To this act of enrolment we are indebted for the record which gives the time and place of departure of Zachary Bicknell, from England, with the members of his family and their respective ages, Weymouth being the point of embarkation, with wife Agnes twenty-seven years old, he being forty-five, son John eleven, and servant John Kitchin, twenty-three. They came in 1635.

    He came with the Rev. Mr. Hull and his company, and here they made their home. Others had been here before them, and soon after a considerable number left, among them the Rev. Mr. Newman and many with him, and went to Rehoboth. Some remained and, with those who joined them, commenced the settlement of this town of Weymouth. Soon after the church was formed and then with the organization of church and town, the people entered upon the work they had before them.

    They built themselves houses of rude construction, barely sheltering them from the inclemencies of the seasons, felled the forests that they might have food and raiment, built their meeting-house, and by its side the humbler school-house, that knowledge might not die out among them, and freed from the impediments to their spiritual comforts, they entered upon a career of progress, with such success that to-day if we are asked for the results, we answer in the language of Sir Christopher Wren, "Look around."

    Among these early immigrants, was Zachary Bicknell, but who and what he was we have at present limited means of determining, but it is fair to infer that he was in sympathy with the spirit that led the emigration, and that he was a man of substance as were many of his associates; and more particularly so as he was accompanied by a young man as a servant.

    Many of the young men bound themselves to a period of service to defray the expenses of their emigration, and from this class have sprung some of the best families of New England, and of this class this young man was not an exception; for we find that John Kitchin was in Salem in 1640, freeman, 1643.’ He was a shoemaker and had a family of seven children of whom Robert, the youngest, was a merchant and ship-owner in Salem, and his son Robert³, a student at Harvard College, died the twentieth of September, 1716, more than a century before any of the descendants of his master enjoyed the advantages of college instruction.

    Zachary Bicknell died the year following his arrival, having built a house upon land granted by the town. This house and land was sold the next year to Wm. Reed,—as appears by an order of court affirming the sale,— for the General Court under date of March, 1636, ordered, "That William Reade, having bought the house and twenty acres of land at Weymouth, unfenced, which was Zachary Bicknell’s, for seven pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence, of Richard Rocket and wife, is to have the sale confirmed by the child when he cometh of age, or else the child to allow such costs as the court shall think meet." It seems that Agnes or Annie, as the name differently appears, married again soon after the death of her husband, Zachary Bicknell. She was probably his second wife and not the mother of his son John, as an inspection of the ages of these several persons would seem to show. (See page 5, Note.)

    The land which Wm. Reed bought of Zachary Bicknell’s estate, remained in the Reed family for many years, and we have one among us to-day who remembers the last of that name who owned and occupied the land, so that we are able to identify the exact spot where Zachary Bicknell rested and established his home, so soon to be determined and ended by his death. it is on Middle street, and is the estate of the late Sylvanus Bates, deceased. A flag marks the spot to-day, and it is to be hoped that all here present will have the opportunity to visit it.