John Alden was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
Myles Standish was an English military officer and colonist. He was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims. Standish accompanied the Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower and played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its foundation in 1620. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.
General Thomas Gage was a British Army general officer and colonial official best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as British commander-in-chief in the early days of the American Revolution.
Duxbury is a historic seaside town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately 35 miles (56 km) to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 2020 census.
Captain Silas Talbot was an American military officer and slave trader. He served in the Continental Army and Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, and is most famous for commanding USS Constitution from 1799 to 1801. Talbot was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati's branch in New York.
Priscilla Alden was a noted member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony of Pilgrims and the wife of fellow colonist John Alden. They married in 1621 in Plymouth.
Joseph Barss was a sea captain of the schooner Liverpool Packet and was one of the most successful privateers on the North American Atlantic coast during the War of 1812.
William North was an American soldier and politician.
USS Bradford (DD-545) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was named for Captain Gamaliel Bradford (1768–1824), a privateer during the Quasi-War with France.
The 14th Massachusetts Regiment was raised on September 16, 1776, under Colonel Gamaliel Bradford at Boston, Massachusetts. The regiment would see action at the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Monmouth. The regiment was disbanded on January 1, 1781, at West Point, New York. The Colonel's young son, Gamaliel Bradford III was a private in this regiment.
Capt. John Alden Jr. was a Colonial soldier, politician, merchant, and sailor born in Plymouth Colony. He was a well-known public figure in his time but is now chiefly remembered as a survivor of the Salem witch trials, of which he wrote a much quoted and studied account.
The Capt. Gamaliel Bradford House is a historic house in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Built in 1807, the house is locally distinctive for its brick side walls and monitor section above the hip roof. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637–1700) was the third pastor of the church in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony, British America. Though he is thought to have given the first known funeral sermon in British America at the burial of Capt. Jonathan Alden in 1697, American funeral sermons predate this event by several decades.
William Bradford (1590–1657) was the governor of Plymouth Colony for most of his life. Descendants of William Bradford, some of whom are listed here, have achieved noteworthy standing in numerous fields.
Paul Dudley Sargent was a privateer and soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Frederick Winsor was a Civil War surgeon, head of the Massachusetts State Hospital and longtime physician in Salem, Massachusetts.
Ezra Weston II, also known as King Caesar, was a prominent shipbuilder and merchant who operated a large maritime industry based in Duxbury and Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Ezra Weston I, began small scale shipbuilding operations in Duxbury in 1763 and eventually came to be known as "King Caesar" for his success in business. Ezra Weston II, his only son, inherited the nickname when Ezra I died in 1822.
Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley was an American educator and scholar at a time when women were rarely admitted to universities. She acquired most of her knowledge of the classics, philosophy, modern languages, botany, astronomy, and chemistry through independent study. She was reputedly "one of the most learned women of the nineteenth century."
Capt. Jonathan Alden Sr., the son of Mayflower immigrants, was a military officer and farm owner in Plymouth Colony. The home he built in the late 1600s is now a National Historic Landmark in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
The Bluefish River is a stream in Duxbury, Massachusetts ending in a tidal river estuary that was the center of an active shipbuilding industry during the early 19th century. Its source is a set of small ponds located near the intersection of Partridge Road and Washington Street, about one-third of a mile from Hall's Corner in Duxbury. The river is fed by Hounds Ditch Brook which empties into the Bluefish at the tidal estuary. The river contains Duxbury’s second anadromous fish run, with a privately-owned fish ladder south of Harrison Street. A large portion of the northern shore of the Bluefish River estuary is occupied by the Capt. David Cushman Preserve operated by the Wildlands Trust which contains walking trails with views of the estuary. Near its mouth, the river passes under the stone Bluefish River Bridge, a local landmark and part of the Old Shipbuilders Historic District. The river discharges into Duxbury Bay between Long Point and Bumpus Park.
