Duxbury: Our Pilgrim Story

Book Review - By Heather Horton

For 2020, the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society published a collection of essays by local historians about the early colonial days of Duxbury. As Mayflower descendants, we are familiar with the Alden story. The Aldens relocated to Duxbury to be closer to their farming land, and that land is still owned by the Alden kindred today. In addition to two essays on the Aldens, James Baker wrote about Clarke’s Island, named for Mayflower pilot John Clarke, previously captured by the Spanish at Jamestown and freed by the same Franciscan monks that freed Squanto. There is a section with maps on the early settlement land division, including the lots of George Soule, Henry Samson, Peter Browne, Richard Moore, William Brewster, Francis Eaton, Myles Standish, Governor Bradford, and early arrivals such as Philip Delano, William Collier, Robert Hicks and William Tracy.

There are two essays on conditions prior to the arrival of the Mayflower, discussing the tribes such as the Wampanoag and their history in the area, although somewhat burying the lede regarding the success of Massasoit’s mutual protection pact, which led to the survival of the Wampanoag descendants in their tribal land areas. Compare that to the extinct Leni Lenape of Chester County!

There is a chapter about 17th century life, one on the Myles Standish Monument, and an essay on the search for the old burial ground. 

The essay I found most fascinating was “Along Ancient Paths” by Tony Kelso. Remember, for at least the first ten years of the colony, transportation was by water, or on foot. Because Duxbury development has not been as extensive as that in Boston, there is some ability to actually trace the paths walked by the residents of Plymouth and Duxbury, some along old native American paths, as they worked to develop their colony. Photos of some of the restored trails are included with discussion of the homesteads that lay along the 6 mile path to the meetinghouse. 

This well illustrated book covers a great deal of lesser known  information about our ancestors, in many cases written by people who have lived in Duxbury for decades, with the opportunity for years of observation research and local lore. I visited Duxbury in the summer of 2022. It is a fascinating place. This collection of essays will inspire and inform.