Features

Moran's testing in 1971 resulted in 72 possible features being encountered, some of which appear to have been rodent runs or holes left after trees or bushes had died and decayed. The site was tested with a series of adjacent squares being excavated through the topsoil (designated the A1 or A plowzone horizon by archaeologists and soil scientists) to the the surface of the subsoil (the B1 horizon). The topsoil is usually a brown to dark brown organically rich layer which the subsoil is often some shade of yellow brown, olive brown or tan. It's often difficult to tell what a stain is when it first appears in an excavation unit.
When the he colonial features that likely date to th c.1630-1650 period are plotted, as can be seen, the possible outline of the house at the site is visible.

The form of the house appears to be a longhouse, as style which lasted until the present century in the Midlands of England, right where Winslow was from! The hosue size measures 18 feet east to west by at least 32 feet north to south. Other longhouses associated with Plymouth Colony include the William Clark house in Plymouth and the Cushnoc trading post in Maine. The William Clark house measured 18 x 34 feet while the Cushnoc trading post measured 20 x 44 feet. At the present time the contents of the pits and Native features have not yet been analyzed.

Edward Winslow

Who was Governor Edward Winslow?
Governor Edward Winslow was born on October 18, 1595, second son and third child of Edward Winslow (b.1560 d. 1631) and Magdaline Allyver (a.k.a Adeline Oliver ) (b. 4 Aug 1566 d. 24 Mar 1621). Magdaline/ Adeline was Edward Sr.'s second wife and they were married on 4 Nov 1594 at St Bride, Fleet, London, England. His siblings were Richard (b. 1585), Margaret/ Mary (b. 1589), John (b. 1597), Eleanor (b. 1598), Kenelm (b. 1599), Gilbert (b.1600), Elizabeth (b.1603), Magdalene (b.1604), and Josiah (b.1606). The family resided and the children were all born in Droitwich, Worcestershire, England.

Edward Sr.'s father Kenalm (b.1560 d. 1607) (recorded as being a church warden in 1593), established Kerswell Green Farm in Kempsey Parish. Edward Sr. left the family estate and moved to Droitwich, (a spa town north of Worcester) where he established himself as a salt merchant. Kersewell Green farm (variously spelled as Careswell, Karswell, Kareswell, Kersewell, Kerswell). Kerswell is also a village in Devon, England (in the West Country) and Kerswell Green survives as a village today in Droitwich. Kerswell Green farm was sold by Kenelm Winslow in 1605 to Sir John Buck.

Kenelm will of 1607 showed that he still owned land at Kempsey, and had two houses which he let on lease when he went to reside with his wife Katherine in Worcester, possibly prior to1605 sale of Kerswell. The rent of the smaller house was 23/8 per annum, and the other, which must have been a larger house, which may have been located in the little hamlet of Clifton which lies between Kempsey and Severn Stoke, produced a rental of £13, It is probable that the larger house was where Kenelm lived prior to moving with his wife to Worcester. In 1613, Edward Sr. and his family removed from back to Kempsey from Droitwich (Cooper 1953: 28-30).
(http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/5386/winslow.htm?20073)

By this point, Governor Winslow had been out of school for approximately 16 months, having left King's School which he had attended until the age of 16. King's School (today called King's School Worcester) stands in Worcester beside the River Severn and it appears that there have been a school or schools on the site since the late seventh century when the grounds began to serve as a monestary, providing monastic training to the children of nobility. Schooling at the site declined after this, due to Viking raids in the ninth century, but by the tenth century, schooling at the site increased with establishment of th Benedictine monk order, including a cathedral and monestary. On 16th January 1540, the Benedictine monestary was dissolved and was replaced in 1541 by a Cathedral College with a King's School in it. Children began attending the school at nine years of age and their education continued until age 16 and consisted on both nobility and poor students, the latter coming from the associated Almonry School. This school for the poor was built about 1321 on the site now occupied by 15, College Green within the King's School campus. The King's School proper began its teaching in College Hall, a large building of the twelfth century, remodeled in the fourteenth, which had previously been the monastic refectory. Girls were first admitted to the Sixth Form in 1971 and in 1989, the decision was taken to move to full coeducation. Thus, during Governor Winslow's period of education, he would have attended classes in College Hall, located in close proximity to the cathedral, along with a class of all boys who had come from all walks of life, gentry and poor. (http://www.ksw.org.uk/community/history_of_the_school.html) school history website
(http://www.ksw.org.uk/site/index.html) school map

Winslow was apprenticed to London printer John Beadle in 1615 and subsequently posted to Leiden in Holland, where he assisted William Brewster and Thomas Brewer in their publishing of religious books that were illegal in England. In 1618 when he married his first wife Ellen (Elizabeth) Barker (b. 1597 d.1621) in Leiden, he was described as a printer of London. It is likely that through his apprenticeship with Beadle that he became acquainted with John Robinson's Separatist church. John Beadle later had an ecclesiastical career beginning in 1623 in Little Leighs, a stronghold of nonconformity. He came under the influence of Thomas Hooker, then lecturer at St. Mary's, Chelmsford. Beadle himself became a leading dissenter in Barnston, where he was pastor from 1632 to 1662. In 1656 Beadle wrote his one book, “A Journal or Diary of a Thankful Christian”.

Winslow's first wife Elizabeth, was called a “spinster from Chatsum in England", which refers either to Chattisham, Suffolk or Chatham, Kent. She was born around 1597 and was among those who died the first year at Plymouth. Edward and Elizabeth did not have any children together. Both left Leiden with the congregation and sailed aboard the Mayflower in 1620.

Winslow Timeline
October 18, 1595 Born Droitwich, England
circa 1604 at age nine entered King's School, Worcester, England
circa 1611 graduates from King's School
1613 family moves to Kempsey, England
1615 apprenticed to John Beadle in London
1617 removed to Leiden with John Robinson's congregation
May 1618 Married first wife Elizabeth Barker

Ceramics

Another class of artifacts which help to date the site are the ceramics. A total of 21 ceramic vessels are represented in the assemblage from the C-14 site. While meager in number, the assemblage in rich in temporal information. The types and number of vessels identified breaks down as follows:
Borderware
1 yellow glazed unidentified vessel
1 light olive green glazed porringer
1 mottled yellow and green glazed pipkin
1 yellow glazed small bowl

North Devon Gravel Tempered
1 tan glazed milkpan

North Devon Gravel Free
3 baluster jars

Martincamp
1 costrel

Stoneware
1 Bellarmine

Tin-Glazed
1 blue and white plate or platter

Sgraffito
1 platter
1 unidentified vessel
1 cup

Redware
3 storage pots
2 milkpans
1 mug
1 unknown
21 vessels total

A good description of the ceramic types can be found at the following links:
North Devon Gravel Free, Gravel Tempered, and Sgraffito
Borderware Borderware 2
Martincamp Martincamp 2
Bellarmine Bellarmine 2

These ceramics are typical of an earlier, say pre-1650, seventeenth century Euro-American site. Winslow's travels to England and elsewhere, would have put him in a good position to be able to purchase these ceramics.

Clay Pipes

What makes me think that this site may date to the time of Edward Winslow? That is a valid question and one that I hope to be able to answer in the next couple of blogs. First off there are the clay tobacco pipe fragments.

A total of 56 clay tobacco pipe fragments were recovered from the C-14 site. Among these 56 fragments, eight stem to bowl junctures or complete bowls (2 of which bore makers marks), eight bowl fragments, 37 stem fragments with measurable bores and three unmeasurable stem fragments were recovered. The pipe stem fragments were distributed by bore diameter in the following manner:
9/64" 1580-1620 03
8/ 64" 1620-1650 12
7/64" 1650-1680 20
6/64" 1680-1710 02
37
Mean Date 1651.6
If one accepts the dates placed on the reduction in bore size throughout the seventeenth to eighteenth century as put forward by Harrington then the main period of occupation of the site can be broadly stated to have occurred between 1620 and 1680 with a median date of 1650. By calculating mean dates using a modified version of the formula presented by Binford, a mean date of 1651.6 was reached.

Looking at the serration of clay pipe bores that I have gathered for Plymouth Colony sites, it can be seen that by the percentage of each variety of bore size, the C-14 site dates among the earliest sites excavated thus far.

Six fragments coming from several small belly bowl pipes were recovered but only one complete bowl portion was found (Clay pipes A). All these bowls bear a band of rouletting below the exterior rim. None of the small belly bowls retained measurable stem bores. The style of the bowls appears similar to that identified by Oswald as having been made in Bristol from 1640-1660.

Fragments from at least two medium sized belly bowl pipes were recovered. Like the small belly bowls, these too bear a rouletted line below the rim (Clay pipes B, D). Intact stem bores were present for the two pipes, both yielding 7/64" measurements. The bowl style of these pipes are similar to that identified by Oswald as having been made in Bristol, England from 1650-1670.
Two additional 7/64" bore stem to bowl junctures were recovered, both bearing small spurs below the juncture (Clay pipes E, F). . Noel Hume identified this style as having been made in England from 1650-1680 (Noel Hume 1969: 302-303).

Makers marks were found on the bottom of the heels of one 9/ 64" stem to bowl juncture and one 8/64" stem to bowl juncture. The mark from the 9/64" fragments consists of a star and dot motif within a circular cartouche. The heel shape of the pipe and the 9/64" bore size date it approximately 1600-1640. No exact parallel for the mark has thus been identified. The circle of dots on the heel was used by Bristol pipe makers circa 1640 (Oswald 1980: 37). The second mark is a simple EB within a round cartouche. This is likely the mark of Edward Bird originally from Surrey, England but who moved in 1624 to Holland, who produced pipes in Amsterdam from 1630-1665 (Bradley and DeAngelo 1981:111). These pipes were widely traded and have been recovered from other Plymouth Colony sites such as the RM site and Burr's Hill.

So the clay tobacco pipes appear to point to a period of occupation from roughly the 1620s to possibly as late as the 1680s with the median being the 1650s. A more thorough discussion of the clay pipes from this site can be found at http://plymoutharch.tripod.com/id153.html.

Gordon (or should I say Charles) Starratt

Essentially we have four separate but interconnected aspects to this project:
1) Identify the location of the C-2a/ C-14 site
2) Catalog and interpret the archaeological collection and data already recovered from the site
3) Conduct background research on Edward Winslow to place him and his possible homesite
within a 17th century context
4) Conduct further archaeological testing at the site through a combined effort of local
Marshfield interested parties (Isaac Winslow House, Marshfield Historical
Commission,Society of Winslow descendants, Plimoth Plantation)

The ultimate goals of this project are the following:
-The registration of the site on a local, state and national level (local historical commission
recognition, State Register of Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places)
-The production of a professional quality final report on the previous archaeological work at the
site
-The promotion of archaeological conservation, registration and identification of any
archaeological resources in the town through public education and involvement in the project

Aspect 1-The identification of the location of the C-2a/ C-14 site
Research to date has identified the following characteristics of the, as now unidentified, site location:
-It is (was) located near the C-2 site which is located near the extant Isaac Winslow House
-It was located on land belonging to Gordon Starratt
-judging from the artifact assemblage, the site was near water (many shellfish shells are present
in the collection, and the collection has a large and significant Native American component),
which possibly places it o the south side of Careswell Street on one of the high penninsulas
that border the marsh

If this is in fact an early 17th century site, then the location that was selected may have been similar to that which other early settlers selected. Isaac Allerton is believed to have made his home in Kingston in the 1630s. This site was excavated by Dr. James Deetz in the 1970s. The site is located on a relatively high bluff over looking the Jones River. It also has a significant Native American component. The RM site, more precisely the William Clark site, is located on the property of Plimoth Plantation and was excavated by Harry Hornblower and Karl Fernstrom in the 1940s. It is on a relatively high spot and overlooks the Eel River. The John Alden site is located in Duxbury and was excavated in the 1960 by Roland Robbins. The site is located on a small hill overlooking the Bluefish River. The Myles Standish homesite is also located in Duxbury. It was partially excavated by James hall in 1860. It is situated on a high bluff overlooking Duxbury Bay. If this situation of houses holds true, Edward Winslow is likely to have built his house on a high piece of land close to a river and associated marshes. It is not known why the early settlers appear to have situated their houses as thus. It may have been for defensive purposes-a high spot with one side fronted by a navigable waterway may have provided a means of escape and defense, it may have been for economic reasons- the ground was likely well-drained and fertile, thus well ordered for farming, while the associated river and marshes provided fodder in the winter and faunal resources for consumption, it may have been for some of the same reasons that the Plimoth Plantation was situated on a high hill over looking the bay and Town Brook.

Using Ancestry.com, research has been conducted regarding who Gordon Starratt was and possibly where he lived. The first thing that was discovered was that his name was not Gordon Starratt but Charles Gordon Starratt. Initial searches failed to identify anyone name Gordon Starratt in Marshfield but once an internet search came across the name of Charles Gordon Starratt, a post master in Marshfield, the search took a different turn. With this new information in hand, Ancestry.com was again search, this time turning up 1930 census records which places Charles (who also went by Chas and obviously, to Harry Honblower at least, by Gordon) on Ocean Street in that year. Charles and his wife Eva were born in New Brunswick Canada and emigrated to the U.S. Arriving in Boston on November 1, 1883 from Annapolis Nova Scotia. Chas died before 1967.

Ocean Street is nowhere near the Isaac Winslow house and is located, as the name implies, on the ocean, not the best place to fin an early seventeenth century site. Town directories from that year also placed Charles and his wife Eva on Ocean Street. I was starting to think that I had wasted my $19.95 monthly access fee to Ancestry.com. Then I thought about searching for his wife Eva. Bingo! Charles died sometime between 1950 and 1960. The directory for 1960-1969 listed Eva as living “off” Careswell Street and at 617 Careswell Street. A Mapquest.com search for 617 Careswell Street placed the address in the middle of street at the junction of Webster and Careswell Streets. The Isaac Winslow house is located at 634 Careswell Street, thus 617 is on the opposite side of the street and the phrase “off Careswell Street” may refer to a house that can be seen on a Google Earth view of the area around the Isaac Winslow House, that is located well off Careswell Street. The house is located on a bluff overlooking the marshes associated with the river in that area, making it a likely location for the Starratt's farm and the C-2a/ C-14 site. The next step will be to travel to Marshfield and Plymouth and conduct a title search of the property. At the present time though it seems a highly likely location for the site we are looking for!

C-2a and the C-14 site- Historical Background

The C-2a/ C-14 site was first identified by Harry Hornblower in the 1940s and the first record of its existence was in September of 1944 when Hornblower noted in his journal the following:
“Gordon Starratt garden-cleared area 30 sq. feet + uncovered rocks (large) at base of top soil. Ash + charcoal. Test previously had shown 4' depth but this area appeared as chimney drop.”
Accompanying Hornblower's notes was a map showing Starratt's house on the right with a walkway to the “Road to Isaac Winslow House + Main road” which is located in the middle of the map. Above the road is a rectangular area with a dashed line rectangle within the left side marked as the “4' test”. This rectangle lies adjacent to a concentration of circles representing “chimney fall” and a cross-hatched area on the right side identified as “Indian- flakes, charcoal, etc.”. Below the road is the Starratt barn. To the left of the barn is an area marked “stone outside garden”. To the left of the rectangle on the upper side of the road is a concentration of circles representing what “Starratt reports paved area”. Hornblower went on to speculate that “This appears to be an earlier site of Edward Winslow- probably a small structure with large end chimney.”
The C-2a/ C-14 site was first identified by Harry Hornblower in the 1940s and the first record of its existence was in September of 1944 when Hornblower noted in his journal the following:
“Gordon Starratt garden-cleared area 30 sq. feet + uncovered rocks (large) at base of top soil. Ash + charcoal. Test previously had shown 4' depth but this area appeared as chimney drop.”
Accompanying Hornblower's notes was a map showing Starratt's house on the right with a walkway to the “Road to Isaac Winslow House + Main road” which is located in the middle of the map. Above the road is a rectangular area with a dashed line rectangle within the left side marked as the “4' test”. This rectangle lies adjacent to a concentration of circles representing “chimney fall” and a cross-hatched area on the right side identified as “Indian- flakes, charcoal, etc.”. Below the road is the Starratt barn. To the left of the barn is an area marked “stone outside garden”. To the left of the rectangle on the upper side of the road is a concentration of circles representing what “Starratt reports paved area”. Hornblower went on to speculate that “This appears to be an earlier site of Edward Winslow- probably a small structure with large end chimney.”
In 1971, the late Dr. James Deetz, then of Plimoth Plantation and Brown University, planned excavations here. The field work was supervised under the direction of Geoffrey Moran, then a graduate student in anthropology at brown University. At the time, Deetz felt that the results of the excavation were inconclusive but that a component dating to the 1630s existed at this location. No final report was ever written about this site but the faunal remains (the animal bones) were analyzed by Stanley Olsen and John Penman of the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University, Tallahassee. The entire artifact collection is currently stored at Plimoth Plantation whre it was designated the C-14 site, the 14th site investigated by the Plantation. It is reported that most of the material has been cataloged but a few bags of unwashed material is present. Except for field notes and plan drawings, documents relating to the excavation are not present, definitely hampering the analysis and interpretation of the site.
Concerning where exactly th site is located, that is a good question. Generally it is believed that it lies near the C-2 post 1650 Winslow site which in turn lies near the extant Isaac Winslow house in Marshfield. Karin Goldstein, curator of originals at Plimoth Plantation believes that it lay to the east of the C-2 site. Obviously from Hornblower's notes, it lay on Gordon Starratt's property, infact it was right outside of his back door and in his garden. The question is: WHERE WAS GORDON STARRATT'S PROPERTY IN 1944? Thus far I have not been able to locate it, but research really is just beginning.
What I hope to do with this project is bring together a number of separate entities with interests in the site and maybe we can all work together to final solve the mystery. I also want to delve into the background of Edward Winslow and his time in England: Where was he born? Where did he grow up? Who were his parents? What was his father's occupation? Who were his siblings? What did his family home look like? Where did he go to school? What was the town/ village that grew up in like? What industries were important? I would really like to get a lot of the background information on Edward Winslow, with the hope being that his upbringing may have influenced the form of house he built and the types of artifacts he used. I have begun researching these topics and will be presenting the information on this blog as well. I have also begun an Archaeology of Edward Winslow page on my website www.plymoutharch.com, which I will continually update with new research.

Edward Winslow's Homestead

Site A can also be called the Edward Winslow Site. It is located in Marshfield, Massachusetts somewhere near the Back River. What I am trying to do is to locate this site which was first tested by Henry Hornblower in 1944 and was subsequently and more thoroughly tested by Plimoth Plantation archaeologists in the 1970s. Why am I tring to find it? Because, from the artifacts recoevred it looks like it may be one of the earliest and most significant sites in the area. I believe that it was the site of the homestead of Edward Winslow, one of the First Comers who arrived in 1620 on the Mayflower in Plymouth. The actual site of the Pilgrim's Village of Plymouth is where downtown Plymouth is today. As a result of centuries of development, it is very difficult to find any traces of that original setlement. As a result we, as archaeologists, are forced to search int he surrounding area to locate sites that were established after the Pilgrims left Plymouth and set out to found th towns that we know today- Marshfield, Kingston, Duxbury, etc.

I am hoping to use this blog to document my search for the Winslow Site.