The Guards of New Plymouth

Did the Pilgrims employ professional soldiers?

Edwin Austin Abbey The Expulsion of John Oldham (1881)

In the spring of 1625, the authorities at New Plymouth expelled John Oldham from the colony. In the words of William Bradford, then serving as governor of the colony, they ‘appointed a guard of musketeers which he was to pass through, and every one was ordered to give him a thump on the breech, with the butt end of his musket, and then was conveyed to the waterside, where a boat was ready to carry him away. Then they bid him go and mend his manners.’

This incident raises questions about the military institutions of the people we now call ‘Pilgrims’. Was the ‘guard of musketeers’ a permanent constabulary, an ad hoc group, or the precursors of the ‘minute men’ of the eighteenth century? Was it composed of full-time employees of the colony, ordinary citizens performing a scheduled tour of guard duty, or men specifically recruited for this particular task?