“These artisan farmers, these Pilgrims, Steadied by precepts from Robinson, Trained by their leaders Who studied their Bibles for guidance, Shaped here at Plymouth Liberty’s fabric. Grappled in small way Problems of States, Because of their wisdom Trusting in God, believing in Man, Knew not the havoc of Indian warfare; Taught the new comer Gain must be theirs At the price of their labor; Punished the traitor Yet pitied the culprit. This is your heritage All you Americans. Do ye maintain it?” --GEORGE P. BAKER From “The Pilgrim Spirit,” a pageant written by George P. Baker, produced at Plymouth during the Tercentenary Celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims, 1921. [Illustration] The Colony and Town Records 1620 1691 Long antedating the inscriptions of bronze and stone, are the early written records of the settlement, both of the Colony and of the Town. From them may be traced the affairs of the Plymouth community from its beginning. Nothing can give a more vivid description of the details of Pilgrim life, or the self-reliance with which the infant colony attacked the problems of an independent state, than the yellowed manuscripts in the handwriting of Gov. Bradford and Gov. Winslow. They record questions debated and decided by the assembled freemen of the Colony, who chose their officers of government, and made their laws, under the Compact framed by the Pilgrims before leaving the Mayflower. The first dated record is a rough drawing of the First Street, with the intersecting path crossing the brook. (This intersection is now the Town Square.) This diagram gives a partial list of the house lots, or meersteads, portioned out of the different families, and the names of the builders of the first houses. By another memorable record, the system of trial by jury is established. “Dec. 17, 1623. It was ordained by the court that criminals, debtors, and trespassers should be tried by the verdict of 12 honest men, impanelled by authority in form of a jury upon their oaths.” Only two cases of witchcraft were ever brought to trial in Plymouth. In both, the accused was acquitted; in one, moreover, the accuser was found guilty of defamation of character, and obliged to apologize and pay the costs of the case. Many of the records deal with agricultural matters. The first entry on the Town records describes the earmarks of the cattle, the first of which were brought by Winslow from England in March 1623. Bounties were voted for killing blackbirds who stole the sprouting grain in the cornfields. Bounties were also granted for the pelts of marauding wolves. Petitions soon appeared for grants of lands in distant parts of the colony.