November 13, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, a 252-foot-tall granite tower honoring the Pilgrims’ first steps ashore the New World. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
There are two Pilgrim Monuments in Massachusetts: one in Plymouth and one in Provincetown. While Plymouth is credited for being the permanent settlement of the colony, the first and true landing of the Pilgrims was Provincetown.
Four days after the Mayflower anchored, Miles Standish and 16 men went ashore on 15 November 1620.
This is why Provincetown’s glorious monument dominates the skyline.
Here is a newspaper article entitled, “Why Two Towns Will Celebrate Landing of Pilgrims.”
This article reports:
Looking back over the events which led to the erection of the 252-foot granite pillar on High Pole Hill in Provincetown and the present plans for giving the town joint honor with Plymouth in the tercentenary, chief credit for actual accomplishments must be given to the late J. Henry Sears, of Brewster, Mass.
Here is a photo of Captain John Henry Sears (1830-1912) posing beside the Imperial figurehead at his beach house overlooking Cape Cod Bay, Brewster, Massachusetts. He saved her when she ended her days on Barnegat Shoals, New Jersey. Captain Sears was born to Joseph Hamblin and Oliver (Bangs) Sears and a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers William Brewster, John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, Edward Winslow, and Stephen Hopkins.
The Mayflower, as is known, put into Provincetown harbor because the captain of the ship [Christopher Jones] feared to risk being wrecked by trying to continue the voyage to Virginia, and it was after the vessel had dropped anchor that the famous “compact” was drawn up. Although this was not the first written constitution, it was one of the first, and contained the basic principles of government which later made the United States a free nation.
Ultimately a copy of the compact was engrossed on a bronze tablet and placed on a beautiful granite base in front of the Provincetown Town Hall.
From the records it appears that the Pilgrims spent until December 21, 1620, exploring the coast of Cape Cod for a suitable site for their settlement. During the month intervening between November 21 and December 21 the Mayflower remained anchored off Provincetown.
Another reason to celebrate Mayflower history in Provincetown: The first Washing Day took place on 23 November 1620.
Conference at Pilgrim House, Provincetown, 1897
In 1897, a conference was held in Provincetown to discuss the town’s claim to Pilgrim heritage – equally legitimate to Plymouth’s more established claim – and to discuss the erection of a monument.
This article reports:
A conference was held last evening at the Pilgrim House, in response to a call urging “a new move” designed to initiate measures for the emphatic assertion of Provincetown’s historical claims. Much enthusiasm was manifested.
The question “Has Provincetown a primary or only a secondary claim to the use of the word ‘Pilgrim’?” was discussed, and it was the unanimous opinion that Provincetown’s prior right to use the word was fully established.
It is proposed to lay the cornerstone of a Pilgrim monument at Provincetown, and erect on the location a fire and burglar-proof vault to contain the Bradford manuscripts, the wife of Gov. Bradford having been drowned in Provincetown Harbor [7 December 1620] before the Pilgrims had learned anything of the Plymouth location.
Below is a photo from the New York Post of Vincent Kartheiser who portrays William Bradford in National Geographic Channel’s movie “Saints & Strangers.”
This New York Post article reports:
“It was a challenge for me to undertake this role and find that level to play him at because the role is very modest and very devout,” Kartheiser says of portraying Bradford, leader of the Saints. “I’m used to playing a character that is much louder and brasher… more reactionary and mischievous and this character is not that. He’s steady and thoughtful.”
Bradford traveled to the New World with his wife, Dorothy, though they left their three-year-old son behind in Holland – which may have contributed to her falling (or jumping) off the Mayflower and drowning while her husband was on land exploring.
Dorothy Bradford was not the only passenger who died on the ship and in Provincetown. The others were: James Chilton, one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact; Jasper More, son of passenger Richard More; William Butten, a servant with the family of Dr. Samuel Fuller; and Edward Thompson, who came in the care of the William White family.
For a complete list of Mayflower passengers visit Caleb Johnson’s site Mayflower History.
Below is a photo of the memorial stone from the Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown, which lists the names of the five passengers who either died at sea or at Provincetown prior to settling at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Credit: Hscott0024; Wikimedia Commons.
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