The Pilgrim Fathers
Were Separatists
From the English Church
They held that any convenient
Number of believers
Might form themselves
Into a church
And choose their own officers
They entered into a
Covenant of the Lord
By which they joined themselves
While in England
Into a church society
In the fellowship
Of the Gospel
To walk in all His ways
Made known or
To be made known unto them
According to
Their best endeavors
Whatsoever it should cost them.
Standish Monument
Duxbury, Massachusetts
1918
(Dr. Charles W. Eliot)
THE SUCCESSIVE MEETING HOUSES
IN PLYMOUTH
1623–1899
The fort meeting-house 1623
The lower room of the fort, which the Pilgrims toiled to build “in their time of wants and great weakness,” served as their place of worship, “and was fitted to that use.”
First meeting-house 1648
In 1648 the first church was built, on land back of the garden of Gov. Bradford, fronting that part of the first street which is now the Town Square.
Second meeting-house 1683
“In 1683, it was decided to build a new structure, larger and handsomer than the last” at the head of the Town Square. The records state that “it had an unceiled Gothic roof, diamond windows, and a bell.”
Third meeting-house 1744