Years ago Randy Adams and his wife Donna Jean and I ran thousands of miles together. Recently Randy and I have started walking. The Adamses live on Duck Hill Lane. The old railroad bed is a stone's throw to Duck Hill Lane. This week I noticed that the very first Cape Cod style house on that street has a date of 1695. The old Winslow House just down the street on Careswell has a 1699 date. Interesting! So I Googled it.
The name of the 1695 house is John Rouse Jr. John Rouse Sr. was a Pilgrim descendent and was a servant of Governor Prence. He married Anna Pabodie. That doesn't sound like a Pilgrim name, does it? Junior married Mary Rogers of Marshfield in 1656. He was born in 1643. His tombstone says that he died in 1717 but the historian who researched this believes that the birth date is an incorrect date unless he was married at 13. What did he do for a living? Did they have children? Where are they buried?
The house, recently renovated, sold for $325,000. The balance of the houses on that same street are probably $1,000,000.
So who was Governor Thomas Prence? Well he was the fourth (1634), eighth (1638) and twelfth (1657) governor of Massachusetts. He came to Plimoth Colony just after the very first Thanksgiving, aboard the sailing ship Fortune. He co-founded the Cape Cod town of Eastham. His first wife was a daughter of Elder Brewster of the ship Mayflower. And to top it off, he gave Massasoit's sons Wamsutta and Pometacom their English names, Alexander and Philip (of the very famous King Philip's War). Massasoit the Wampanoag Indian Chief is known to have visited the Winslow house on Careswell Street.
Oh do you want to know some of the Governor's descendants? Bing Crosby, Sarah Palin, the Wright brothers and Taylor Swift. WOW!
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