Pineland Pilgrims

[ebsi2001]

As Thanksgiving Day 2006 rapidly approaches, the members of this site ought to reflect on the fact that many of the very early settlers to this area were Mayflower descendants. They were responsible for much of the commerce that took place here.

In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, Cape May County has the highest number of Mayflower descendant's graves (outside of Massachusetts) in the US. Many of them are in th Cold Spring Cemetery... However, some of the earliest graves (and an early church) were "reclaimed" by the Delaware Bay. I have always wondered why Rutgers (or some other institution) had not done/attempted any underwater archaelogy at that site...

Feast day has rich history in Cape

By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6711
Published: Monday, November 20, 2006

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/6950300p-6812733c.html

"It was a bit different than modern Thanksgiving feasts for residents here in colonial times, who couldn't exactly go to the supermarket and buy a frozen turkey and a can of cranberry sauce.

Betty Corson, a Mayflower descendant from Seaville working on a book about the history of agriculture in Cape May County, figures the feast may have included wild turkey and venison, but there also would have been plenty of fresh seafood, including striped bass, clams and crabs. Beach plums, persimmons and blueberries would have figured prominently. There may have been cranberries, but they would have been sweetened with wild honey and not cane sugar."

ebsi

 

[Trailhead00]

I live in Massachusetts now and my girlfriend is from Kingston, which is right next to Plymouth. If anyone is really interested in tracing back their family to the Mayflower I could possibly help them out. There are multiple old graveyards in the area with Mayflower descendents. Just putting it out there.

 

[ebsi2001]

Many of the Mayflower descendants who settled in South Jersey made a "detour" by settling on the tip of Long Island, before moving on to "New Jersey." Such was the lot of Christopher Leaming, a cooper with a "withered arm," who settled, early, in the area of Cape May. He had large land holdings, both on Long Island, and in what, today, is Cape May County. One of his sons (or grandsons --- "Aaron"?) achieved some prominence in early "West Jersey." So, I would imagine, there are many historic graves of Mayflower descendants in the Hampton's, too... Part of C. Leaming's wife's dowery was a piece of land in Southhampton (?) Even today, so I have been told, it is referred to as "Leaming's Lot."

ebsi