Tombstone Tuesday - Some Pilgrims in Plymouth

While in Plymouth, Massachusetts for the Triennial Mayflower Congress I was able to find a little bit of free time to find a few memorial stones at Burial Hill for passengers on the Mayflower.  These were erected by descendants, since no one knows exactly where their bodies lie in Plymouth.  The only known burial spot of a Mayflower passenger, with a grave marker contemporary to the time of death is that of Richard More in Salem, Massachusetts.

IN MEMORIAM

ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER

PATRIARCH OF THE PILGRIMS

AND THEIR RULING ELDER 1609 - 1644

OUTSTANDING LEADER OF PILGRIM MOVEMENT

THE FOUNDING OF PLIMOTH PLANTATION

AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVIL AND

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE NEW WORLD

B. AT SCROOBY, ENGLAND, CA 1566-7

D. AT PLYMOUTH, N.E. CA APRIL 10, 1644

A RESIDENT OF PLYMOUTH AND DUXBURY

M. CA 1589 MARY WENTWORTH OF SCROOBY

B. CA 1568-9 D. AT PLYMOUTH CA APRIL 17, 1627

BOTH MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS REST

IN UNKNOWN GRAVES IN PLYMOUTH

POSSIBLY IN OR NEAR BURIAL HILL

ERECTED 1967

BY THE ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER SOCIETY

SITE OF THE HOUSE WHERE

JOHN ALDEN

LIVED WHILE IN PLYMOUTH

THIS STONE ERECTED BY

HIS DESCENDANTS

THE ALDEN KINDRED

OF AMERICA

1930

We didn't find John Howland's memorial stone at Burial Hill, but whilst visiting the Jabez Howland House in Plymouth we photographed this rubbing of that same stone! 

Here ended the Pilgrimage of

JOHN HOWLAND

who died February 25, 1672/3

aged above 80 years

married Elizabeth daughter of

JOHN TILLEY

who came with him on the 

Mayflower dec. 1620

from them are descended 

numerous posterity.

"He was a godly man and an ardent

professor of the wayes of Christ. Hee was

one of the first comers into this land and 

was the last man that was left of those

that came over in the Shipp called the

Mayflower that lived in Plymouth"

--Plymouth Records

After leaving Burial Hill we went to Cole's Hill, which is on the waterfront near Plymouth Rock.  This is where the Mayflower passengers had their first cemetery, burying the victims who died that first winter in Massachusetts 1620-1621.   There is a large monument here, containing the unidentified remains found during excavations.  It is inscribed with the names of those who succumbed the first winter.  There is also a statue to Massasoit and a plaque identifying this area as a National Historic Monument.   The Wampanoag Nation also laid a plaque to the National Day of Mourning next to Massasoit. 

"OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOUR PASSENGERS

 THESE DIED IN PLYMOUTH IN THE FIRST YEAR

THIS TABLET

MARKS THE SPOT WHERE

LIES THE BODY OF ONE FOUND

OCT. 8TH 1883.  THE BODY OF ANOTHER

FOUND ON THE 27TH

ON THE FOLLOWING MONTH

LIES 8 FEET NORTHWEST OF

THE WESTERLY CORNER

OF THIS STONE.

ERECTED 1884."

[on the other side]

"Here under cover of darkness the fast dwindling company laid their dead, leveling the earth above them lest the Indians should learn how many were their graves. Reader, history records no nobler venture for faith and freedom than that of this pilgrim band. In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and cold, they laid the foundations of a state wherein every man through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his own way. May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our Republic throughout the world."

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo