When two of my ancestors
collaborated on survival in New England 1623
"The Sacred Cod" hangs in the Massachusetts State House in Boston |
David Thompson (1592 – 1628)
arrived in New Hampshire in 1623, the first permanent European settler in our
fair state. He established an outpost at
Pannaway, where Odiorne State Park is now located in Rye. His son, John, was
the first European child born in New Hampshire.
He came to make money, to utilize the resources of New England for
trade- salt cod, furs, and lumber. One
of his first visitors was Myles Standish from the Plymouth Colony, where,
although they had been there several years, the people were starving and not
able to grow significant harvests or pay back their creditors, the Plymouth
Colony. Thompson was successful at
fishing, and brought a load of salt cod down to Plymouth where the settlers
held their second Thanksgiving in his honor.
In his journal, Bradford mentions
the cod fish incident, and the second Thanksgiving. He doesn’t give credit to Thompson for the
event. The Separatist settlers who came
for religious reasons, to be separate, perhaps did not hold the settlers who
came for money making reasons in high enough esteem, even though they saved
their lives. Myles Standish is my 8th great grandfather, and David Thompson is my 9th great grandfather in a completely different lineage.
I find this story interesting
because two of my ancestors, from completely different sides of the family, had
this meeting which influenced New England history, and American history, almost
400 years ago. By 1626 Thompson had
removed to an island in Boston harbor, now known as Thompson’s island. There on this island he met with Myles
Standish in 1621. Along with others, and they
brokered an agreement about trading and relations with the native Indians.
In another weird coincidence,
David Thompson’s widow remarried to Samuel Maverick, who lived on Maverick’s
island off Boston. Samuel’s brother,
Moses Maverick, married Remember Allerton, who was also a Mayflower passenger
when she was only five years old. I descend from Remember Allerton, as well as Myles Standish!
And so, on the first Thanksgiving
the Plymouth settlers celebrated with five deer brought by the Indians, and on
the second Thanksgiving they celebrated with salt cod brought by David
Thompson.
The big questions is: Are you having cod for your Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?
The big questions is: Are you having cod for your Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?
For more information:
My blog post from 2020 about the new memorial plaque at Odiorne Point about this incident with the Pilgrims and David Thompson: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/11/november-11-1620-day-pilgrims-signed.html
The Islands of Boston Harbor: Their History and Residents by Edward Rowe Snow, Andover
Massachusetts: The Andover Press, 1935.
Available online at this link:
The Great Migration Begins, by Robert Charles Anderson, Boston:
New England Historic Genealogical Society, Volume III, pages 1807 – 1809.
Myles
Standish Speaks Out on NH’s First Settler, by J. Dennis Robinson, from his blog at “Seacoast
New Hampshire” at this link: http://www.seacoastnh.com/History/History-Matters/myles-standish-speak-out-on-nhs-first-settler/
Turkeygate:
365 Year old Scandal,
by J. Dennis Robinson, from his blog at “Seacoast New Hampshire”, 1997 at this
link: http://www.seacoastnh.com/Today/Editor-at-Large/Turkeygate-The-Thanksgiving-Scandal/
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Second Thanksgiving at Plymouth", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 27, 2019, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-second-thanksgiving-at-plymouth.html: accessed [access date]).
Happy Thanksgiving to you! Two of my hubby's Mayflower ancestors survived to the first Thanksgiving, Isaac Allerton and his daughter, Mary Allerton. Two others (Degory Priest and Mary Norris Allerton) didn't make it, sorry to say. I'm thankful they made this dangerous voyage! And no cod for us. Turkey is just a delivery mechanism for stuffing, IMHO :)
ReplyDeleteMy mother ate salt cod and potatoes every day, probably more than once a day, during the Depression; she has not eaten a flake since!
ReplyDeleteMy Mom ate so much Apple Sauce during the depression, that she refused to eat it after that.
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