Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1710s

Work

Farms, timber, grain

The daily economy was land and water: settlers cut trees, built homes, and mostly farmed¹, while a grist mill on the Winnatuxet³ turned local grain in small batches.

Faith

The meetinghouse town

The town began as a worship district: the Western Precinct of Plymouth^2,3 existed for the support of a learned and orthodox ministry². Reverend Isaac Cushman^2,3 was the settled minister through the 1710s.

Law & power

Town officers and taxes

Power ran through town meeting, assessors, selectmen, and the Province: a 1713 tax warrant was addressed to selectmen or assessors⁵. Locally, adult male property and tax standing shaped who had a political voice.

What people feared

War beyond the farms

Plympton itself was inland, but the decade was wartime: Queen Anne's War lasted from 1702 to 1713⁴. Men here would have heard of Massachusetts forces in the 1710 expedition that captured Port Royal⁴.

Home & table

Scattered family farms

This was no dense village: in 1695 the future town had about forty-five families². The landscape around them was meadow land and heavily wooded swamp², with farms spread across a much larger town than today.

Money

Land before cash

Land was the recordable wealth: Plymouth proprietors granted thirty-acre, twenty-acre, and sixty-acre lots² from common lands. For actual wages and prices, no Plympton figures for the 1710s were found online.

Who lived here

English on Wampanoag land

The town history notes Wampanoag presence here long before English settlement, and the river name remained: Winnatuxet was an Indigenous place-name^2,3. English families arrived through Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, and nearby towns.

Roads & news

Roads, church, county

News came by road, meeting, and Sabbath gathering: before 1695 people walked to worship at Plymouth³, and in the 1710s roads led toward Plymouth and Middleboro³.

Year by year

1. 1707Plympton became a separate town on June 4, 1707. here^1,3
2. 1710Port Royal in Acadia was captured by British and colonial forces, including about nine hundred Massachusetts men. the country⁴
3. 1711A large British-colonial expedition against Quebec failed, a major disappointment after Port Royal. the country
4. 1713Queen Anne's War ended, easing but not ending imperial and frontier fears in New England. the world⁴
5. 1713A Province tax warrant showed Boston relying on town selectmen and assessors to collect provincial revenue. the country⁵
6. 1714A new Plympton meetinghouse was built, and the older one was sold and converted into a barn. here²
7. 1714Queen Anne died and George I became king, news that would have reached Massachusetts through Boston. the world

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Plympton was incorporated as a town on June 4, 1707, making it the seventh town in Plymouth County. from the sources^1,3
• Before town incorporation, this place was the Western Precinct of Plymouth, created in 1695 for separate worship and ministerial support. from the sources^2,3
• The early English settlers were drawn by rich meadow lands and heavily wooded swamps within the old Plympton territory. from the sources²
• The Winnatuxet River, an Indigenous place-name, ran through Plympton and on toward the Taunton River. from the sources^2,3
• The first meetinghouse probably stood before 1698 at the southerly end of the green, opposite an old lane. from the sources²
• A new meetinghouse was built in 1714, and the older one was sold to Benjamin Soule and turned into a barn after removal to his farm. from the sources²
• In 1695 the southwestern section of Plymouth that became Plympton had about forty-five families. from the sources²
• The Reverend Isaac Cushman began preaching in the precinct in 1695, was ordained on October 27, 1698, and remained minister until his death in 1732. from the sources^2,3
• The 1695 precinct order required inhabitants and their local estates to be assessed for the support of a learned and orthodox ministry. from the sources²
• Before the precinct was set off, men and women from the settlement generally walked to public worship at Plymouth. from the sources³
• Plympton's early settlers cut trees, built homes, and farmed for the most part. inferred¹
• Adam Wright built an early grist mill on the Winnatuxet River, a small gig-mill said to grind four or five bushels a day. from the sources³
• A named road to Middleboro is mentioned in early Plympton descriptions, and Plymouth remained the older county and market center to the east. from the sources³
• When first incorporated, Plympton was much larger than the modern town, including present Carver, much of Halifax, and a strip later in Kingston. from the sources^1,3
• In 1701-1702 the Plymouth proprietors made grants of thirty-acre lots, then later twenty-acre and sixty-acre lots, from common lands. from the sources²
• In 1703 a three-mile-square tract near Cobb's meadow was granted for a sheep pasture, later disputed among Plymouth, Plympton, and Kingston. from the sources²
• The Province of Massachusetts Bay was at war during most of the decade, because Queen Anne's War lasted from 1702 to 1713. from the sources⁴
• Massachusetts contributed about nine hundred men to the 1710 expedition that captured Port Royal in Acadia. from the sources⁴
• A provincial tax warrant dated 1713 was addressed to town selectmen or assessors, showing how Boston reached local towns through their officers. from the sources⁵
• No online source found in this search gives Plympton prices or wages for the 1710s. not known
• No online source found in this search describes the exact appearance of ordinary Plympton houses in the 1710s. not known
• As in other Massachusetts towns of the period, legal voting and officeholding were centered on adult male inhabitants with property and tax standing. inferred

Sources

1. History. Town of Plympton, Massachusetts
2. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Part 230: History of Plympton. LDSGenealogy transcription, 1884
3. History of Plympton Massachusetts. Access Genealogy; from Plymouth County Directory and Historical Register of the Old Colony, 1867
4. Reflections on Naval History: Collected Essays. U.S. Government Publishing Office
5. Province of the Massachusetts Bay: James Taylor, Treasurer and Receiver General, to the Selectmen or Assessors. Library of Congress, 1713

Nearby, about the same time