The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
Court Records, Laws & 17th Century Texts


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This section of the Plymouth Colony Archive presents a collection of searchable court records, including Plymouth Colony laws, land patents and cattle divisions, and 17th century texts, such as Mourt's Relation (1622) and Goode Newes from New England (1624). Some of these texts are also available on Caleb Johnson's excellent Mayflower History web site and Yale University's Avalon Project site. They are included here, with permission, so they can be accessed in text searches.

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Mayflower in riptide and shallows off Monomoy Point, Cape Cod, Nov. 1620, by Mike Haywood
"They fell amongst dangerous shoals"
© by artist Mike Haywood

The Mayflower Compact, 1620
Laws of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, 1620-1636
The General Fundamentals of New Plimouth, 1636-1671
Pierce Land Patent, 1621
Land Division of 1623
Cattle Division of 1627
Bradford Land Patent, 1629
Patent Surrendered to Freemen, 1640
Laws and Court Records on Servants and Masters
Laws and Court Records on Sexual Misconduct
Native Americans in Criminal Cases, 1630-1686 (excerpts)
Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1622
Goode Newes from New England, 1624
William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647 (excerpts)


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Excerpts from The Times of Their Lives

Tributes to Jim Deetz (1930-2000)


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Patricia Scott Deetz and Christopher Fennell