History
PLYMOUTH ROCK HYPOTHESIS
That Plymouth Rock is not a landmark but rather an unmarked memorial that was placed by surviving Pilgrims decades after the Mayflower's arrival
A great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.” (William Bradford)
“Now as the people of god in old time were called out of Babylon civil, the place of their bodily bondage, and were to come to Jerusalem, and there to build the Lord’s temple, or tabernacle…so are the people of God now to go out of Babylon spiritual to Jerusalem…and to build themselves as living stones into a spiritual house, or temple, for the Lord to dwell in.” (John Robinson)[1]
But them a place God did provide,
In wilderness, and them did guide
Unto the American shore,
Where they made way for many more.
They broke the ice themselves alone,
And so became a stepping-stone
For all others who, in like case,
Were glad to find a resting place. (a stanza from a poem by William Bradford)
LANDMARK: A feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location.
MEMORIAL: An object or structure, established to remind people of a person or event.
For my generation our image of the Pilgrims landing comes from a Saturday morning cartoon called Schoolhouse Rock. An episode called “No More Kings” depicted the Mayflower bumping into a boulder carved with 1620. This image and the utopian 1950’s history books we were still studying from in school made Plymouth Rock an object of veneration and even awe. But my childhood image of the Pilgrims landing has been largely discredited.
Plymouth Rock as the stepping stone that Pilgrims disembarked upon does not add up. Although the rock now is very small it was originally a 200ton boulder looming large on a sandy shore. The Mayflower did not land directly in Plymouth because no docks existed. It was anchored offshore some distance. It used a small boat for landing, waves would have been a cause for concern, steering for a large boulder would have not been the first choice.
Plymouth Rock has been largely discredited as the stepping stone that Pilgrims disembarked upon. But the word stepping & building stone was a common theme in the Pilgrims writings. I believe that this symbolism was important enough to our Pilgrim forefathers that they or their direct descendants erected a proper uncarved stone as a monument. This monument would have had to be erected without fanfare or possibly without even an oral narrative.
How we came to the view that the Pilgrims stepped on Plymouth Rock when they landed came from a sole credible source. A man named Thomas Faunce who was quoted at age 94 as it being the stepping stone of the Pilgrims. Faunce being born in 1647 he would have either heard second hand accounts of the Pilgrims landing or even directly from the aging Pilgrims. But how did Faunce go from Plymouth Rock memorializing the stepping off point of the famous voyage to stating that it was a landmark or the actual stepping off point? The answer lies in several areas.
1. At Faunce’s age it would have been easy to understand how he could have transposed the narrative from a rock memorializing Plymouth as a stepping stone to a stepping stone landmark.
2. Faunce was an elected official, aka a lifetime politician, he was in the middle of his final political battle. As a politician he would have had spent a lifetime using facts especially historical facts to rally people to his desired policies. He was attempting to defeat an initiative that would have erected a wharf in Plymouth for whatever reason he was opposed to the wharf. Somehow it suited his campaign of opposition to label the rock as a landmark.
3. The purpose of the Pilgrims entire cause rested on escaping the religious symbolism and dictates of the church of England and its counterpart the Roman Catholic church. They may have kept the memorial’s narrative a complete secret leaving its erection a testimony unto itself. Not wishing to dilute their Christian cause’s narrative with a public known symbol albeit a Biblically acceptable one. Faunce’s knowledge of Plymouth Rock may have been flawed by this secrecy.
4. The Pilgrim’s tight-lipped secrecy was built into its culture. Forced into secret meetings in England, they were hunted and imprisoned. While trying to escape persecution in England by escaping to Holland they lived with constant betrayal from friends and acquaintances. Add to these decades living as aliens and strangers in Holland. This secrecy would have further clouded Faunce’s knowledge of Plymouth Rock’s origins.
Now it becomes clearer why William Bradford and other Pilgrims never mentioned a 200ton boulder sitting on the beach. In saying that the possibility that "Plymouth Rock" was not at the Mayflower landing but placed or commissioned by surviving Pilgrims (Separatists) later should be studied.
The purpose of its placement would have been to serve as a spiritual boundary marker, a memorial stone or testimony of thanksgiving for help given by God (as the Bible calls an Ebenezer Stone). These were all common Biblical themes. As faithful Christians the Pilgrims were well versed in the scriptures pertaining to stone memorials. This possibility is further born out of William Bradford and Pastor John Robinson's own words (quoted at the beginning of this article) describing the congregation as being symbolized as stones. Daniel 2 also describes a heavenly community represented by a stone as ending the earthly system of rule by king. I believe that the Pilgrims knew that they were that stone in Daniel 2 and they left Plymouth Rock as an eschatological marker for future Christians to know the times they were in.
Because of years keeping a low profile in England and Holland and even in the New World this memorial would have gone unannounced. A quietly placed stone memorial would have been the monument of choice of the Pilgrims. They bore witness to the damage that was done to Christendom decades earlier in Amsterdam and by one Leiden resident who made bold public declarations about being the co-founders of the "Earthly Kingdom Of Christ" riots ensued after these public announcements. As residents of both Amsterdam and Leiden these events would have been well known to the Pilgrims causing them to avoid public disclosure.
A subsequently placed stone marker would also better explain Thomas Faunce's words because the writings of William Bradford describing the Pilgrims as stepping stones would have been part of the narrative he heard in his childhood. The stone would have been placed by the Pilgrims covering or in front of the place that they landed on after disembarking. At 94 years old this could have caused his description to be transposed or misunderstood. It also explains why a beach totally devoid of boulders would have a 200ton rock on it. The Pilgrims would not have carved a 1620 in the rock because according to Biblical tradition these rock s must be uncarved by human hands.
To verify this matter a geologist or person knowledgeable in these matters should search the locality of Plymouth to determine where such an uncarved boulder could have been dragged from. Also maybe an unexplainable non-descript expenditure in accounting records of Plymouth Plantation or the church or residents. Also a study verifying that such an undertaking could have been done with 17th century technology. This would be slightly different than the research done on Stonehenge because those rocks were quarried. Plymouth Rock would not have been quarried (for reasons I stated earlier).
This memorial would have probably been placed during the time of several events that would have confirmed Daniel 2 in the minds of the surviving Pilgrims. The English Civil War, The Execution of King Charles or Cromwell’s rise to power.
With the upcoming 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival this would be an interesting topic for a public that is hungry for new information on our Pilgrim forefathers. Many times, the narrative of the Pilgrims has been minimized by secular historians as part of early American history. Divine providence has often intervened with almost supernatural circumstances to preserve and retain these important events and what we know today about the Pilgrims. A similar element has preserved Plymouth Rock, although it is widely known that it played no part in the Pilgrim’s landing still 1 million people per year visit it. It cannot be a coincidence, that Plymouth Rock is engrained on our national conscience.
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