The custom of wearing black gloves in the pulpit referred to above, which had once been universal, was abandoned before the middle of the last century, and I do not feel sure that Dr. Kendall wore them in the new meeting house, built in 1831.
With the estate of William Ryder Drew, some interesting incidents are associated beyond the memory of most of my readers. It was from his marriage in 1789 to his death in 1840, the residence of Barnabas Hedge, whom I remember well. He was the last man in Plymouth to wear small clothes, in winter with boots and tassels, and in summer with buckled shoes. I remember only two gentlemen in Boston, Nathaniel Goddard, who lived on Summer street, and a gentleman at the south end, whose name was Wheeler, who wore small clothes as long as Mr. Hedge. I am glad to see some indications of a return of a fashion too handsome and becoming to have been permitted to go out. Mr. Hedge was one of the founders of the Plymouth Bank in 1803, a Director from that date, and President from 1826 until his death in 1840. The house in question remained in the possession of the Hedge family until 1854, when it was sold to Zaben Olney.
One of the most interesting features of the celebration on the first of August, 1853, of the anniversary of the departure of the Pilgrims from Delfthaven, was the visit of the New York Light Guard with Dodsworth’s band to Plymouth, and their participation in the parade of the day. As the Hedge house was then unoccupied it was made their headquarters. The celebration took place on Monday, and the arrival of the Light Guard, Sunday afternoon, and their march through Court and Main and Leyden streets presented a spectacle which so far as known, caused no protest from the spirits of the Pilgrims against such an unusual observance of the Lord’s Day. Though I was Chief Marshal of the celebration, I have no knowledge of the ceremonies at the headquarters, but as the commander had a chaplain on his staff, it is to be presumed that they were interesting and appropriate. Before the sale of the house to Mr. Drew in 1858, Mr. Olney occupied it for a short time as a hotel, which during the winter months when the Samoset was closed, as was the custom in its earlier years, was well patronized.
CHAPTER XIV.
Of the occupants of the houses not yet referred to on the south side of Leyden street at various times within my memory, the first to be mentioned is Robert Roberts, who built the house on the brow of the hill, now owned by Wm. S. Robbins. Mr. Roberts was for many years a substantial merchant, engaged in navigation and foreign trade, and was one of the founders of the Plymouth Bank, of whose Board of Directors he was a member from the time of its organization in 1803, to his death in 1825. His sister Mary married John Clark, whose daughter, Eliza Haley Clark, occupied the house in question many years, and died December 23, 1882. I remember hearing when young a story about the source of a part of Mr. Roberts’s wealth which may have been, like so many stories about others, without any foundation in fact. The story was that one of his vessels, either under command of himself or of another, was in a French port at one period of the French revolution and had taken on board the wealth of some refugees who had planned to escape from the persecution of the revolutionists, and sail for America, but that they were arrested and guillotined, and that their property never claimed by its owners, fell into the possession of Capt. Roberts and other owners of his vessel.
The only change within my recollection in the occupation of the next house, which has been for many years in the possession and occupancy of Salisbury Jackson, and his children and grandchildren, was the conversion in 1835 of one of the rooms on the street floor by Mr. Jackson into a store, which he opened in that year after having occupied for some years a store in the Witherill building on the corner of Main street and Town Square. In later years the store was abandoned, and the building restored to its original condition. I associate an old lady by the name of Johnson, who I think about 1830 occupied one or two rooms in the Jackson house, with a bonnet called the Navarino bonnet, which had a great run for a time among females everywhere, old and young. I wonder if any of my readers remember as I do the Navarino bonnet? The battle of Navarino, which secured Greek independence, was fought October 20, 1827, in which the Turkish and Egyptian navies were destroyed by the combined fleets of England, Russia and France, and so great an interest was felt at that time in Greek affairs that some ingenious originator of fashion invented a bonnet made of paper resembling cloth, and of the prevailing shape, with a crown a little turned up behind, and a front, which entirely concealed the face and chin from a side view, to which in order to attract attention and sales he gave the name of the battle. Every woman bought one, and every woman wore one, the streets were full of them, and in the meeting houses they were in their glory. But alas, they were fair weather bonnets, and like the feathers of a rooster, wore a most bedraggled and flopping appearance when exposed to the rain. The fashion was short lived, and went out like that of hoop skirts, as rapidly as it came in, while the world still wonders what became of them. If any one of my readers has one of these relics of bygone days, I would be glad to have it to help my memory in recalling the appearance of my sisters, when one day they reached home in a drenching rain.
Of Capt. James Bartlett, the occupant of the next house west of the Jackson house from 1801 to his death in 1840, and of Leander Lovell, his son-in-law, the next occupant, by whose heirs it was sold in 1880, to recent owners, mention has been made in previous chapters.
The site of the next house, owned and occupied by Mr. Wm. H. H. Weston, is an especially interesting one. For its early history, which it is unnecessary to repeat, my readers are referred to page 164 of the first part of “Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth.” On that spot James Cole kept an ordinary, for which he was licensed in 1645. Judge Samuel Sewall refers to it in his diary under date of March 8, 1698, in which occurs the following entry: “Got to Plymouth about noon, I lodge at Cole’s; the house was built by Governor Winslow, and is the oldest in Plymouth.” The present house was built in 1807 by General Nathaniel Goodwin, and was occupied by him until his death, March 8, 1819. In 1827 it was sold by his heirs to Thomas Russell, who made it his residence until his death, September 25, 1854.
General Goodwin was born in Plymouth in 1749, and while engaged many years in iron manufactures, was more widely known as an officer in the militia and military superintendent for Plymouth county during the revolution. In the latter capacity he kept a record of enlistments in many of the towns in the county, including Plymouth and Kingston, which is more complete than the lists in the archives of the Commonwealth. This record was given to me some years ago by his grandson, the late Captain Nathaniel Goodwin, and has been given by me to the Pilgrim Society. After the battle of Saratoga, fought on the 7th of October, 1777, General Burgoyne and his army taken prisoners of war by General Gates, were marched to Cambridge and placed in barracks on Winter and Prospect hills, while Burgoyne himself was quartered in the Borland house in that town. General Goodwin was detailed under General Heath to command the guard having charge of the prisoners, and the following Plymouth men were enlisted to form a part of the guard:
| Nathaniel Barnes | Eleazer Holmes, Jr. |
| Wm. Bartlett | Samuel Holmes |
| Wm. Blakeley | Daniel Howland |
| Wm. Cassady | Edward Morton |
| George Churchill | Josiah Morton |
| Israel Clark | Levi Paty |
| James Collins | Ebenezer Rider, Jr. |
| Thomas Dogget | Benoni Shaw |
| Lemuel Doten | Nathaniel Torrey |
| Stephen Doten | Benjamin Weston |
| Thomas Ellis | John Witherhead |
| John Harlow, Jr. |