The Mayflower Society House Being the story of the Edward Winslow House, the Mayflower Society, the Pilgrims — A Reader’s Guide

s the purchase in 1941 of the Edward Winslow House in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a house of great beauty and dignity, with history and atmosphere, perfectly located on North Street, one of the five streets laid out by the Pilgrims, overlooking Plymouth Rock and Cole’s Hill, where lie the bones of many of the Pilgrims.

North Street was laid out before 1633. It was first named New Street, later Queen Street, and for some years was called Howland Street, presumably because Joseph Howland, son of John Howland, the Pilgrim, owned land on the north side. His son Thomas inherited it, and in turn it descended to the latter’s son, Consider Howland, who sold it to Edward Winslow, the great-grandson of Edward Winslow, third Governor of the Colony. The younger Winslow attended Harvard College and then settled in Plymouth. He became Clerk of the Court, Registrar of Probate, and Collector of the Port. He married in 1741, the widow, Hannah Howland Dyer, a sister of Consider Howland, and in 1754 built the house.

Winslow was a Royalist and an outspoken supporter of the King. Although a popular man, the townspeople became infuriated at his lack of patriotism, which eventually cost him his town offices and revenue. His son joined the King’s forces, and he frequently entertained the British officers at his home. After the evacuation of Boston by the British, Winslow moved his family to New York, and was granted a pension by Sir Henry Clinton.

Later the family went to Halifax, as did thousands of other Tories, where Winslow died the following year, at the age of seventy-two. He was buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard, mourned by all the dignitaries of the city. At this time Canada was actively hostile to the United States.

In order to support his family after losing his offices, Winslow had pledged his house as security for loans of money made him by Thomas Davis, William Thomas, Oakes Angier, and John Rowe. When he left Plymouth the house was sold on an “execution” at a sacrifice to satisfy the creditors, much to Winslow’s indignation. It is often mistakenly stated that his property was confiscated. The house at this time was half its present size and, as was customary in those days, sat close to the ground, as well as to the street. The frame of the house and some of the paneling are said to have been brought from England, although American craftsmen could and did construct similar houses and paneling.

From Winslow’s creditors the house passed into the hands of Thomas Jackson who occupied it as a residence until 1813, when he moved to the so-called Cotton Farm. The house then passed by an execution from Mr. Jackson to his cousin Charles Jackson, who died in it in 1818 and whose son, Charles Thomas Jackson, born 21 June 1805, played an interesting part in the civil history of this country. He had a keen mind, was a student of electricity and magnetism, but medicine was his main study. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1827, finishing his studies abroad. He returned to America on the sailing vessel with Samuel F. B. Morse, and their meeting may have helped Morse perfect his telegraphic instrument. It is known that Jackson made and displayed a model of a telegraphic instrument a year before Morse patented the one that made him famous.

Jackson was greatly interested in geology and was the State Geologist of Maine in 1836, Rhode Island in 1839, and New Hampshire in 1840, but his greatest claim to fame is his share in discovering etherization and his association with Dr. W. T. G. Morton, a dental surgeon, fourteen years his junior, who studied medicine in his office. Jackson is believed to have made his first personal experiments with the inhalation of ether in the house at Plymouth, and the chair in which he sat is displayed in Pilgrim Hall. Morton patented the process of anesthesia by ether in 1846 and he sued Jackson for claiming the discovery of the anesthetic effects of inhalation of ether back in the winter of 1841-42. The French Government investigated the matter and decreed Jackson a 2500 franc prize as the discoverer, and a similar prize to Morton for being the first to apply it to surgical operations.

Jackson’s slightly older sister Lydia, sometimes called Lidian, became the second wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American poet and philosopher. Their marriage took place in 1835 in the east parlor, later known as the music room.