60
manuscript of William Bradford’s history “Of Plymouth Plantation” (which amongst other things, gives an account of their visit to Dartmouth) was rediscovered in Lambeth Palace Library after mysteriously remaining hidden for nearly a century. Publication the following year aroused widespread interest and inspired popular versions of the story, such as Longfellow’s poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, further reinforcing the Pilgrims’ place in the USA’s founding story.
In 1864, Dartmouth (Devon)
was contacted by Dartmouth Massachusetts, founded in 1664 as an offshoot of the Plymouth Plantation:
“We call to mind … that it was from Dartmouth and in a Dartmouth ship bearing a name significant of that feeling of Concord which we trust will forever characterise the intercourse between the nations to which we respectively belong, that Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 put forward his voyage to America … Deeper still have been our recollective associations that it was from your noble harbour … that our Pilgrim Fathers found a shelter when the perils of the storm [sic] drove them from their course across the ocean to found an empire in the New World.”
In fact, why Dartmouth
(Massachusetts) was so-called remains unclear, but now Dartmouth (Devon) was officially aware of its role in the story of an increasingly powerful nation. In 1893, William Smith, Mayor of Dartmouth, decided to provide the town with a Mayoral Chain. Each of the 23 links and 16 shields recorded different aspects of the town’s history. William himself endowed a shield commemorating the Mayflower and Speedwell, noting his descent from John
Smith, Mayor of Dartmouth in 1609, eleven years beforehand. Admittedly, the connection was often viewed in terms of municipal pride, a challenge to Plymouth’s local dominance. Dartmothians often observed that the ships left Dartmouth for America and would not have visited Plymouth at all had it not been for the Speedwell’s continuing problems.
In Dartmouth on September 8th 1920 eminent American visitors were given a Civic reception in the Royal Avenue Gardens, decorated with Union Jacks and Stars and Stripes; local children sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the National Anthem. The Mayor, Charles Peek, observed:
“We should do all we could to unite England and America, so that in times of difficulty we might go hand in hand for the freedom of the world. England upheld the freedom of the seas, and if America would join with us then the seas would be free for ever”.
By the time of the Tercentenary
Mayflower Celebrations in 1920, Dartmouth was keen to emphasise its American links. Three years earlier America had joined the Allies in the Great War. For 1920, American scholar James Rendel Harris (born in Plymouth, Devon) proposed a major celebration, marking the new relationship between Great Britain and America. In a speech, reported in the Western Morning News on March 15th
1918, he made a
strong connection – very much like General Lee nearly thirty years later – between the Mayflower and the war:
“Two great streams of civilisation which for many years have been flowing in divergent directions are … flowing currently in the same direction … The Mayflower went out as a tiny trading vessel … she has come back as a great Dreadnought …”
So the Mayflower came to symbolise Anglo-American unity through the twentieth century’s great conflicts. In the renewed Alliance of the Second World War, many Americans came “the long way back to this other God’s country”, as the deeply religious General Lee put it. Dartmouth became a US Navy Headquarters and Advanced Amphibious Base, and thousands of Americans occupied the town and its surroundings. The US Navy endowed a new shield on the Mayoral Chain, commemorating their relationship with the town.
Though much of what was planned for Mayflower 400 could not take place, the three interlinked Heritage Trails were completed and launched. Why not pick up the leaflets from the TIC, and discover more about Dartmouth’s historic American connections?
© Text Gail Ham The Dartmouth History Research Group researches the history of Dartmouth and surrounding villages, and contributed to the Mayflower 400 Heritage Trails. To find out more, have a look at our
websitewww.dartmouth-history.org.uk or contact us on
dhrg.enquiries@dartmouth-history.org.uk
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