The north ante-room is worthy attention of visitors, and contains, with other things, an old sofa formerly owned by Gov. Hancock, upon which he probably sat and plotted treason with Samuel Adams against the English crown. There are pictures of Plymouth, England, and other places in that country, of Pilgrim interest, together with various commissions, etchings, views, etc; and a case containing seven swords of notable personages, which are described in the catalogues.
A fire-proof annex for the valuable library of the Pilgrim Society was built on the northerly side of the hall in 1904, and on the steel shelves behind substantial metal lattices, found necessary to protect the books from persons of predatory inclinations, some 3000 volumes are arranged in handsome cabinets. Some of these books are very rare indeed, and if lost or destroyed could not be replaced. The oldest volume bears the imprint 1559.
Above the bookcases are portraits; among them those of Hon. Joshua Thomas, the first president of the Pilgrim Society; Hon. John Davis, editor of Morton’s New England Memorial, and former president of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and Ephraim Spooner, who was for thirty-four years deacon of the First Church, in Plymouth, and a very prominent citizen of the town. He was chairman of the Selectmen through the Revolutionary War, in which capacity he rendered the country efficient service, and was likewise for fifty-one years town clerk of Plymouth. A very quaint painting is the portrait of Elizabeth Wensley, hanging over the fireplace. She was daughter of William Paddy, and was born in Plymouth 1641. Her daughter, Sarah, was the wife of Dr. Isaac Winslow, whose portrait appears in the Winslow group in the main hall. The great centre table in the library was owned by Gov. Edward Winslow, and stood in the Council Chamber when he governed the Colony. On top of one of the book cases is a model of a ship of the “Mayflower” period, illustrative of the naval architecture and rig of her time.
One of the cases at the foot of the Hall between the ante-rooms holds the gun barrel with which King Philip was killed, also the original manuscript of Mrs. Felicia Hemans’ celebrated ode, “The breaking waves dashed high,” and William Cullen Bryant’s poem, “Wild was the day, the wintry sea,” both presented by the late James T. Fields of Boston. A piece of a mulberry tree, planted in the garden of the Manor house at Scrooby by Cardinal Wolsey, and the trowel used in laying the corner stone of the National Monument to the Pilgrims, August 2, 1859, are seen in this case among other articles. In the other there is a book given to Gov. Bradford by Pastor John Robinson, brought over in the “Mayflower” by Bradford and afterwards given by him to the church. A book printed by Elder Brewster and a copy of Seneca’s works owned by Brewster likewise find place in this case, together with a copy of the first edition of “Mourt’s Relation,” written in Plymouth in 1621 and published in London in 1622.
A special case at the head of the Hall contains the oldest state document in New England, and probably in the United States. This is the first patent granted to the Plymouth Colonists by the Northern Virginia Company. A patent was granted by the Virginia Company in the name of John Wincob, but never used. About the time of the departure of the Forefathers from England for this country a new company was created by a royal charter, within the limits of which Plymouth was included, and this patent dated June 1, 1621 was granted to John Pierce by the Northern Virginia Company and sent over in the “Fortune,” arriving here in November of that year. This patent was found in the land office in Boston, among a mass of old papers, by William Smith, Esq., one of the land committee. The Hon. John Davis, then editing a new edition of Morton’s New England Memorials, obtained it for his use in that book, and from him it came into the possession of the late Nathaniel Morton Davis, Esq., in whose family it remained until deposited in the hall by Mrs. William H. Whitman. It bears the seals and signatures of the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, Lord Sheffield, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with the exception that the seal of Hamilton is missing. A sixth signature, probably that of John Peirce, the party of the second part, is broken out of the parchment, leaving but a trace of the letter J. The seal to this signature is also torn away.
From the curator’s office a flight of stairs conducts to the basement, where all desired conveniences for visitors will be found. In the lower hall is an interesting museum of articles which have been separated from the Pilgrim collection, and as pertaining to ancient days in many instances or as curiosities will well repay examination. Among them is the frame of the “Sparrowhawk,” wrecked on Cape Cod, at Orleans, in 1626, her company finding refuge and assistance at Plymouth. Her history is remarkable, as being the first known vessel stranded on the Cape, which since that time has been the grave yard of fully 2,000 sea-going craft, with a loss of hundreds of lives. A large placard attached to the old wreck gives the story. To see these remains of a vessel as old as the Mayflower, though much smaller, is very suggestive of the perils of an ocean passage in the days of the Pilgrims.
The bones of the Indian Chief Iyanough are preserved in a special case in the lower hall, together with a large brass kettle and other implements found with the skeleton which was discovered at Hyannis in Barnstable in May, 1861.
The Court House
“Though justice be thy plea, consider this,—
That in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.”