Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/99

Rh The original purchasers and active agents in the settlement of Swansea and Barrington were the same men who made Plymouth Colony famous and early New England history illustrious. We cannot make this fact too prominent that the real founders of our section were the very people who landed on Plymouth Rock and planted at Plymouth the first free, democratic government of the world. Their names were:

William Bradford was the second governor of the Colony of Plymouth, succeeding Governor Carver, who died in 1621, holding the office with the exception of four years, until his death in 1657, a period of thirty-one years. Some of his descendants, bearing his name, now live in Bristol, R. I. Gov. Bradford was a passenger in the Mayflower as were also Myles Standish, Edward Winslow, William White and Peregrine White, the first child born in New England. John Adams, Thomas Cushman, and Thomas Prince arrived at Plymouth on the Fortune in Nov. 1621. Bradford was the second signer of the Plymouth compact on board the Mayflower.

Myles Standish was the military Captain of the Colony holding this office until his death in 1655. Baylies says, he was an accurate surveyor and generally on Committees for laying out towns. "He was always the military Commander, always one of the Council of war, generally an assistant; sometimes first assistant or deputy governor and treasurer." His visits to Massassoit and his general exploration of the country enabled him to gain a complete knowledge of the different sections of the Plymouth Patent and the reservation of Sowams and its occupation in 1653