Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s

Work

Farm, fish, mill, forge

The most ordinary work was still agriculture and fishing¹, but the town also had sawmills, gristmills, iron forges, and a tannery¹. Ship work existed at Captain’s Hill from 1719^1,5, though the famous Duxbury shipbuilding boom belonged to a later generation.

Faith

Meetinghouse town

The public center was religious and civic at once: First Parish and town life were intertwined^3,2. In the late 1730s worship was still in the second meetinghouse³, and Samuel Veazie became minister in 1738³.

Law & power

Town meeting and parish

Power gathered around the institutions that met in or around the second meetinghouse^1,3. The first three Duxbury meetinghouses housed civil as well as religious functions^3,2, so church order and town order overlapped.

Home & table

Modest scattered houses

Most homes were not seaport mansions; modest cape-type cottages remained the norm¹. Families lived in separated village pockets such as Millbrook, Ashdod, Tinkertown, Island Creek, and Tarkiln¹, not in one tight town center.

Who lived here

English town, Native presence

The documented population nearest the decade is 1,050 residents in 1765^1,4, after the 1730s. The town’s Native population had been reduced, but the record still notes Native people living or working in English households as servants or enslaved people¹.

Roads & news

Roads, bay, nearby markets

Movement followed Tremont Street, Chandler Street, and Temple Street¹ as well as water routes around Duxbury and Kingston Bays¹. Goods such as iron, timber, fish, and charcoal¹ connected the town to Boston, Middleboro, and Taunton.

Money

Local facts are scarce

The town made saleable goods—iron, timber, fish, and charcoal¹—but local wages, food prices, and rents for the 1730s were not found online in this search.

What people feared

Water, work, disease, loss

The hazards most visible from the records are work and environment: bay, estuary, fishery, and shellfish grounds¹, plus mills and iron forges¹. The Native history also records the deeper danger of disease, war, resettlement, servitude, and enslavement¹.

Year by year

1. 1732A tannery was operating in Duxbury. here¹
2. 1733The Molasses Act was passed by Parliament, a trade law New Englanders connected to rum, molasses, and Atlantic commerce would have heard argued about. the country
3. 1735John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel in New York, a colonial press case that became famous well beyond New York. the country
4. 1737A school was built in Duxbury as an addition to a private residence. here¹
5. 1738Samuel Veazie began his ministry at Duxbury’s First Parish. here³
6. 1739The surviving First Parish record book began while the congregation still used the second meetinghouse. here³
7. 1739War of Jenkins’ Ear began between Britain and Spain, putting Atlantic trade, shipping, and imperial war into colonial conversation. the world
8. 1740George Whitefield’s preaching tour helped spread the Great Awakening through British North America, including New England religious debate. the country

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Duxbury lay on Plymouth Bay, with Duxbury and Kingston Bays and the Back River estuary providing fish, shellfish, fowl, and marine resources. from the sources¹
• The town was incorporated on June 17, 1637, and its older bounds had once included Pembroke, parts of Marshfield, Kingston, and Bridgewater. inferred²
• In the colonial period the road system still focused on South Duxbury and the meetinghouse area. from the sources¹
• Duxbury’s second meetinghouse was built in 1706 near the first meetinghouse site on Church Street and measured about 40 by 33 by 17 feet. from the sources^1,3
• By the early eighteenth century Duxbury settlement included inland or semi-separate nodes at Millbrook, North Duxbury, West Duxbury, Ashdod, Tinkertown, Island Creek, and Tarkiln. from the sources¹
• Period roads included the improved coastal route later known as Tremont Street, Chandler Street to a mill site, and Temple Street through North Duxbury. from the sources¹
• Duxbury had about 1,050 residents in the 1765 provincial census, so the 1730s town was probably smaller than that but already substantially settled. from the sources^1,4
• The Massachusetts Historical Commission describes a continuing decline in the Native population from disease, war, and resettlement, with many remaining Native people living or working in English households as servants or enslaved people. from the sources¹
• Agriculture and fishing remained important pursuits in colonial Duxbury. from the sources¹
• By the 1730s Duxbury had sawmills on Green Harbor Brook and Island Creek, iron forges near South River/Chandler Street and Hall’s Brook, and a tannery dated 1732. from the sources¹
• A formal shipbuilding industry had begun at Captain’s Hill in 1719, but Duxbury’s famous large shipbuilding boom came after the Revolution, not in the 1730s. from the sources^1,5
• Most eighteenth-century Duxbury houses were modest structures, and cape-type cottages remained the norm through the 1770s. from the sources¹
• First schoolhouses were built in 1714 and 1715, serving western and eastern village clusters; in 1737 a school was built as an addition to a private residence. from the sources¹
• The First Parish Church traced its Duxbury congregation to 1632, called Rev. Ralph Partridge in 1638, and in the 1730s remained intertwined with town civic life. from the sources^3,2
• Rev. Samuel Veazie’s pastorate began in 1738 and continued until 1754. from the sources³
• The first surviving First Parish record book begins in 1739, when the congregation was still worshipping in the second meetinghouse. from the sources³
• Exports from colonial Duxbury included iron, timber, fish, and charcoal sent to Boston, Middleboro, and Taunton. from the sources¹
• Duxbury’s colonial villages had local service facilities such as sawmills, gristmills, shipyards, and farmland, allowing limited local independence within the town. from the sources¹
• No online source found in this search gives ordinary Duxbury wages, prices for food, or rents specifically for the 1730s. not known
• No online source found in this search describes the clothing, furniture, or daily diet of Duxbury households specifically in the 1730s. not known

Sources

1. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Duxbury. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1981
2. A Brief History of First Parish Church. First Parish Church Duxbury, 1995
3. First Parish Church Records. Duxbury Rural & Historical Society
4. MAGenWeb Duxbury, MA. USGenWeb / MAGenWeb
5. You Are Here. Duxbury Rural & Historical Society

Duxbury in other decades

Nearby, about the same time