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Sandwich and the Past

Settled in 1637 and incorporated in 1639, Sandwich is the oldest town on the Cape and one of the most beautiful.

Joseph Jefferson called it “the handsomest town out of England.” It was not long after Edward Freeman with his ten followers had been given permission to found a settlement at Sandwich that two commissioners were sent from Plymouth Colony to lay out the bounds of the land.

They were Myles Standish and John Alden. John Alden had been married to Priscilla Mullins since 1622, a courtship and marriage immortalized in the poems by Henry W. Longfellow. Looking back it is seen that Sandwich won some bad repute for its early persecution of the Quakers but this attitude came largely from the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

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