OF MASSACHUSETTS

THE CORNER STONE

OF THE

STANDISH MEMORIAL,

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE CHARACTER AND SERVICES

--of--

CAPTAIN MYLES STANDISH

THE FIRST COMMISIONED MILITARY OFFICER

OF NEW ENGLAND.

Laid on the summit of Captain’s Hi1I, in Duxbury, under

the Superintendence of

THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In presence of

THE STANDISH MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.

BY THE

M.W. GRAND LODGE OF FREE MASONS

M.W. SERENO D. NICKERSON, GRAND MASTER,

ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF OCTOBER, A. D. 1872.

Being the Two Hundred and Fifty-second Year since

the First Settlement of New England

PILGRIM FATHERS.

----------

SITE CONSECRATED AUGUST 17, 1871

ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED May 4, 1872.

ASSOCIATION ORGANIZED. AND GROUND Broken June 17, 1872.

CORNER OF FOUNDATION LAID AUGUST. 9, 1872.

Monument Inscription

He was “the son of a soldier”, “bred as a soldier in the Low Countries." (New English Canaan, Thomas Morton, Amsterdam, 1637) - -He was from the “noble house of Standish”. (A General History of New England, William Hubbard, written 1650s, first published Cambridge, Mass., 1815)-

“He was a gentleman, born in Lancashire and was heir apparent unto a great estate of lands

and livings. . In his younger time he went over into the low countries, and was a soldier there and came acquainted with the church at Leyden and came over into New England.”

(New England’s Memoriall, *Nathaniel Morton, 1669) - The only record from Myles himself is in his Will:

Clause 9,

“.	& heire aparent I give unto my son l

Allexander Standish all my lands as heire apparent by lawfull decent in Ormistick

Borsconge Wrightington Maudsley Newburrow Crawston# and in the Ile of man and given to

mee as right heire by lawfull decent but

[.]ruptuo[u?]sly detained from mee my greatG[..]fat[.]er being a 2cond or younger

brot[...] from the house of Standish of Standish by mee Myles Standish March the 7th 1655.”

(1656, modern dating) My transcription of a copy of the original Plymouth Court Record.

Modern: Ormskirk, Burscough, Wrightington, Mawdesley, Newburgh, Croston. *Nathaniel Morton (1669) gave “surreptitiously”. Myles’ son Alexander recorded hopes of still possibly being able to reclaim these lands in his Will of 1702.

“Also my will is That whatsoever Estate Either in New England or in old which I have

Committed into ye hands of Robert Orchard to Recover in England by letters of Attorney

from under my hand and Seal And John

Rogers of Boston in New England by a letter of Attorney from under my hand & seal Be

Recovered after my decease my will is that my wife have her third part & ye Remainder to be

divided Equally betweene Thomas Standish Ichabod Standish * & Desire Standish.”

Alexander’s Will, 21 February, 1702, proved 10

August, 1702. (Porteus, 1920, p. 19, giving ref:

The Mayflower Descendant vol. XII, pp. 101-10

2, transcription of the copy in Plymouth Court

Records.)*Ichabod lived 1693-1777, the

youngest grandson of Myles, and the last to die.

No authenticated contemporary record of his name has so far been discovered in Europe, nor that of his father or grandfather. This total dearth of documentation is in itself curious and significant, as the Standish were great hoarders of family papers. 1000+ Standish documents were already abstracted in the 17th.c and at least 700 additional early documents are still extant in various Lancashire and National Archives. Add to these the dozens of Standish references in Record Society Volumes, and the c.1000 Standish entries in 16th/ 7th.c Parish Registers in Lancashire, and one might expect to find some trace. Not even a smidgeon. This total lack of appearance already arouses suspicions of a conspiracy of silence connected with the ‘surreptitious detention” of his Will. Happily, however, the great-grandfather of his Will escaped total obliteration, and the documents mentioned above, together with various historical facts and other sources, (maps etc) have at last yielded their secrets by providing the following details, thus solving most of the mysteries surrounding Myles: