step do we take, but we trace the footsteps of the pilgrims; our possessions were their possessions; not the town only, but the whole country is a monument of their noble sacrifices. In portraying the history of the town, we disclose the essential elements of the puritan character, and demonstrate the magnanimous spirit, by which the puritans were actuated and sustained. In the year 1617, the church under Mr. Robinson, employed Mr. Robert Cushman, and Mr. John Carver, as their agents to the Virginia Company, to obtain a grant of territory for settlement, and, at the same time, security from the king, that they should enjoy religious freedom. They met with many impediments, and returned in May, 1618, with encouragement from the Virginia Company relative to a grant of territory, and a simple promise, on the part of the crown, 'that the king would connive at them, and not molest them, provided that they carried peaceably;' but toleration would not be granted by public authority under his seal. In February, 1619, Mr. Cushman and Mr. Bradford were despatched on the same business. After long attendance, they obtained a patent, which was then taken out in the name of John Wincob, a religious gentleman in the family of the Countess of Lincoln, who intended to accompany them, but was providentially prevented. This patent, therefore, was never used, but carried, however, to Leyden for the people, and such friends and merchants as should adventure with them, to consider, with several proposals for their transmigration made by Mr. Thomas Weston of London. Finding all their efforts for obtaining a patent adequate to their wants and circumstances fail them, they negotiated with the Virginia Company for a tract of land within the limits of their patent, and resolved to commit themselves in faith and confidence to the protecting arm of Almighty power, and encounter the perils of the ocean, directing their course to Hudson's river. Their sufferings and perils during the voyage, and after their arrival, were unparalleled, but they were supported by a noble fortitude and a consciousness of a faithful discharge of religious

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History of the Town of Plymouth, from Its First Settlement in 1620, to the ...