On successive Fridays in August, at five o’clock, a group of men, women and children, many of them still bearing the names of their Pilgrim forefathers, wearing the white caps and kerchiefs, the steeple-crowned hats and cloaks of the congregation of 1621, assemble again on the first street, and mount the hill, where a short service of commemoration is held. Old hymns are sung, among them those which the Pilgrims brought with them from Leyden. “Bow down thine ear, Jehovah, answer me: For I am poor, afflicted, and needy. Keep Thou my soul, for merciful am I; My God, Thy servant save, that trusts in Thee.” Psalm 68 from the Psalm book, published in Amsterdam by Henry Ainsworth, and used by the Pilgrim congregation in Leyden and at Plymouth. The Graves “Here sleep the dead, their sacred dust is laid Beneath the grass-green bosom of this hill; They lived in faith, they faced death unafraid, They wrought in pain, nor deemed their labors ill.” --JOSEPH SMITH Oct. 4, 1921 As the Pilgrims established themselves more firmly in the wilderness, there was no further need of secret burials on Cole’s Hill, and the hill about the fort was early used for the graves of the colony. Though there are many ancient graves on Burial Hill, most of the resting-places of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower are not to be found in Plymouth, but in the later settlements of Kingston, Duxbury, Marshfield, Eastham, Middleboro, and Dartmouth, whither they had followed their sons, or established themselves again as pioneers from the first settlement. A small granite shaft on the brow of the hill bears the name of Governor Bradford, and it is believed that he is buried here, near the grave of his son, Major William Bradford. The inscription on the north side of the monument reads: “Beneath this stone rests the ashes of William Bradford A zealous puritan and sincere Christian Gov. of Ply. Col. from April 1621 to 1657 aged 69, except 5 years which he declined. Qua patris difficilime Adapti sunt nolite turpiter relinquere.” (What your fathers with so much difficulty attained, do not basely relinquish.) and on the south side: “William Bradford of Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, was the son of William and Alice Bradford. He was Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1633, 1635, 1637, 1639 to 1643, 1645 to 1657.” The inscription on the tomb-stone of his son Major William Bradford reads: