USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > The truth about the Pilgrims > Part 6
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On January 1, 1781, Edward Winslow was required by
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law to contribute 1 pound 4 shillings and sixpence to pro- cure a soldier for the Continental Army. (PTR III 407). The surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his troops and the capture of Yorktown by the Americans on October 19, 1781, was decisive and showed that the British cause was hope- less. In December, 1781, Edward Winslow joined the British garrison in New York City with part of his family, the remainder joining him later. Sir Henry Clinton allowed him a pension of 200 pounds per annum with rations and fuel. On August 13, 1783, with wife, two daughters and three colored servants, he sailed for Halifax, reaching there on September 14, 1783. He died there in 1784.
Edward Winslow, Jr., had been proscribed and banished. He went to Lexington with Lord Percy on April 19, 1775, in the effort to rescue the British troops retreating from Concord. He was appointed by General Gage, Collector of the Port of Boston and Register of Probate of Suffolk County. He was one of the signers of a "Loyal Address to Governor Gage" on his departure for England dated October 14, 1775, "by those gentlemen who were driven from their habitations in the Country to the Town of Boston." Like his parents, he went to Halifax with the British Army when the latter evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776. In Halifax he was made by Sir William Howe, Secretary of the Board of General Officers, of which Lord Percy was President, for distribution of donations to the troops. After the British had captured New York, he went there and was appointed Muster Master General of the forces and remained in the United States in that capacity during the war except that in 1779 he was chosen by the ref- ugees in Rhode Island to command them, which he did during two campaigns. After the war, Edward Winslow, Jr., was Military Secretary in Halifax until 1785 when he moved to New Brunswick and was a member of the first King's Council formed in that Colony, Surogate General, Judge of Supreme Court and finally Administrator of the
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Government. He died at Frederickton, in New Brunswick, in May, 1815. He had three children. His son, Edward, was drowned, and another son, Wentworth, survived him. He had a daughter Penelope. His descendants are still living in Canada. None of them has ever lived again in Plymouth.
When Edward Winslow, Senior, died, his funeral in Halifax was attended by all of the dignitaries of the city. On his tombstone in St. Paul's churchyard it is stated that "he in no one instant degenerated in the loyalty or virtue of (his) ancestors."
The house, which is popularly supposed to have been confiscated, was really taken on execution by creditors consisting of the town of Plymouth, also Thomas Davis, Dr. William Thomas, Oakes Angier and John Rowe who had supplied the money on which the Winslow family lived after Edward Winslow had lost his offices (MY 6). When Edward Winslow definitely abandoned Plymouth, the cred- itors sold the house in 1782 to Thomas Jackson. (DM 24-25). When Winslow learned of this, he was very angry, claiming that the whole of his property was taken and sold for less than half the value thereof. Other deeds were given in 1789, 1790 and 1791.
The main creditor seems to have been Dr. William Thomas, who had been as active for the colonists as his cousin Nathaniel Ray Thomas had been for the king. He was a descendant from the Merchant Adventurer, William Thomas, and his wife was a descendant of John Alden. He was a first cousin of the mother of Paul Revere. The old doctor had been surgeon during the French and Indian Wars. When the news of Lexington came and Colonel Theophilus Cotton's regiment marched from Plymouth, the doctor was surgeon; his son Joshua was adjutant; his son John was surgeon's mate. His other sons Nathaniel and Joseph entered the service, two of the sons becoming orig- inal members of the Society of the Cincinnati.
His lawyer son Joshua Thomas, Harvard 1772, had been
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discharged from the army after serving in the 26th Contin- ental Infantry during the siege of Boston and on the staff of General John Thomas in the attack on Canada. Joshua conducted the legal proceedings leading to the taking over of the house, which thereafter was never again inhabited by Tories. Thomas Jackson, purchaser of the house, had been born in 1757, and in 1788 married Sarah May, a descendant of Richard Warren. They had three children. Thomas Jackson owned the house until 1813 when it passed under an execution to his first cousin Charles Jackson, born in 1770 and who in 1794 married Lucy Cotton, not only a descendant of Richard Warren, but also of Josiah Winslow, brother of Pilgrim Edward. She was a niece of Colonel Theophilus Cotton, commander of the first Ply- mouth regiment to leave for the front in the Revolution. Mr. Jackson lived in the house until his death in 1818. Dr. James Thacher lived there for a time (DM 276). Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jackson had several children who lived in the old house, of whom two became particularly distin- guished. His daughter Lydia, sometimes called Lidian, was born in 1802. During the early part of the nineteenth century it was quite usual for famous men to come to Plymouth to lecture, during which visit they would stay with one of the local prominent families. In 1833, Ralph Waldo Emerson, having lost his first wife by death in February 1831, came to Plymouth to lecture in Pilgrim Hall on "Socrates." The visit was probably suggested by young Dr. LeBaron Russell of Plymouth who was an inti- mate friend of Emerson for the greater part of his life. He was the guest of LeBaron's father, Nathaniel Russell, whose daughter, Mary Howland Russell, was an intimate friend of Lydia Jackson. The historian Davis believes that this was the first time that Emerson saw his future wife.
Dr. LeBaron Russell has left an interesting account of one of the incidents of Emerson's life. He has given some particulars concerning the introduction of Thomas Car-
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lyle's "Sartor Resartus" to American readers. This appeared in "Frasers," and Emerson lent the copies of the magazine to Lydia Jackson in the Winslow House and the work caused great excitement among the young persons in Plymouth who were interested in the literature of the day. Dr. Russell desired to own a copy and consulted a publisher concerning an American edition. He wrote to Emerson and asked if he would write a preface. This Emerson did, and James Monroe and Company issued the first American edition in 1836. Carlyle could find no English publisher who at first would assume the responsibility of publishing the book. (EH 81-82). With Emerson's preface to the Amer- ican publication, the first edition was entirely sold and a thousand copies besides, before it was published in book form in England (E XXIV). Taine's "History of English Literature" describes "Sartor Resartus" as a clothes-philos- ophy which "contains, a propos of aprons and breeches, a metaphysics, a politics, a psychology. Man according to him, is a dressed animal. Society has clothes for its foundation. 'How, without clothes, could we possess the master-organ, soul's seat, and true pinial gland of the Body Social: I mean, a Purse.'" The quotation is from "Sartor Resartus," Book I, Chapter X; Pure Reason. It shows what interested the young Plymouth people of that day. The public appre- ciated to the utmost the preface written by Emerson, and his reputation continued to grow.
Emerson went to live with his mother in the "Old Manse" in Concord in October, 1834. This house had been built by his grandfather, the Rev. William Emerson, min- ister of the Concord Church, and his mother was living there with her venerable step-father the Rev. Ezra Ripley.
When Emerson became engaged to Lydia Jackson, he bought at a bargain the Coolidge house in Concord. He drove from Concord to Plymouth and, on August 22, 1835, was married to Lydia Jackson in the East front room of her Plymouth home with Dr. LeBaron Russell and his
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sister Mary Howland Russell acting as "best man" and "maid of honor." (EH 83). After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Emerson went to live in his Concord house where they resided for the remainder of their lives.
His wife Lydia "would have liked to have lived in Plymouth, but he preferred Concord, and had written to her that 'he was born a poet, though his singing was very husky and for the most part in prose,' and therefore must guard and study his rambling propensities. Concord, he intimated gave him sunsets, forests, snow storms, and river views, which were more to him than friends, but Plymouth! -'Plymouth is streets.'" (E XXIII). It was thus that Emer- son scornfully referred to our revered Leyden, Middle, North, Main and Court Streets in Plymouth. Perhaps a better reason for his choosing Concord was that his family had long been prominent there. Also he had obtained a position preaching at the neighboring East Lexington Church, where he continued to preach during the winters of 1835 and 1836 while giving his famous lectures on English literature when not engaged in the ministry. It was in Concord that a most remarkable group of intellectuals gathered under the leadership of the Emersons, which included at various times Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott with his gifted daughter Louisa M. Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others.
Lydia's brother, Charles Thomas Jackson, was born on June 21, 1805, and was graduated from the Harvard Medi- cal School in 1829. He studied for three years in Europe, returning in 1832. He received many honors and was respon- sible for developing the copper mines on Lake Superior. It is claimed that he was the first one to suggest corre- spondence by means of electricity perfected by Morse. He was a co-discoverer with Dr. William T. G. Morton of anas- thesia (MY 6-7). The brilliant Charles Thomas Jackson died in 1880. (DM 273-274). In 1872, the Jackson heirs sold the house to the wife of the Reverend George Ware Briggs, who
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had been "colleague pastor" with the Reverend James Kendall in Plymouth from 1838 and remained there until 1852 (D 104). Thereafter Mr. and Mrs. Briggs used it as a summer residence. Mrs. Briggs was a sister of Dr. LeBaron Russell and of Mary Howland Russell who introduced Ralph Waldo Emerson to his future wife. She died on November 1, 1881, and Mr. Briggs died in Plymouth on September 12, 1895, leaving two sons, George Russell Briggs and LeBaron Russell Briggs who lived in the old house. The former was the father of Miss Rose Thornton Briggs, the Plymouth antiquarian, who has done so much for Plymouth and who has maintained her interest in the house. The latter son is the late beloved Dean of Harvard College and President of Radcliffe College who lived in the house many summers during his latter years. Mrs. George W. Briggs was a descendant of William Bradford and of John Howland. She was descended from the latter through Consider Howland who sold the land upon which the house stands to his brother-in-law Edward Winslow.
In 1898, the house was purchased by Mr. Charles L. Willoughby, a wealthy resident of Chicago. He was inspired by its history to undertake the task of restoration. He employed the eminent architect Mr. Joseph Everett Chan- dler who tried to improve it as a residence in addition to preserving its old character. His book, "The Colonial House," has some information about the work.
The original house consisted of a central hall with the front half of the present staircase and with two front rooms opening off on either side of the hall on the first and second floors. The house had been erected close to the street and to the ground (MX 3). The house was probably changed soon after it was erected by adding at the north- west corner a kitchen with other continuous outbuildings. One of the original chimneys stood where the entrance to the sun porch now opens in the dining room as it is now. The northeast corner had three stories of rooms which
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equalled in height the two main floors. This may have been built by William Drew in 1820. Mr. Chandler made exten- sive alterations. The house was moved back thirty feet and raised five feet. The small rooms in the rear were removed and the entire rear rebuilt with additions. The four original rooms were left much as they were. The hall was doubled in length and the original staircase was duplicated for the rear portion. The piazza was added so that persons could sit on it and see the beautiful view of Plymouth Harbor past the rock. A British coat-of-arms was placed on the roof in front as a remembrance of the Tory character of its first occupants. A magnificent organ was installed. Houses in the vicinity were demolished both to improve the view and to enlarge the garden. A gardener's cottage was built with ample space for automobiles beneath. The original kitchen was moved back and converted into an outhouse. A six foot red brick wall was built on the south and east sides of the property. It has been rumored that the expense of the project was not far from $250,000. Mrs. Willoughby was very kind and was pleased to loan the use of the house on appropriate occasions until her death in 1928. After Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby had died, their daughter and her husband lived there until the former determined to sell it, and it was placed on the market.
Many members of the Society of Mayflower Descendants had inspected and admired the house. No one appeared anxious to complete a purchase possibly for fear of the high taxes which might be increased even more. It was realized that if a patriotic society bought the house, there would be no taxes.
Among the members who were most anxious to have the Society purchase the house was little Mrs. William S. Meek from New Jersey who was loud in her advocacy that the house should be bought by the General Society and that the New Jersey Society would whole-heartedly support the raising of the money. Eventually I was informed that the
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owners had announced that the house was to be demolished to save taxes. It was one of the finest houses in New Eng- land of its period, and the General Society voted to pur- chase it for the amount of the mortgage while .I was Governor General. A campaign to raise the necessary money was undertaken under the supervision of my valued co- worker Secretary-General Harold G. Murray. He deserves the greatest credit for the assistance rendered by him in the raising of the necessary funds. After these had been obtained, the General Society took title to the house on December 31, 1941. It may, therefore, be truthfully asserted that the Society of Mayflower Descendants has one of the most attractive homes in the nation. In the rear of the house is a very beautiful and extensive garden. The trees in front of the house were set out not far from 1760 by Miss Penelope Winslow, daughter of the first owner. (R. 185). The house is maintained under the able supervision of our member Miss Edith S. Morissey, who is on the Executive Committee of the General Society, and a welcome is waiting there for any member who may call.
SOCIAL STATUS OF THE PILGRIMS
The question has often been asked as to the stations of life from which the Pilgrims came. Formerly and even some present day writers have described all of them as humble, uneducated folk who had no family background and were not socially equal to the Virginians or to the later Puritan settlers. Later historians have been able to uncover infor- mation formerly unknown concerning the Pilgrims, and it is now known that such statements concerning many of them are absolutely untrue.
There are several reasons why historians have concluded that the Pilgrims came from humble stock. One is because it has been impossible to identify surely the families of most of them. The cause is obvious when we realize that
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the Pilgrims had been fugitives whom England tried to reach even in Holland. During the long years of persecu- tion they did not publish more than was necessary about themselves or their relatives or their homes in England. Another reason is because most of them had lowly trades in Holland. Isaac Allerton is called a tailor in the Leyden records. William Bradford was a fustian-maker. Robert Cushman and William White were wool-carders. Francis Cooke was a woolcomber. Degory Priest was a hatter. Thomas Rogers was a "camlet merchant." Samuel Fuller and Stephen Tracy were silk makers. John Jenney was a brewer (B 39). Others had equally lowly occupations. The natural conclusion drawn by certain historians was that these men were humble artisans in England, but such was not the case. Many had only been used to a plain country life and the "inocente trade of husbandrey." Bradford says that when the Pilgrims went to Holland, "they were not acquainted with trads nor traffique." (B 33). In Holland "they fell to such trads & imployments as they best could" so as to earn enough to keep literally from starving (B 39). As fugitives in a strange country, they took any occupations which could furnish a livelihood.
Another reason is that certain historians either uninten- tionally or deliberately have suppressed information which shows the better social standing of the Pilgrims. For in- stance, certain writers say that all the Pilgrims came of yeoman stock. Since the ancestry of most of the Pilgrims is absolutely unknown, it can be appreciated that such writers are drawing on their imaginations if they mean to imply that the ancestors of all the Pilgrims were yeomen. There are, however, facts absolutely known concerning several members of the Pilgrim congregation which show that many of them belonged to the gentry.
In the days of the Pilgrims, there were certain sure indi- cations of social superiority. Professor Morison in "Preced- ence at Harvard College in the 17th Century" tells about
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general social conditions at that time. He said that in the public records of England and also of the New England Colonies when the Pilgrims lived, a person's social station may generally be told from his title. In New England only Governors and some of the other magistrates, together with occasional sons of Knights and men who had held high position in England had Esquire placed after their names; and not all magistrates in every Colony were thus honored. Other Magistrates, Ministers, University graduates, and all others who were considered gentlemen, were designated "Mr.," and their wives and daughters, "Mrs." On formal occasions these titles were pronounced "Master" and "Mis- tress." Military officers were known by their military rank. These classes constituted the gentry. He added that it is an almost certain sign that a family was not considered gentle, if the head of it were not designated in the records as "Mr.," "Esq." or by some military title, at least the grade of Captain.
Norman H. Dawes, member of the Department of His- tory at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, has written a very excellent article in the William and Mary Quarterly for January 1949, entitled "Titles as Symbols of Prestige in Seventeenth-Century New England," in which he says that prominent among the evidences of social prestige in New England were titles indicative of rank. He states that a strenuous attempt was made to maintain traditional titular honors that had long flourished in England. He finds that the titles and prefixes of respect in New England were complex. Nevertheless, clerks and recorders used titles as a means of designating the quality of an individual. He shows that there were many inconsistencies, but his com- ments apply to later New England and not to the period when the "Mayflower" sailed, whose passengers were ad- dressed by titles according to English standards and not those of later New England. In England social distinctions were sharply drawn, and the social condition of each Pil-
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grim may be examined from the standpoint of English usage.
Hutchinson, in his "History of Massachusetts Bay," says that the first settlers were very careful that no title or appel- lation should be given where it was not due. Not more than a half a dozen of the principal gentlemen in the Massa- chusetts colony took the title of Esquire; and in a list of 100 freemen, not more than four or five were distinguished by a Mr., although they were generally men of some sub- stance. Goodman and Goodwife were the common appella- tions (H, I, 368).
Specifically, "Esq." was an abbreviation for Esquire. This, in theory, was the next rank above gentleman. Richer and more important gentlemen would be so designated. The head of a "County family" would be an "Esq." The sons of peers, baronets and knights would be so described if they had no other title. The Governor and certain Magis- trates, Mayors, Aldermen and members of the learned pro- fessions were "Esq." The great men in the community gen- erally were Esquires.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary states that gentleman, in Eng- lish law, is a person of superior birth. "According to Coke, he is one who bears coat-armor, the grant of which adds gentility to a man's family .- In the United States this word is unknown to the law." The older dictionaries explain "gentleman" as indicating a man of good family. New English Dictionary on Historical Principles gives the pri- mary meaning of a gentleman, as a man of gentle birth or having the same heraldic status as those of a gentle birth, properly one who is entitled to bear arms. Sir George R. Sitwell goes deeply into the matter in "The Ancestor," Vol. I, pages 58 et seq., and he concludes that primarily a gentleman was a freeman whose ancestors had always been free and from that came gradually the more modern interpretations.
"Elizabethan England" by William Harrison (L. With-
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ington Edition, 1889), pages 7-8, was written in England in the early years of the seventeenth century. The author described a gentleman as follows:
"Whosoever studieth the laws of the realm, whoso abideth in the university (giving his mind to his book), or professeth physic and the liberal sciences, or beside his service in the room of a captain in the wars, or good counsel given at home, whereby his commonwealth is benefited, can live without manual labour and thereto is able and will bear the part, charge and countenance of a gentleman, he shall-be-reputed for a gentleman ever after -. "
This means that if a man has attained a certain standard of education or accomplishment and if he does not earn his living by working with his hands and if he has the carriage, can stand the expense and has the appearance of a gentleman, he shall be thereafter considered to be a gentleman.
"Gn" is an abbreviation for "generosus," which is the Latin for "gentleman." It has also been defined as one who was well born (BK 36). "Gent." was an abbreviation of "gentleman." In England "Mr." was an abbreviation for . "Mister" or as it was then pronounced, "Master". "Mr." was used for more important people who occupied an important place in the community in which they lived, based in some cases on their property, in others on their education and in others on their position or office. Gener- ally speaking, "Mr." was the same as gentleman. "The Gentility of Richard Barker" published in "The Ancestor," Vol. II, page 48, tells of a Star Chamber law case in which the issue was whether Barker's claims to being a gentleman were valid. The case is interesting as showing that being a gentleman was a matter of law and also what a Norfolk jury in 34 Henry VIII (1542/3) thought constituted a gentleman. The General Court of the Bay Colony deprived a man of his title of "Mr." as part punishment for a crim-
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inal offense. I have also found that Master was used to refer to one who had received a Master's degree or above at a College and also to refer to the employer of an appren- tice. It was also used to refer to the captain and mates of a vessel.
Unmarried women of quality, as well as married women, were called "Mrs." or "Mistress." The term was applied to the wife of a "Mr." or a gentleman. It is practically the same as the title of "gentlewoman," also used.
Below the gentry, or "the quality," as they used to be called, came the great middle class of the population. The socially best of this group were termed "yeoman" or "good- man." Below this division, the people had no appellation. The yeomanry of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth formed the class next to those who were the acknowledged gentry using coat-armor of right. (Hunter's "Founders of New Plymouth"). They formed the well-to-do farming class. "Goodman" was a respectable title used commonly but not necessarily for a farmer who did not rank as a gentleman. A servant, John Doe, would be addressed as "John," but a farmer or respectable artisan would be called "Goodman Doe." Professor Campbell's recent work, "The English Yeoman in the Tudor and Stuart Periods," is informative.
"Servant" in the 17th century did not have the modern meaning or connote necessarily a social inferiority or menial position. The term was what we today would call an employee or one who is employed by another. A servant frequently ranked only a little below the rank of his master. The term might convey that he was a companion as well as a servant. Sons of nobles took service under the King and Princes and were referred to as servants. Down the social scale, persons of every rank might have for a servant usually a person of the next lower social rank. Esquires and gentry sent their sons to serve persons of rank. When a "Mayflower" passenger is referred to as a servant, this merely means that he was an employee. A person, as now,
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