Wessagusset Colony | |
|---|---|
Colony of England  | |
 | |
  Wessagusset Colony Approximate location of the Wessagusset Colony in Massachusetts | |
| Coordinates: 42°13′15″N 70°56′25″W / 42.220833°N 70.940278°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Massachusetts |
| Population (1623) | |
| • Total | Approximately 60 |
Wessagusset Colony (sometimes called the Weston Colony or Weymouth Colony) was a short-lived English trading colony in New England located in Weymouth, Massachusetts. It was settled in August 1622 by between 50 and 60 colonists who were ill-prepared for colonial life. The colony was settled without adequate provisions,[1] and was dissolved in late March 1623 after harming relations with local Indians.[2] Surviving colonists joined Plymouth Colony or returned to England. It was the second settlement in Massachusetts, predating the Massachusetts Bay Colony by six years.[3]
Historian Charles Francis Adams Jr. referred to the colony as "ill-conceived, ill-executed, ill-fated".[4] It is best remembered for the battle[5] there between Plymouth troops led by Myles Standish and an Indian force led by Pecksuot. This battle scarred relations between the Plymouth colonists and the Indians, and it was fictionalized two centuries later in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 poem The Courtship of Miles Standish.
In September 1623, a second colony was created on the abandoned site at Wessagusset led by Governor-General Robert Gorges. This colony was rechristened as Weymouth and was also unsuccessful, and Governor Gorges returned to England the following year. Despite that, some settlers remained in the village and it was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.
- ^ Thomas, G.E. (March 1975), "Puritans, Indians, and the Concept of Race", New England Quarterly, 48 (1), The New England Quarterly, Inc.: 12, doi:10.2307/364910, JSTOR 364910
- ^ Adams, Jr., Charles Francis, Wessagusset and Weymouth, p. 15–16
- ^ Chartier, Craig S. (March 2011), An Investigation into Weston's Colony at Wessagussett, Weymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project (PARP), http://www.plymoutharch.com
- ^ Adams, Jr., Charles Francis, Wessagusset and Weymouth, p. 27
- ^ Frost, Jack; Lord, G. Stinson, eds. (1972), Two Forts... to Destiny, North Scituate, MA: Hawthorn Press, p. preface 5
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