Nine Children begotten by Elizabeth, my Present Wife, called Abraham, Susanna, Catalyntje, Elizabeth, Johannes, Ephraim, Isaac, Sarah and Jacob Wendel, and such other Children as it shall Please God to send me by her, until they shall severally come of Age, or to be Married, but if my Wife shall happen to re-marry, then my Will is that she give and Exhibit a Perfect Inventory upon Oath of all the Whole Estate, Real and Personal, which is to be apprised by Indifferent and Judicious Men, and Equally Divided, one Moiety thereof for the Behoof of my said Eleven Children, which half I Will to be Equally Divided among them, or so many of them as shall then be alive; and the other Moiety for my said well-beloved Wife, which Portions of my said Children she is to keep until they come to Age or be Married, she giving sufficient Security for the same. Provided, Lands and Houses be also Apprised and Allotted to my Sons, as hereafter is Specified, they being accountable to the Children what the said Lands shall be Valued above their Proportion in the Estate, viz: I do Give and Bequeath to my Eldest Son Abraham, and to His Heirs forever, all my Seventh Part of the Land commonly Called Saraghtogo, my share being that Farm that lies to the Southward of the Fish Creek, so called, which separates the land of Robert Livingston and mine, being Bounded on the South by Dirk Wessel's, with my Proportion of Wood-Land belonging thereunto, alway Provided the same Be Apprised by Indifferent Persons, when he shall come to Age or be Married, he paying the surplusage what it be more valued than His Portion with the other Children. I do Give and Bequeath unto my son Johannes and to his Heirs forever, all my Land commonly Called Steen Rabie, on the East side of Hudson's River, with all the Houses, Barns, Yards and other appurtenances, the Island called Walvisch Island and that Belongs to said tract of Land, which is to be Apprised when he comes to Age, and if the apprisement amounts to more than his Equal Share in my Estate, he is to pay it to my other Children to make them equal. I do Give and Bequeath to my Son Ephraim and to His Heirs forever, all my Part, Share and Portion of the land Called Blenkenburgh, both at the Strand and upon the Flatts or Plains, which is Also to be Apprised, as the other Lands above mentioned, and if the apprisement amounts to more than the Equal Proportion in said Estate, he is to pay it to my other Children, to make them Equal with him. My Will is further, that if any of the said Tracts of Land Bequeathed to my Sons aforesaid should happen to be apprised less than their Portion in the Estate, that so much of the Estate be paid to them as to make it up with the rest of the Children. I do Give unto my well-beloved Wife, my House which I now live in, situate and being between the widow of Jacob Glen and Peter Davidtse Schuyler, which is to be apprised and deducted out of the Moiety of the Estate which she is to have; and if she remains a Widow, she is to Keep, Hold, Enjoy and Possess the Whole Estate during her Natural Life, and to Give to my said Children such Portions and Outfitts as she shall see meet when they come to Age, or to be Married, and after my Wife's decease the Whole Estate, Real and Personal, to be Equally Divided among my Sons and Daughters, Excepting that I do give to my Eldest Son, Abraham, the Sum of Three Pounds current money of this Province, besides his Portion with the Rest of my Children, wherewith he is to Rest Satisfied of any Pretence that he might make as my Eldest Son, and share then as the others do, and whereas I have Ordered my Sons Abraham, Johannes and Ephraim, Lands for their Portion as above is Expressed, if any of the said Sons should happen to Dye before they come to Age, then my Sons Isaac and Jacob are to have the same successively on the said condition.

Lastly, I do Make, Constitute, Ordain and Appoint my dear and wellbeloved Wife Sole Executrix of this my Last Will and Testament, who is to have the Administration of my Goods and Chattels as Administratrix, as by the Laws of this Government are Admitted to do. I do Nominate and Appoint my beloved brother-in-law M' Jacob Staets, and Mr Joh: Lansingh, to be Tutors and Trustees over my said wife and Children, and to Aid and Assist my Wife in the Administration of said Estate.

En Witness whereof, I have Hereunto sett my Hand and Seal, in Albany, at my Dwelling House, the Day and Year first above written.

a

was

Tby one of these 'HE first landing at Plymouth on "Forefather's Day, by one of these exploring parties. They found there a good harbor for shipping, and they "marched also into the land," and found divers Indian cornfields, a deserted Village Mark, with running brooks, altogether "a place very good for situation." So the explorers, who had been ranging up and down Cape Cod for more than a month, returned to the Mayflower which had been anchored all this time in the harbor of Cape Cod, but which sailed into Plymouth harbor on the 26th of December. On the 28th another exploring party "went a land" and "marched along the coast for some seven or eight miles." Two days afterward, on the 30th of December, which should be forever memorable as the founders' day of Plymouth Town and Colony, the Pilgrims, "after landing and viewing the places-came to a conclusion by most voices, to seton a high ground, where there is a great deal of land cleared." There above the open Mark rose the "great hill" upon which the Pilgrims proposed to plant their "ordinance," so as to command the surrounding country. Fort Hill, now called Burial Hill, was a natural acropolis, chosen for the defence of the "town," which was to be built beneath its shelter. The whole locality they thought could be easily "impaled." This was the very idea of a Saxon Town, from Tun or Zun, a placed hedged in. Plymouth Rock well symbolizes, in the popular mind, the landing of the Pilgrims in the

occur, perhaps, until March 31, 1621 ;* but on Dec. 30th, 1620, the real corner-stone of Plymouth and of New England was laid in the conclusion by most voices to set-on a high ground," on the seaward slope of Fort Hill, which symbolizes the Town-idea of our Forefathers, a self-guarded village community, keeping watch and ward, and maintaining peace within its borders. There upon that acropolis was afterward "builte a fort with good timber, both strong and comly, which was of good defence, made with a flate rofe & batllments, on which their ordnance were mounted, and wher they kepte constante watch, espetially in time of danger. It served them allso for a meeting house, and was fitted accordingly for that use."†

It is a noteworthy fact that after the assertion of the democratic principle of "most voices," or a majority vote in the choice of a site for settlement and for the building of a Town, the first institution actually planted was of a military character. Before any Church Meeting or regular Town Meeting on shore, before the Common House which first sheltered both was built, the Pilgrims instituted what they called "the court of guard." This was a night watch set by those on shore, Monday, January 4, 1621, from fear of the Indians, and for the protection of the products of the Pilgrims' first day's labor in felling timber and providing stuff for building. On the following day all able-bodied men came ashore and resumed their labor, but they returned to the ship that night leaving "some twenty to keep the court of guard." Thus, ever on the alert, the Pilgrims proceeded to build their town"in two rows of houses for more

1621, March 21 (31), "a fine warm day.-This day with much ado, we got our carpenter, that had been long sick of the scurvy, to fit our shallop to fetch all from aboard.” Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 190.

It may be that this passage refers solely to movable goods, and not at all to passengers yet on board; but the Journal of Jan. 29 (Feb. 8) says on that day, Both the long-boat and the shallop brought our common goods on shore" (see Young, 170). And yet after this date we find Pilgrims still on board, for the Journal of Feb. 4 (14) says, though we rid in a very good harbor, yet we were in danger, because our ship was light, the goods taken out and she unballasted" It is probable that some of the pilgrim band did not land as early as is commonly supposed, for Bradford (92) speaks of "schuch of ye passengers as were yet abord," who showed great kindness to the sailors when they in their turn began to fall ill. When the thatch of the Common House was destroyed by fire on the 24th of January, Bradford (100) says some were faine to retire abord for shilter." There was a constant going to and fro between ship and shore throughout the winter, the men remain. ing on board for days during stormy weather. Probably there never was any general disembarkation upon Plymouth Rock at any one time, whether on the 21st of December, when the Mayflower was far away at Cape Cod, or on the 4th of January, according to the view advanced by S. H. Gay, in his article in the Atlantic Monthly, November, 1881, "When did the Pilgrim Fathers land at Plymouth ?"

+ Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 126. It is very interesting that the Plymouth Church was first sheltered in the Common House and afterward in a Fort surmounted by six cannon. So fully were the Pilgrims imbued with the martial spirit that they actually marched to church, assembling "by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door." They marched up Fort Hill three abreast. "Behind comes the Governor, in a long robe; beside him, on the right hand, comes the preacher with his cloak on, and on the left the captain with his side-arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand, and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus they are constantly on their guard night and day." Letter of De Rasières, a Dutch officer from New Netherlands, who visited New Plymouth in 1627. See Collections of New York Hist. Society, New Series, i. 362, or Russell's Pilgrim Memorials, 143.

Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 169.

safety." But their first building was a Common House for a " generall randevoze." Here the first Church Meeting on land was held January 31, 1621. Here was held the first regular Town Meeting in New England, February 27, "for the establishing of military orders." Miles Standish was chosen Captain, and was given "authority of command in affairs." This was the first strictly local election in New England. It occurred more than a month before the election of Carver as Governor of Plymouth. To be sure Carver had been "confirmed" Governor on board the Mayflower in the harbor at Cape Cod, November 21, 1620, immediately after the signing of the Compact, but Governors and Assistants had been chosen for each ship to order ye people by ye way," before the Colony set sail from Southampton. It is true John Carver was actually Governor when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth; but it is also true that Miles Standish was at that time Captain, and had long been recognized as such in the conduct of explorations. The point is, that, in the actual foundation of the Colony at Plymouth, the choice of a military officer to command in affairs antedated the choice of civil officers, just as the "court of guard" antedated the General Court or Town Meeting, in the strictest meaning of those terms, although of course the common sense of most was the actual basis even of these martial institutions for defence. The salus publica was the foundation principle of Plymouth as of all civil society.

Immediately after the election of Standish, the popular assembly was broken up by the appearance of two savages on Strawberry Hill or Watson's Hill. The Townsmen armed at once and sent their headman, Captain Standish, accompanied by Stephen Hopkins, across the intervening Town Brook to parley with the Indians. From this time on, for many years, Captain Standish served as Chief Messenger for the Town Meeting, General Court or Folkmoot of Plymouth. He was chief spokesman in parleys with the Indians. He demanded of the fishermen at Cape Ann the restoration of Plymouth property. He arrested Morton at Merry Mount, and levied the expense of sending the rogue back to England upon Cape Ann and other local plantations then existing in New England. He arrested Indians and kept them in custody. He protected the life of one Indian simply because he was "a messenger," it being against "the law of arms-in Europe to lay violent hands on any such." He exercised the right of life and death over Indians beyond Plymouth borders, for in Massachusetts, at Mr. Weston's feeble plantation, where certain treacherous savages were plotting the destruction of all the settlements, Standish and his men shut up the leaders in a cabin and there killed them, "striving to the last." Other Indians were killed or hanged by his orders. He returned home to Plymouth, says the Pilgrim record, "in safety, blessed be God! and

Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 180.

+ Bradford, Hist. of Plymouth Plantation, 68.

brought the head of Wituwamat with him," which was "brought to the fort and there set up." There is something old English about this method of procedure. It looks like primitive martial law. During the absence of Standish an Indian had come into Town who was suspected of being a spy. By order of the Governor he was arrested, taken to the Fort, "locked in a chain to a staple in the court of guard, and there kept," being told that he must remain content" till the return of Captain Standish from Massachusetts."*

What shall we call this Captain of Plymouth's Guard, this Keeper of the Town's Fort or Castle, this leader of expeditions, this organizer of militia by "squadrons or companies," appointing his own officers, holding "a general muster or training,"† this Captain-General who became in 1645 the head of a military commission appointed by the four United Colonies of New England, but who still " condescended" to review the local militia of Plymouth, this Marshal exercising the right of life and death in the conduct of Indian campaigns, this Martinet of a little village, where the first offence was John Billington's "contempt of the Captain's lawful command with opprobrious speeches," the offender being therefor "convented before the whole company-and adjudged to have his neck and heels tied together"? What shall we call the man under whose direction all such penalties must have been executed in early Plymouth? Surely not a mere Petty Constable, not simply a Captain of the local Militia, for he had also authority of command in public affairs. He was a colonial officer of the martial type, sometimes carrying the law in his own person like an ancient Roman prætor, an Earl Marshal or a Lord High Constable of England. Let us call Miles Standish the first martial representative in New England, as Miles of Gloucester was the first representative in Old England, of the iron hand of sovereign constabulary power, whence the "lower constableship was drawn and fetched, as it were, a very finger of that hand."

In the year 1632 it was ordered by the General Court "in regard of our dispersion so far asunder, and the inconveniency that may befall," that every inhabitant provide himself a sufficient musket or other serviceable piece for war, also with ammunition. Such

Standish's Expedition against the Indians of Wessagusset, in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 336-45. The above details have been gathered from Mourt's Relation and from Bradford's History of the Plymouth Plantation. +Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 284.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, vol. x. 60, "Notes on Duxbury."

Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 199. This being "the first offence 39 committed in Plymouth, it was pardoned upon the culprit humbling himself; but soon after two servants, who had fought a duel, were adjudged to the above Old English penalty, which was duly inflicted. John Billington was afterward, in 1630, hung for murder, being tried and executed by due forms of law. See Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts, vol. ii. 413. The execution must have been under the supervision of Captain Miles Standish, for there was, at that time, no other High Sheriff or Constable in Plymouth Colony. The first differentiation of these offices did not occur until 1634.

Plymouth Col. Records, i. 6; Laws, 14, 31. For "Public Armes," see Laws, 51, 105; "Townes Armes," 181. Town Armor!