One Timeline: 1614 → 1691

The Plymouth story does not begin in 1620.

This timeline starts in 1614. That year a Patuxet man named Tisquantum was seized and sold into slavery.

By the time he came home, his village stood empty.

The tag on each entry is how strong the evidence is:

VERIFIED sources agree ｜ DISPUTED scholars differ ｜ UNAUDITABLE no traceable source found

---

Before 1620 — this place was already inhabited

1614　Kidnapping of Tisquantum (1614)　VERIFIED

Thomas Hunt's 1614 seizure of Tisquantum and 20+ others, shipped to Málaga to be sold as slaves.

1614　Málaga Deed (22 Oct 1614)　VERIFIED

Deed in the Provincial Historical Archive of Málaga recording transfer of 25+ men held by Thomas Hunt; found 2024.

1616　The Great Dying (1616-1619)　DISPUTED

The epidemics that swept coastal Native communities in New England, 1616–1619. The museum's panels give 70–90% of the region's population; the journal literature gives a wider range (one third to as high as 90%) and says plainly that reliable data are lacking. The cause remains undetermined, which is why it is not called a plague.

---

1620–1621 — arrival and the first year

1620　Corn Hill Corn-Taking (1620)　DISPUTED

November 1620 removal of stored Native corn and disturbance of graves at Corn Hill.

1620　Mayflower Compact　VERIFIED

~195-word 1620 agreement to 'covenant and combine' into a civil body politic; original lost.

1620　Signing of the Mayflower Compact　VERIFIED

The Compact was signed aboard ship in November 1620 while the Mayflower lay at anchor in Provincetown Harbour, at the tip of Cape Cod — not at Plymouth. Accounts differ on how many signed; no fixed number is asserted here.

1620　Charter of New England (1620)　VERIFIED

1620 charter erecting its company as 'one body politic and corporate', illustrating the era's legal usage.

1620　Plymouth Church Records, 1620-1859　UNAUDITABLE

First Church of Plymouth record book, begun only in Jan 1680 by clerk Nathaniel Morton.

1620　Plymouth's First Winter Deaths　VERIFIED

Between Dec 1620 and Mar 1621 Bradford records 44 deaths, leaving about 50 survivors.

1620　The First Winter (1620-21)　DISPUTED

Winter in which about half the settlers (~45-50) died, buried at Cole's Hill.

1620　Robinson's Farewell Address　DISPUTED

Robinson's much-quoted 1620 farewell ('more truth and light'); attested only by Winslow 26 years later.

1621　1621 Plymouth-Pokanoket Agreement　VERIFIED

Six-clause reciprocal security pact between Carver and Ousamequin, holding until 1675.

1621　1621 Harvest Celebration　VERIFIED

Three-day autumn 1621 harvest feast of English colonists and ~90 Wampanoag men; later mythologized.

1621　Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers　VERIFIED

Alexander Young's 1841 work whose annotation first labeled the 1621 harvest 'the first Thanksgiving.'

1621　Nine Sachems' Allegiance (Sept 1621)　DISPUTED

September 1621 document by which nine sachems signed allegiance to King James I.

1621　Plymouth/Pokanoket Agreement (1621)　VERIFIED

Six-article agreement of 22 March 1621 between Carver and Ousamequin; original text does not survive.

1621　Peirce Patent (1621)　VERIFIED

Land grant of 1 June 1621 from the Council for New England to John Peirce; conferred land but not self-government.

---

The 1620s–1630s — from covenant to code

1622　Mourt's Relation　VERIFIED

London 1622 account by Winslow and Bradford; earliest surviving printed text of the Compact.

1623　Day of Thanksgiving, Summer 1623　VERIFIED

Religious day of thanks after rain broke a drought; first event primary sources call a 'thanksgiving.'

1623　Winslow's Visit to Ousamequin (1623)　VERIFIED

March 1623 visit in which Winslow nursed the ailing Ousamequin; recorded in Good Newes from New England.

1623　Wessagusset Killings (1623)　VERIFIED

Standish's 1623 killings of Massachusett men, following Ousamequin's warning to Winslow.

1624　1624 land division of Plymouth Colony　VERIFIED

The colony's completed division of land in 1624, which helps historians know its population, shape, and acreage by 1627.

1624　Good Newes from New England　VERIFIED

Edward Winslow's 1624 account, source for his 1623 visit to the ailing Ousamequin.

1624　John Lyford Affair　VERIFIED

A 1624 instance of church discipline at Plymouth recorded in Bradford's narrative.

1624　Generall Historie (John Smith, 1624)

John Smith's 1624 work recording Plymouth's ~180 persons, 32 houses and half-mile palisade.

1625　Purchas his Pilgrimes　VERIFIED

Samuel Purchas's 1625 compilation, an independent early printing of the Compact.

1629　Massachusetts Bay Charter (1629)　VERIFIED

Royal charter for Massachusetts Bay using 'body politic' language; legal basis of that colony's government.

1630　Of Plymouth Plantation　VERIFIED

Bradford's manuscript history (1630-1650), a chief source for the covenant chain and Compact text.

1636　Plymouth 1636 Code　VERIFIED

Plymouth's first codified laws; frames the government and contains a rudimentary bill of rights.

1638　Millners Tolle statute (1638)　VERIFIED

1638 Plymouth statute capping the miller's toll at 1/16 with quality liability.

---

After 1640 — expansion, war, and the end

1641　Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641)　VERIFIED

Massachusetts Bay's 1641 bill of rights, five years after Plymouth's 1636 code.

1646　Hypocrisie Unmasked

Edward Winslow's 1646 polemic; sole source for Robinson's farewell and a witness to the Leiden church covenant.

1659　Of Corporations, Fraternities and Guilds　VERIFIED

William Sheppard's 1659 treatise, England's first on corporate law, defining a 'body politic'.

1669　New England's Memorial　DISPUTED

Morton's 1669 book, sole source of the full list of 41 Compact signers.

1672　Book of the General Laws of New Plimouth (1672)　VERIFIED

Plymouth's 1672 law book barring any law imposed without consent of the freemen or their representatives.

1675　John Sassamon Case (1675)　VERIFIED

Sassamon's death and the Plymouth trial and June 1675 hanging of three Wampanoag that triggered the war.

1675　King Philip's War (1675-76)　VERIFIED

War led by Metacomet against the New England colonies; among the bloodiest in American history by ratio.

1683　1683 Stockbridge Mill Contract　VERIFIED

Town contract binding a sufficient mill, competent miller, and herring fish passage.

1691　Annexation of Plymouth Colony (1691)　VERIFIED

The 1691 charter folded Plymouth into the royal Province of Massachusetts Bay, ending its self-governance.

1691　Charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1691)　VERIFIED

Charter approved by William III and Mary II folding Plymouth into a royal province.

---

Why the line stops in 1691

In 1691 Plymouth Colony was absorbed into Massachusetts Bay.

It had lasted seventy-one years and never held a royal charter.

Its warrant to govern itself rested, the whole time, on an agreement its members had made with one another — not on a grant from the Crown.