"To the memory of Christopher Jones 1570 - 1622 Master of the Mayflower. He landed 102 planters and adventurers at Plymouth Massachusetts 21 Dec 1620. They formed the Mayflower Compact the first permanent colony in New England."
Christopher Jones became master of the Mayflower in 1609 and had a quarter share in the ownership of the vessel. It was mainly employed transporting wine, spices and furs from the new world back to London from almost this spot.
In 1620 he took the pilgrims to Massachusetts. The pilgrims honoured his memory by naming the Jones river in nearby Kingston after him. When he died he was buried in this very churchyard, in a now unmarked grave.
6 comments:
To think that back then it took a little over two months to make the trip. Now we can do it in a few hours.
The things you come up with. Amazing!
What an amazing find! It seems a shame his grave is unmarked, given the mark he made on history.
Is it sad that I looked at this and my first thought was "Weeping Angels?"
I'm not far from Plymouth, MA. What the story doesn't tell you is that they all died... so "permanent" is a loose word. Only a handful survived the seriously harsh winter, and only because the Native Americans brought them food. New colonists from England had it very hard here in the Northeast of America for many years. They didn't know how to keep warm during our freezing winters. They didn't realize what wouldn't grow so many became weak, sick and starved to death. Sorry for the maudlin history lesson, but just letting you know what happened AFTER they landed here!!
That said, there are a few people in America that have done the research and can claim there heritage BACK to one of their ancestors on the Mayflower!
He had a big role in the Mayflower's crossing, but today I don't think anyone knows his name.
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