History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Personal Sketches 195
stone is erected to his memory, containing the rudely carved and brief
inscription:
1674
Here lyes ye Body
of ye worll Thomas
Willett Esq who died
Avgvst ye 4th in ye 64th
Year of his age anno
The inscription on the footstone reads:
Who Was the
First Mayor
oF New York
& Twice did
Systain yt Place
According to Mrs. George St. Sheflfield's recent history of Attleboro
and that part of Bristol County, Mass., Capt. Thomas Willett stood at the
head of the Attleboro proprietors. His history does not belong exclusively
to Attleboro, as he took an active part in the original Rehoboth North
Purchase. Not much is known of him previous to his emigration to
America. He was a merchant in his native country, and in his travels
became acquainted with Pilgrims in Leyden, and then in Holland, residing
with them prior to their exile to America. In Leyden he learned Dutch,
which came useful in after years. He was one of the last of the Leyden
Company.
He came to America about 1630, when he was twenty-one years old.
One authority says he came in 1629. Others say he was twenty-four years
old when he arrived in Plymouth, where he first resided. He became very
useful in the colony, and on July 1, 1633, he was admitted a freeman of the
colony and granted six acres of land. He was prominent in surveys and in
the purchase of land from the Indians. He was a friend of the red men, and
in deeds now preserved the Indians called him "our loving friend, Capt.
Thomas Willett. " He was made Superintendent of the Plymouth Colony
trading-post at Kennebeck, and while there the Indians planned to slay aU.
the whites. Willett was reading a Bible when the Indians surrounded his
cabin, and when they entered to take his scalp they thought their plan had
been discovered in the book. So they did not carry it out.
In 1647 Willett became successor to Miles Standish, the Pilgrim
warrior. He was made assistant to the Governor in 1651, and held that
office until 1665. He was selected at this time by the Plymouth Court,
agreeably to his Majesty's Commissioners, to attend them at New York
(which had just been surrendered by the Dutch), for the purpose of
assisting them in organizing the new government. It is mentioned by
Davis in a note to his edition of "Morton's Memorial," that" Col. Nichols,
one of the Commissioners, in a letter to Gov. Prince, written from New
York in the spring following the reduction of the Dutch settlements,
requests that Capt. Willett may have such a dispensation from his official
engagements in Plymouth colony as to be at liberty to assist in modeUing
and reducing the affairs in the settlement into good Enghsh. " Col. Nichols
remarked that "Willett was more acquainted with the customs and manners
of the Dutch than any man in this country, and that this conversation was
very acceptable to them."