should be maintained in town, such was the confusion and tumult that the vote could not be determined by holding up hands, and it was agreed that the voters should retire from the house and then pass singly by the clerk and declare their vote; there was a majority for one school, but it was found advisable to adjourn the meeting. At the adjournment it was voted that the grammar school in which is also taught writing, reading and arithmetic, be kept in the centre of the town near the meeting house, and that the ends of the town be allowed womens' schools or any other, so far as their proportion of taxes will go. This dissention respecting the location of schools facilitated the separation of Jones's River parish from Plymouth, and its incorporation into a town-called Kingston. 1746. The town voted that two more schools should be established in town, one on the training green, and one at Eel river, for the benefit of the inhabitants there, and at Monument Ponds, and committees were chosen to make the necessary arrangements, and to supply the schools with able teachers, and to erect a new school house on the training green. The great importance of free schools has been fully appreciated by the present generation, who have been as well disposed as their progenitors, and better able to promote them, and the school has been kept under a regular succession of grammar masters to the present day. In 1803, 1220 dollars were voted for all the schools in town and in 1830 and for several preceding years $2625 have been appropriated to their support, and in 1832, $3525. There are fifteen districts among which the sum of two thousand dollars is annually distributed, according to the number of children in each between the ages of six and sixteen; which number in the whole, by a census taken in 1829, amounted to 1028. The salary for our grammar school master is $600 per ann. In 1795, a school for girls was instituted by the town, to be kept in the summer months, at intervals of the town schools. The central school district was separated in 1826, at which time the town, or high school, as it has been since denominated, was placed on an improved footing, and a quarterly examination had for admission to it from all the districts. The first school house was built by subscription in 1705, and stood a little south of the meeting house of the first parish; in the next year however, it was purchased by the town. The present school house on the northerly side of the meeting house was built in 1765. Our Sunday school first commenced in the third parish in the year 1818. In the first parish the school was established in 1827. The number of children who have been members of the school belonging to the first parish has been from one hundred and sixty to two hundred. Great praise is due to our sabbath school teachers for their zeal and faithfulness in imparting christian knowledge to our youth. The whole number of attendants during 1831, was about four hundred, males and females. It is indeed to be desired that all our youth may enjoy the benefit of this inestimable institution that their earliest impression may be the nature of the gospel, and the moral and religious duties which it enjoins. The following is a list of those born in Plymouth, who were graduates at our Colleges. Those marked thus * are deceased, those in italics have been ordained to the work of the ministry. 1642 *Nathaniel Brewster, 1650 *Isaac Allerton, 1661 *Nathaniel Chauncy, Twin sons of Rev. Dr. Chauncy. *Elnathan Chauncy, 1663 *John Rayner, 1685 *Roland Cotton, 1698 *Josiah Cotton, 1701 1707 *Theophilus Cotton, 1726 *Isaac Lothrop, 1745 *James Warren, 1745 *Thomas Foster, 1751 *William Watson, 1753 *Pelham Winslow, 1756 *Bartlett Le Baron, 1756 Nathaniel Lothrop, 1759 *Abiel Leonard, S. T. D. Nassau Hall. 1765 *Edward Winslow, 1766 *John Watson, 1768 *Thomas Leonard, 1771 Perez Morton, 1771 *Jacob Bacon, 1772 *Joshua Thomas, 1776 *James Warren, 1781 John Davis, LL. D. Dartmouth. 1782 *Chandler Robbins, 1782 *Joseph Bartlett, 1782 *Charles Warren, 1783 Barnabas Hedge, 1804 Nathaniel Morton Davis, 1806 John Boies Thomas, 1807 1807 1808 *Ezra Shaw Goodwin, William Thomas, Charles Cotton, 1808 *John Torrey, 1810 *John Watson Davis, 1810 John Cotton, 1810 Rufus Bacon, 1813 Winslow Warren, 1814 *Isaac Eames Cobb, 1815 Pelham Winslow Warren, 1817 Charles Henry Warren, 1818 Sidney Bartlett, 1820 Isaac Lothrop Hedge, 1820 Nathaniel Russell, 1827 Andrew Leach Russell, 1831 *Francis James Russell, 1832 Le Baron Russell, 1833 Winslow Marston Watson. The following persons born at Plymouth graduated at Yale College. 1768 Lemuel Le Baron, 1826 William Harlow. 1830 At Amherst College. Samuel S. Clark, 1832 Isaac Wetherell. Physicians in Plymouth from 1620. Those with this mark * died in Plymouth. *Samuel Fuller, from 1620 to 1633. Mathew Fuller, from 1640 to 1652, died at Barnstable. *Francis Le Baron, from 1693 to 1704. *Lazarus Le Baron, Jr. to 1784. *William Thomas, 1802. *Nathaniel Lothrop, M. D. 1828. *Stephen Marcy. *Isaac Barrows. *Caleb Boutell, M. D., M. M. S. Soc. 1819. Andrew Mackie, M. D., M. M. S. Soc. removed. Living in Plymouth at present. James Thacher, M. D., M. M. S. Soc. relinquished practice. Rossetter Cotton, relinquished practice. Nathan Hayward, M. D., M. M. S. Soc. Zaccheus Bartlett. Winslow Warren, M. D., M. M. S. Soc.. Robert Capen. Hervey N. Preston, M. D., M. M. S. Soc. *Nathaniel Clark, *James Hovey, Lawyers in Plymouth. James Otis, a short time, Pelham Winslow, *Joshua Thomas, John Davis, *John D. Dunbar, *Zabdiel Samson, Gustavus Gilbert. Topogrophy and Statistics. Census of the town at different periods. 1764.-Dwelling houses, 256. Families 373. Persons including 77 negroes, and 48 Indians, 2246. In 1776, Whites only, 2655. In 1733, including 35 negroes, 2380, number reduced by the war. According to the U. S. census the number of the inhabitants of Plymouth-was Increase last ten years, 367, 81 per cent. Number of dwelling houses in 1815, 409. Number of shops for retail of English and West India Goods, 40. Number of rateable polls in 1831, 1091. The annual sum appropriated for town expenses is from $8000 to $10,000 besides labor on the roads. The central part of the town is compactly built, and house lots have doubled in price within a few years, and, for the space of half a mile north and south from the town square, very few building lots are unoccupied. Not a dwelling house of ancient date or antique form now remains in town. Those re-、 cently erected are in the style of modern architecture, and in this respect our improvements have been increasing of late years more rapidly than ever before. The largest proportion of our buildings are painted of a light color, and being furnished with Venitian blinds, exhibit an air of neatness and elegance. Numerous strangers attracted by the antiquity of the place and relics of the Pilgrims, take pleasure in visiting us in the summer season, and never depart without the pleasing impression that our village will compare with any in New England, and that the rock which received the first tread, and the hill which enshrines the ashes of our pilgrim fathers should always receive the sacred homage of their posterity; and what is to our honor strangers uniformly express themselves gratified with the marked attention and hospitality which they receive from our inhabitants. The congregational meeting house erected by the first parish in 1831, is on the plan of European architecture, and is the most magnificent edifice in the old colony of Plymouth. The County Court House in our Court square was erected in 1820. It is allowed to be an elegant edifice of brick, and in point of symmetry and just proportion, is in perfect keeping with the best models of modern architecture. On the lower floor is an apartment for each of the offices of clerk of the courts, the register of deeds and of probate, and also a jury room. Above, there is an elegant court-chamber, a jury-room, a law library apartment, and two jury-rooms behind the gallery. The jail was also erected in 1820. It is of unwrought stone, except the front which is wrought, and is in all respects adapted to the purpose for which it was designed. The house for the jail-keeper is of wood, and is a handsome and commodious building. The old court house standing in the town square was purchased by the town and converted into a town house, |