states that “though not very large its name and reputation is very great among all nations.” In the discovery of the New World it played a part of prime importance. Martin Cockeram, a native of the town, sailed with Sebastian Cabot when he touched the coast of America in 1497. Sir John Hawkins and his father Wil liam were natives of the town, and in 1571 Sir John was returned member of parliament for the borough. In 1572 Sir Francis Drake left the port for the West Indies, and in 1577 he set out from it on his voyage "about the earth." He was elected mayor of the town in 1581, and in 1592-93 represented it in parliament. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was M.P. for Plymouth in 1571, had in 1578 received from Queen Elizabeth letters patent for a colony in America ; but, after setting out in 1579, he was compelled to return with the loss of his principal ship. In 1583 he sailed again from Plymouth (see GILBERT). In 1585 Drake again sailed from Plymouth for the West Indies, bringing back on his return the remnant of Raleigh s Virginian colony. The port supplied seven ships against the Spanish Armada, and it was in the Sound that the English fleet of 120 sail awaited the sighting of the Spaniards. In 1590 Drake was successful in the oft attempted task of bringing in a stream of fresh water for the use of the town, from the river Heavy near Sheepstor, Dartmoor. He and Sir John Hawkins sailed from Plymouth on their last voyage in 1595, both dying at sea in the following year. Many other expeditions from Drake s time to the present have been despatched from this port, which was the last at which the Pilgrim Fathers touched when they set sail for America. Plymouth was throughout nearly the whole Civil War closely invested by the Royalists, and was the only town in the west of England which never fell into their hands. The town was one of the first to declare for William of Orange. It was in 1691, during his reign, that the dockyard was commenced. The " local literature " of Plymouth is singularly rich and comprehensive. It has also a connexion with many men of great eminence. Sir Joshua Reynolds, born at Plympton, first practised his art in the town, and its native artists are represented by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, James Northcote, Benjamin Robert Haydon, and Samuel Prout. Besides Sir John Hawkins and other celebrated seamen, it has also given birth to Sir William Snow Harris, Dr James Yonge, Dr John Kitto, Dr S. P. Tregelles, Dr Robert Hawker, M". T. Carringtoii the Dartmoor poet, Mortimer Collins, and Sir R. P. Collier.
See Histories by Worth, 1871, and by Jewitt, 1873; Rowe, Ecclesiastical History of Old Plymouth; The Western Antiquary; Worth, The Three Towns Bibliotheca.
PLYMOUTH, a township and village of the United States, the shire-town of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, and a port of entry on Cape Cod Bay, the village lying at the terminus of a branch of the Old Colony Railroad, 37 miles south-south-east of Boston. The main interest of Plymouth is historical, and centres in the fact that it was the first settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, who landed December 21 (N. s.), 1620, on the rock now covered by a handsome granite canopy in Walter Street. Leyden Street, so called in memory of the Dutch town where the exiles had stopped for a season, is the oldest street in New England. The houses and general appear ance of Plymouth are, however, thoroughly modern. Pilgrim Hall (which is built of granite and measures 70 feet long by 40 feet wide) was erected in 1824-25 by the Pilgrim Society constituted in 1820 ; it contains a public library and many relics of the fathers including Miles Standish s sword and Governor Carver s chair. The corner stone of a national monument to the Pilgrims was laid August 1, 1859, on a high hill near the railroad station; 1 500 tons of granite were used for the foundation ; and a pedestal 45 feet high is surrounded by statues 20 feet high of Morality, Law, Education, and Freedom, and bears a colossal statue of Faith, 36 feet high, holding a Bible in her right hand (the largest granite statue in the world). Burying Hill was the site of the embattled church erected in 1622, and contains many ancient tombstones and the foundations of the watchtower (1643) now covered with sod. Cole s Hill is the spot where half of the " Mayflower " Pilgrims found their rest during the first winter. Five of their graves were discovered in 1855 while pipes for the town water-works were being laid, and two more (now marked with a granite slab) in 1883. The bones of the first five are deposited in a compartment of the canopy over the "Forefathers Rock." A town hall (1749), the county court-house, and the house of correction are the main public buildings of Plymouth. The population of the township was 4758 in 1830, 6024 in 1850, 6238 in 1870, 7093 in 1880, and 7500 in 1884. Manufactures of sail- duck, cotton-cloth, tacks, nails, plate-iron, rolled zinc and copper rivets, hammers, tc., are carried on ; the cordage factories are among the largest and most complete works of the kind in the world.
PLYMOUTH, a borough of the United States, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, on the Bloomsburg division of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, 8 miles from Wyoming, is a flourishing coal-mining town, which increased its population from 2648 in 1870 to 6065 in 1880. At Plymouth junction, 2 miles to the north east, a branch line to Wilkesbarre connects with the Central Railroad.
PLYMOUTH BRETHREN (Brethren, or Christian Brethren) are a sect of Christians who received the name in 1830 when the Rev. J. N. Darby induced many of the inhabitants of Plymouth to associate themselves with him for the promulgation of opinions which they held in common. Although small Christian communities existed in Ireland and elsewhere calling themselves Brethren and holding similar views, the accession to the ranks of Mr Darby so increased their numbers and influence that he is usually reckoned the founder of Plymouthism. Darby (born in Nov. 1800, in London; graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1819; died April 29, 1882 at Bournemouth) was a curate in the Episcopalian Church of Ireland until 1827, when he felt himself constrained to leave the Established Church; betaking himself to Dublin, he became associated with several devout people who refused all ecclesiastical fellowship, met statedly for public worship, and called themselves the Brethren. In 1830 Darby at Plymouth won over a large number of people to his way of thinking, among whom were the Rev. Benjamin Wills Newton, who had been a clergyman of the Established Church of England; the Rev. James L. Harris, a Plymouth clergyman; and the well known Biblical scholar Dr Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. The Brethren started a newspaper, The Christian Witness, continued under the names The Present Testimony (1849) and The Bible Treasury (1856), with Harris as editor and Darby as the most important contributor. During the next eight years the progress of the sect was rapid, and communities of the brethren were to be found in many of the principal towns in England.
In 1838 Darby, after a short stay in Paris, went to reside in French Switzerland, and found many disciples. Congregations were formed in Geneva, at Lausanne, where most of the Methodist and other dissenters joined the Brethren, at Vevey, and elsewhere in Vaud. His opinions also found their way into Germany, German Switzerland, Italy, and France; but French Switzerland has always remained the stronghold of Plymouthism on the Continent, and for his followers there Mr Darby wrote two of his most important tracts, Le Ministère considéré dans sa Nature and De la Présence et de l’Action du S. Esprit dans l’Église. The revolution in the canton Vaud, instigated by the Jesuits in 1845, brought persecution to the Brethren in the canton and in other parts of French Switzerland, and Darby felt his own life insecure there.
He returned to England, and his reappearance was accompanied by divisions among the Brethren at home. These divisions began at Plymouth. Mr B. Wills Newton, at the head of the community there, was accused of departing from the testimony of the Brethren against an official ministry, and of reintroducing the spirit of clericalism. Unable to detach the congregation from the
