Page:The life and letters of John Brown (Sanborn).djvu/19



HEN a man of mark is to appear in the world and give a new turn to the affairs of men, there has always been preparation made for him. Even the weeds and vermin of the field have their heredity and evolution,—much more a predestined hero like John Brown, of Kansas and Virginia. His valor, his religion, his Saxon sense, his Calvinistic fanaticism, his tender and generous heart were inherited from a long line of English, Dutch, and American ancestors,—men and women neither famous nor powerful, nor rich, but devout, austere, and faithful; above all free, and resolved that others should be free like themselves.

No genealogist has yet traced the English forefathers of Peter Brown the carpenter, who came over in the "Mayflower," and landed at Plymouth with the other Pilgrims in December, 1620; but his presence in that famous band is evidence enough of his character, even if the deeds of his descendants had not borne witness to it. He drew his house-lot on Leyden Street in the little town, with Bradford, Standish, and Winslow, and like them soon migrated to Duxbury, at the head of Plymouth Bay, where his family dwelt after his early death, in 1633, not far from Standish's abode at the foot of "Captain's Hill." A brother of Peter, John Brown, a weaver (sometimes confounded with a more distinguished John, who became a magistrate), also lived at Duxbury, and took some care of his deceased