# Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s

> A scattered coastal farming, fishing, milling, and meetinghouse town, still Puritan in its institutions but increasingly tied to trades beyond Plymouth Bay.

- Place: Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts (42.042, -70.672)
- Years: 1730 to 1739
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Duxbury%2C%20Plymouth%20County%2C%20Massachusetts&at=42.0418,-70.6723&year=1735

## Looking around

You stand in South Duxbury, where roads still gather around the meetinghouse vicinity[1] rather than a later village center. Nearby is the second meetinghouse[1][3], a plain public building for worship and town business. The town spreads outward in separated pockets: Millbrook, North and West Duxbury, Ashdod, Tinkertown, Island Creek, and Tarkiln[1]. Toward the water lie Duxbury and Kingston Bays[1], with fishing grounds and shellfish flats; inland are brooks, sawmills, gristmills, and iron forges[1]. Houses are mostly modest cape-type cottages[1], not grand mansions. Roads lead to mill sites and neighboring towns: Tremont Street, Chandler Street, and Temple Street[1] are already part of the local pattern. Some work moves by water; some by cart; much of it stays close to farm, marsh, creek, and meetinghouse.

## Work: Farm, fish, mill, forge

The most ordinary work was still agriculture and fishing[1], but the town also had sawmills, gristmills, iron forges, and a tannery[1]. 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 meetinghouse[3], and Samuel Veazie became minister in 1738[3].

## 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 norm[1]. Families lived in separated village pockets such as Millbrook, Ashdod, Tinkertown, Island Creek, and Tarkiln[1], 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 people[1].

## Roads & news: Roads, bay, nearby markets

Movement followed Tremont Street, Chandler Street, and Temple Street[1] as well as water routes around Duxbury and Kingston Bays[1]. Goods such as iron, timber, fish, and charcoal[1] connected the town to Boston, Middleboro, and Taunton.

## Money: Local facts are scarce

The town made saleable goods—iron, timber, fish, and charcoal[1]—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 grounds[1], plus mills and iron forges[1]. The Native history also records the deeper danger of disease, war, resettlement, servitude, and enslavement[1].

## Year by year

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

## 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 sources)[1]
- The town was incorporated on June 17, 1637, and its older bounds had once included Pembroke, parts of Marshfield, Kingston, and Bridgewater. (inferred)[2]
- In the colonial period the road system still focused on South Duxbury and the meetinghouse area. (from the sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- Agriculture and fishing remained important pursuits in colonial Duxbury. (from the sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[3]
- The first surviving First Parish record book begins in 1739, when the congregation was still worshipping in the second meetinghouse. (from the sources)[3]
- Exports from colonial Duxbury included iron, timber, fish, and charcoal sent to Boston, Middleboro, and Taunton. (from the sources)[1]
- Duxbury’s colonial villages had local service facilities such as sawmills, gristmills, shipyards, and farmland, allowing limited local independence within the town. (from the sources)[1]
- 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. https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/mhc/preservation/survey/town-reports/archives/dux.pdf
2. A Brief History of First Parish Church. First Parish Church Duxbury, 1995. https://uudux.org/home-2-4/history/
3. First Parish Church Records. Duxbury Rural & Historical Society. https://duxburyhistory.org/collection-highlights/first-parish-church-records/
4. MAGenWeb Duxbury, MA. USGenWeb / MAGenWeb. https://plymouthcolony.net/magenweb/plymouthcounty/duxbury/index.html
5. You Are Here. Duxbury Rural & Historical Society. https://duxburyhistory.org/you-are-here/

## The same place in other decades

- [Duxborough in the 1640s](https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1640s/md)
- [Duxborough in the 1660s](https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1660s/md)
- [Duxbury in the 1670s](https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1670s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Plymouth in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/plymouth-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1750s/md) (9 km)
- [Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/plympton-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1710s/md) (15 km)
- [Middleborough, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/middleborough-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s/md) (27 km)
- [Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/londonderry-rockingham-county-new-hampshire/1730s/md) (108 km)
- [Hillsborough County, New Hampshire in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hillsborough-county-new-hampshire/1730s/md) (130 km)
- [Goffstown, New Hampshire in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/goffstown-new-hampshire/1760s/md) (133 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s", https://yorehistory.com/place/duxbury-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s