Here lies buried ye body of Mr. Thomas Clarke, aged 98. Departed this life March 24, 1697. Thomas Clarke came to Plymouth from England in the ship Anne 1623. He married Susan Ring of Plymouth, 1634. Their children were Andrew, James, William, Susanna, Nathaniel, and John. From whom descended a numerous posterity. He married his second wife, Mrs. Alice Hallett Nichols of Boston, in 1664. He lived for some years in Boston, and also in Harwich, of which town he was one of the original proprietors. He died in Plymouth, having lived in the reigns of six British sovereigns and the Com’th. This stone is erected to his memory by his descendants A.D. 1891.
It is with reverent step that the latter-day Pilgrim approaches the Cushman monument, an enduring memorial to a “precious servant of God.” This is a granite column, twenty-five feet high, and it is by far the most conspicuous monument on the hill. There is a bronze tablet on each of its four sides, that on the northerly side reading as follows:—
CUSHMAN MONUMENT.
ROBERT CUSHMAN,
Fellow-exile with the Pilgrims in Holland,
Afterwards their chief agent in England,
Arrived here -IX- November, -MDCXXI,
With Thomas Cushman his son:
Preached -IX- December,
His memorable sermon on “The Danger of self-love
And the sweetness of true friendship:”
Returned to England -XIII- December,
To vindicate the enterprise of Christian emigration;
And there remained in the service of the Colony Till -MDCXXV,
When, having prepared to make Plymouth His permanent home.
West side:—
He died, lamented by the forefathers
as “their ancient friend,—who was
as their right hand with their friends
the adventurers, and for divers years
had done and agitated all their business
with them to their great advantage.”
“And you, my loving friends, the adventurers
to this plantation, as your care has been first
to settle religion here before either profit
or popularity, so, I pray you, go on.——
I rejoice——that you thus honor God
with your riches, and I trust you shall be repaid
again double and treble in this world, yea,
and the memory of this action shall never die.”
Dedication of the Sermon.
South side:—