Some Of The "Candle-Snuffers" Of The "First
Comers" Doubtless Still Remain.
We may be sure every family had its
candles, "betty-lamps," candlesticks, and "snuffers." "Lanthorns" were
of the primitive,
Perforated tin variety - only "serving to make darkness
visible" now found in a few old attics in Pilgrim towns, and on the
"bull-carts" of the peons of Porto Rico, by night. Fire, for any
purpose, was chiefly procured by the use of flint, steel, and tinder, of
which many very early specimens exist. Buckets, tubs, and pails were,
beyond question, numerous aboard the ship, and were among the most
essential and highly valued of Pilgrim utensils. Most, if not all of
them, we may confidently assert, were brought into requisition on that
Monday "wash-day" at Cape Cod, the first week-day after their arrival,
when the women went ashore to do their long-neglected laundrying, in the
comparatively fresh water of the beach pond at Cape Cod harbor. They
are frequently named in the earliest inventories. Bradford also
mentions the filling of a "runlet" with water at the Cape. The
"steel-yards" and "measures" were the only determiners of weight and
quantity - as the hour-glass and sun dial were of time - possessed at
first (so far as appears) by the passengers of the Pilgrim ship, though
it is barely possible that a Dutch clock or two may have been among the
possessions of the wealthiest. Clocks and watches were not yet in
common use (though the former were known in England from 1540), and
except that in "Mourt's Relation" and Bradford's "Historie" mention is
made of the time of day as such "o'clock" (indicating some degree of
familiarity with clocks), no mention is made of their possession at the
first. Certain of the leaders were apparently acquainted at Leyden with
the astronomer Galileo, co-resident with them there, and through this
acquaintance some of the wealthier and more scholarly may have come to
know, and even to own, one of the earliest Dutch clocks made with the
pendulum invented by Galileo, though hardly probable as early as 1620.
Pocket watches were yet practically unknown.
Except for a few pieces of silver owned by the wealthiest of their
number, pewter was the most elegant and expensive of the Pilgrims'
table-ware. A pewter platter said to have been "brought over in the
MAY-FLOWER" is now owned by the Pilgrim Society, which also exhibits
smaller pewter formerly Edward Winslow's, and bearing his "arms," for
which, as previously noted, a like claim is made. Platters, dishes,
"potts," ladles, bottles, "flaggons," "skelletts," cups, porringers,
"basons," spoons, candlesticks, and salt "sellars," were among the many
pewter utensils unmistakably brought on the good ship.
The wooden-ware of the colonists, brought with them, was considerable
and various. The Dutch were long famous for its fabrication. There was
but very little china, glass, or pottery of any kind in common use in
western Europe in 1620; some kinds were not yet made, and pewter, wood,
and leather largely filled their places.
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