How Did Plymouth Get Its Name?

Have you ever wondered how Plymouth, Massachusetts got its name? The answer is Plymouth was first named by Captain John Smith during his expedition to New England in 1614.

Smith had sailed along the coast of New England in April of 1614 looking for a suitable location for a colony. During the trip, he made note of the geography of the area and recorded his observations in a manuscript, which he later published in 1616 under the title A Description of New England.

In the manuscript, Smith originally called Plymouth by its Native American name, Accomack, but after consulting with Prince Charles the prince changed the name to New Plimouth.

As a result, the name New Plimouth appears on the map that Smith published in the manuscript but the text of the manuscript still referred to it as Accomack:

“Then you come to Accomack, an excellent good harbor, good land, and no want of any thing, but industrious people (Smith 27.)”

Apparently, the new name stuck because when English explorer Thomas Dermer arrived in the area with Squanto in the summer of 1620, he referred to it as Plymouth, citing Smith’s map as a reference, as can be seen in a letter he wrote date June 30, 1620:

“…I will first begin with that place whence Squanto, or Tisquantum was taken away, which in Captain’s Smith’s map is called Plimouth…I would that the first plantation might here be seated, if there come to the number of fifty persons or upwards…” (Bradford 96.)

When the Mayflower pilgrims arrived four months later in December, they also referred to the area as Plymouth, according to Governor William Bradford’s book, a History of Plymouth Plantation.

According to the footnotes in the 1856 edition of Bradford’s book, the colonists actually referred to the colony as a whole as New Plymouth while they referred to their small town within the colony as Plymouth (Bradford 96.)

This can be seen in a letter written by colonist William Hilton, dated November of 1621, who arrived in the colony on the ship Fortune that fall:

“At our arrival in New Plymouth, in New England, we found all our friends and planters in good health, though they were left sick and weak, with very small means…”

The reason for this is because the pilgrims named the town itself after Plymouth, England, which was the last port they left in England before coming to the New World, according to Nathaniel Morton in his book New England’s Memorial:

“This name of Plymouth was so called not only for the reason here named [Smith’s map], but also because Plymouth in O.E. [Old England] was the last town they left in their native country; and for that they received many kindnesses from some Christians there (Morton 42).”

So in conclusion, Plymouth was first named by Captain John Smith in 1616 and also by the Mayflower pilgrims in 1620.

Sources:
Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation. Privately Printed, 1856.
Morton, Nathaniel. New England’s Memorial. Allen and Farnham, 1855.
Smith, John. A Description of New England. Humphrey Lewes, 1616.
“A letter written by William Hilton after his arrival in New England on the ship Fortune, 1621.” Vancouver Island University, web.viu.ca/davies/H320/letter.Hilton.1621.htm
Gambino, Megan. “John Smith Coined the Term New England on This 1616 Map.” Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Nov. 2014, smithsonianmag.com/history/john-smith-coined-the-term-new-england-on-this-1616-map-180953383/