{"id":108107,"date":"2026-05-01T09:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/?p=108107"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:41:17","slug":"heated-drama-over-maypole-merriment-pilgrims-vs-thomas-morton-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/heated-drama-over-maypole-merriment-pilgrims-vs-thomas-morton-part-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Heated Drama over Maypole Merriment: Pilgrims vs. Thomas Morton (part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about how it wasn\u2019t all religion in early America \u2013 the pious (dour?) Pilgrims objected to the \u201clicentious\u201d festivities at Thomas Morton\u2019s Merrymount. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, I continue my account of Merrymount, currently a part of Quincy, Massachusetts. This area was once the site of a Crown-sponsored colony managed by Thomas Morton, a notable and controversial figure whose progressive style of governing included a continuum of May Day festivities.<\/p>\n

Morton erected a maypole and his followers indulged in drinking, dancing, and frolicking with Indian lasses. Their colony prospered, making them a real threat to the competition.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Morton traded guns to the Indians for beaver pelts \u2013 and included instructions on their usage.<\/p>\n

The most prominent men in the other colonies saw him as a defector: William Bradford dubbed Morton the \u201cLord of Misrule,\u201d Gov. Thomas Dudley described him as \u201ca proud, insolent man,\u201d and Edward Winslow called him \u201can arrant knave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford further compares Merrymount\u2019s parties with the feast of Flora and the Bacchanalians, and labels the maypole an idol, comparing it to the Calf of Horeb.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: Merrymount Colony. Credit: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, New York Public Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To recap: In Part 2<\/a>, Plymouth chose Myles Standish and his men to pursue Morton, and after capture he was sent back to England. The Pilgrims felt confident that they had eliminated their competitor and all his merrymaking. But only for a brief stint\u2026<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Back!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morton returned to New England in August 1629 with Isaac Allerton, a passenger who originally came on the Mayflower<\/em> and later traveled to London on Plymouth\u2019s financial business. Allerton made Morton his private secretary.<\/p>\n

William Bradford in Of Plimoth Plantation<\/em><\/a> writes the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Allerton gave them great and just offense in bringing over this year, for base gain, that unworthy man, and instrument of mischief, Morton, who was sent home but the year before for his misdemeanors. He not only brought him over, but to the town (as it were to nose them), and lodged him at his own house, and for a while used him as a scribe to doe his business.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Morton soon returned to his nest at the Merrymount colony. This time he drew the attention of a new adversary: one Mr. John Endicott, the first governor of Massachusetts. Morton referred to him as \u201cthat great swelling fellow, Captain Littleworth.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to New England author and historian Edward Rowe Snow<\/a>, who published an account of Thomas Morton in his newspaper column \u201cSea and Shore,\u201d Morton\u2019s Merrymount fell under the jurisdiction of the Puritan fold, and with the backing of the Pilgrims the authorities ordered another raid to shut Merrymount down. Morton was arrested.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 26 October 1978, page 37<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Snow writes:<\/p>\n

Later Morton was tried. At the trial Standish asked that Morton be hanged, but he was sent back to England instead. As is not generally known, Morton didn\u2019t stay in England, but returned to New England early the next year as Allerton\u2019s secretary. He was actually lodged in Plymouth for a time, before returning to Merrymount and his Plymouth-provoking faults: maypole dances, Indian maidens, firewater, and firearms.<\/p>\n

The Massachusetts grant included Merrymount, thus allowing Gov. John Endicott to command Morton to appear before him at Naumkeag [Salem], where the governor offered him a partnership in the fur trade. But Morton refused, feeling that he could do better alone. It was not long before he was outdoing in volume seven to one the fur trade of the other Englishmen. This was because he traded firearms and liquor, both forbidden, with the Indians for their furs.<\/p>\n

The desperate Pilgrims called upon Endicott for assistance, and soon Endicott acted. Merrymount was burned down, the maypole removed, all Morton\u2019s goods confiscated, and the name of the area changed to Mount Dagon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: Endicott cutting down Morton\u2019s maypole. Credit: \u201cYoung Folks\u2019 History of Boston,\u201d Hezekiah Butterworth, 1881.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morton was tried at Naumkeag for harming the Indians and taking away their friendship [that claim was not made by the Indians working with Morton]. Sentenced to the bilboes [7 September 1630<\/a>], he was freed and allegedly sent back to England. Actually, he never arrived there, sailing north to Richmond\u2019s Island, Maine, where he lived for some time in the year 1631.<\/p>\n

He allied himself with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and wrote his satire, New English Canaan<\/em><\/a>. Although many historians dismiss the volume as worthless, this is a mistake as there is much truth written into its pages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note:<\/em> Over the last 20 years Morton\u2019s account of the Indians in New English Canaan<\/em> has been considered better than most colonial writers, and his work remains extremely valuable for those researching New England\u2019s earliest inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Bradford writes the following regarding Endicott\u2019s dismantling of Morton\u2019s fur colony:<\/p>\n

\u201c[Endicott] who, visiting those parts, caused that Maypolle to be cutt downe, and rebuked them for their profannes, and admonished them to looke ther should be better walking; so they now, or others, changed the name of their place againe, and called it Mounte-Dagon.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to accounts, Endicott gathered up his men, headed by Captain Richard Davenport<\/a>, and raided the land of good cheer and \u201crebuked them for their profannes,\u201d chopping down the \u201cCalf of Horeb\u201d and renaming the fairy kingdom \u201cMount Dagon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides Capt. Davenport, one other purported to be present for Endicott\u2019s bust of Morton and Merrymount was Captain Peter \u201cthe Pioneer\u201d Palfrey, who was referenced in Hawthorne\u2019s Twice Told Tales<\/em> story, \u201cThe May-Pole of Merry Mount<\/a>.\u201d He came on the ship Abigail<\/em> with the \u201cDorchester\u201d Company and was one of the original Planters under Governor Roger Conant.<\/p>\n

Morton and Merrymount Celebrated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later generations celebrated Thomas Morton and Merrymount\u2019s spirit of fun. On May Day 1919 a large crowd gathered in Merrymount Park.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: crowd at Merrymount Park celebrating May Day in 1919. Credit: Parker S. Warren; Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Massachusetts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a photo from 1930 of the Merrymount revels in a field in Quincy, including portrayals of Thomas Morton, a group of cavaliers, Robin Hood, clowns, and Indians. They set up a maypole and danced around it.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Merrymount festivities in Quincy, Massachusetts, 1930. Credit: Digital Commonwealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This photo from May 1955 features the chorus of Pilgrims in the Eastman School\u2019s production of Merry Mount<\/em>, clad in dour historical garb. The opera Merry Mount<\/em> captured vividly the tensions between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the revelers of Merrymount.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Eastman School\u2019s 1955 production of \u201cMerry Mount.\u201d Credit: Sibley Music Library; University of Rochester.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2008 May Day celebration at Merrymount reenacted Morton\u2019s pastime of dancing around the maypole.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: dancing around the maypole at the Merrymount May Day celebration in 2008. Credit: Patriot Ledger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2025 a colorful monument of Thomas Morton was exhibited in Boston by the New Red Order.<\/p>\n

\"Photos:
Photos: Thomas Morton monument. Credit: Caitlin Cunningham Photography LLC and Boston Public Art Triennial.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More to come\u2026<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> Mayday at Merrymount. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

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