In my latest book, The Last Pilgrim, I mention that a great granite rock was one of the landmarks for the Pilgrims (Separatists) of the site where they decided to settle, along with a high hill for the placement of their cannons, and cleared land. I didn’t write about it further because in doing primary research on the Pilgrims, I discovered there are no contemporary references to the Pilgrims landing on what is now known at Plymouth Rock.
Here is what I did discover, from a post in 2018.
Neither William Bradford’s description of the Pilgrims coming ashore in Plymouth for the first time in 1620 nor the 1622 book called Mourt’s Relation mention any rocks in their accounts. A huge granite rock was mentioned as something marking the site where the Pilgrims would land, but not that they would land ON it.
The first written mention of a rock was made in 1715 when it was described in town boundary records as “a great rock.”
The Landing of the Pilgrims, by Henry Bacon, 1877.
Perhaps its identity was transmitted from father to son, because in 1741 Elder Thomas Faunce documented his claim that Plymouth Rock was the landing place of the Pilgrims. He was 95 years old at the time and had to be carried in a chair to the site. The Rock was under the bank of Cole’s Hill, and he assured those present that his father had pointed the Rock out and told him of its importance. Faunce’s father had arrived in the Plymouth colony aboard the ship Anne in 1623 two, years after the Mayflower landing, and Elder Faunce was born in 1647 when many of the Mayflower Pilgrims were still living, so his assertion made a strong impression.
Colonel Theophilus Cotton and the residents of Plymouth decided to move the rock in 1774. In their attempt to relocate it, the Rock split into two parts. The bottom portion was left behind. The top portion was first displayed at the town’s meeting house, then in 1834 moved to Pilgrim Hall (1824), the oldest public museum in the United States in continuous operation.
In the meantime, the Pilgrim Society had a Victorian canopy built over the lower portion of the Rock. It was designed by artist and architect Hammett Billings, who did the original drawings for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and completed in 1867. The top of the rock was moved from Pilgrim Hall to rejoin the lower portion in 1880, and at that time the date 1620 was carved into it.
In 1920, the rock was moved yet again so old wharves could be removed and the Plymouth waterfront re-landscaped. The rock was then returned to its original site and placed at water level, so it was tide washed. The original canopy was removed and an imposing Roman Doric portico constructed, designed by McKim, Mead and White, architects for among other buildings, among them those on the campus of Columbia University.
It is not surprising that during its many journeys, numerous pieces of the rock were taken, bought and sold. There are pieces in Pilgrim Hall Museum, as well as in the Patent Building in the Smithsonian and a 40-pound piece is set on a pedestal in the cloister of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Tourist and souvenir hunters chipped away at it in its early days on display. The original rock weighed some 20,000 pounds but only one-third of the top portion is on display under the canopy.
“We have come to this Rock, to record here our homage for our Pilgrim Fathers; our sympathy in their sufferings; our gratitude for their labours; our admiration of their virtues; our veneration for their piety; and our attachment to those principles of civil and religious liberty, which they encountered the dangers of the ocean, the storms of heaven, the violence of savages, disease, exile, and famine, to enjoy and establish.” Daniel Webster, 1820 (the same Daniel Webster that debated the devil at what is called Jabez Corner in Plymouth, in the short story by Stephen Vincent Benet).
Over the centuries, Plymouth Rock has become a national icon and crept into America’s historical consciousness through the imagination of authors, painters, and, yes, politicians.
I have seen the 1620 rock! It’s the myth that matters!
It doesn’t matter to me much – I’m sure the children crawled on it at one time or another. Just like thinking it was there!
Yes, it wasn’t as big as I thought it might be, but your account explains that!
Yes, it’s a shadow of its former self! I like thinking just that it was there…
I’ve never seen it but thanks for the explanation. History and myth… Thanks, Noelle!
I tend to belive this rock was around when they landed, just not WHERE they landed!
So brave were they, the people who sailed to a new world without knowing what to expect.
Brave, yes, but all too human. I don’t think I could have done what they did!
I saw the rock some years ago when I visited Plymouth. Interesting investigation, Noelle, although I’m not sure the exact details are so vital. The rock has symbolic power wherever it is.
The rock itself is pretty underwhelming, but oral history says it was there when the first of the Pilgrims (all men) came ashore in the vicinity of town brook and what would become Burial HIll. I believe it
Very interesting Noelle! I did not know the history of the rock and how often it was moved.
As I mentioned above, the Rock is very underwhelming. It’s probably less than a third of its original size. But even with that, and despite the fact the Pilgrims probably didn’t step ashore on it, I’m sure some of the children scrambled over it and it was there when they were first there!
Thanks for the engaging and well-researched post. In researching my book The Language of Bears, I immersed myself in (my wife might say immured himself with) many books about the New England Puritans, and naturally therefore also encountered quite a bit of material also about the Pilgrims. Fascinating people (if a bit dull in their poetry).in a fascinating, important historical period.
I am attempting to write a historical novel about the Pilgrims – one in particular – and can use some of my research for blog posts! It’s amazing how many people conflate the Puritans with the Pilgrims!
I suspect many Americans would have trouble distinguishing the Korean War from the Vietnam war. Puritans and Pilgrims both existed in history and both started with a P, so the confusion is understandable, right? It’s a good thing the Quakers didn’t also start with a P.
Yes! Good grief!
What a great post, Noelle. I’ve never seen Plymouth Rock, and admit I knew almost nothing of it’s history.
Nice blog
It, a bit eclectic, Saania. Book reviews, history of this and that, guest posts, memoire. I like to be able to wander around with my writing! Thank you!