From Nauset to Eastham

Eastham was purchased by Plymouth Colony from the Nauset people by a grant of the colonial court in 1640, which was renewed in 1644 with the deed established as follows:

“The Court doth grant unto the church of New Plymouth, or those that go to dwell at Nauset, all that tract of land lying between sea and sea, from the purchasers’ bounds at Namskaket to the herring brook at Billingsgate, with the said herring brook, and all the meadows on both sides of said brook, with great bass pond there and all the meadows and islands within the said tract. Nathaniel Morton, Secretary of the Court.”

That historic description spread Eastham over 15 miles of lower Cape Cod including what became Wellfleet to the north in 1762 and in 1797 a southerly portion became the township of Orleans. The remaining six- by- two-mile landing area between the Atlantic and Cape Cod Bay, “sea and sea,” with eight fresh water ponds, ample harbor, and the world-renowned Cape Cod National Seashore, is the Eastham of today.

Eastham was originally settled by a group of Pilgrims who found it necessary to break off from the Plymouth settlement Colony. Hardly two decades into the establishment of the Church of Plymouth, the congregation began to exhibit growing pains, questioning the wisdom of the location of their settlement. The individual allotments of land in Plymouth were very small, and featured barren soil. By the time church members realized the disadvantages, inadequacy and hardships of Plymouth, much of the surrounding region had already been granted to other settlements.

A campaign to move the church in its entirety was launched among the members who began a search for a suitable location. The land in Nauset was appealing for its good soil, but was debated as it would only sustain a portion of the group. Over the objections of those who advocated for a unified church, seven families led by Thomas Prence, a leader in the church and community, removed to the Nauset territory in 1645. Prence was joined by the families of John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josias Cooke, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs, who were lured by the promise of larger tracts of land and better farming opportunity.

Land transactions were performed customarily by colonial leaders using patents awarded by the English crown and imposing laws that were entirely unknown to the Wampanoag. The English insisted that all transactions with the Natives represented an honest consideration of the worth, but as the value of trinkets, kettle’s and knives became known, many Natives complained they had been taken advantage of.

The colonizers saw the forest as a source of commodities, primarily for wood to build settlements and fuel to burn in their hearths. The proud old forest was quickly consumed, leaving the scrub pine that is now a feature typical of Cape Cod.