Kenelm Winslow Homestead

1645 Kenelm Winslow Homestead in Marshfield MA.

Kenelm Winslow Homestead is settled on a gentle eminence by the sea, near the extremity of a neck of land lying between Green Harbor and South Rivers. This tract of the township was considered the Eden of the region. It was beautified with groves of majestic oaks and graceful walnuts, with the underground void of tangled shrubbery. A few of these groves were standing within the memory of man, but all have now fallen beneath the hand of the woodman.

It would stay with the family for five generations, until their descendants had to flee the country for being loyalists supporters in the Revolutionary War.

Kenelm Winslow (1599-1672), younger brother of Plymouth Colony governor and Mayflower pilgrim Edward Winslow (1595-1655), arrived in the early years of the colony and with his brother helped to settle an area north of Plymouth, Massachusetts, known today as Marshfield, Massachusetts, but first known as Green Harbor.

Homestead Overview

Homestead Marker located in front of house.

The house, built circa 1645, is believed to be the oldest house today in Marshfield, Massachusetts and one of the oldest in all of Plymouth Colony. It's located on Winslow Street in Rexhame with a historical plaque and gravestone in the front, midway between Kenelm Drive and Sherrill Road. It is a private home. No public tours available. It is rumored to be haunted.

Ownership Timeline

The homestead of Kenelm Winslow, sen., passed, after the decease of Nathaniel, his son, to Kenelm, his son, who m. Abigail Waterman ; then to their son Kenelm, who m. Abigail Bourn of Barnstable, whose son Kenelm was the last resident of the family name thereon. He removed to Kennebec County, Me., where he recently deceased. The families of this name, both in Lincoln and Waldo Counties, are, with perhaps others, descended from Kenelm Winslow, sen. On this estate remains, in fine preservation, one of the .... etc.

1. Kenelm Winslow (1599-1672) - builder of the homestead, younger brother of Colonial Governor, Edward Winslow (1595-1655).
2. Nathaniel Winslow (1639-1719)
3. Kenelm Winslow (1675-1757) - md Abigail Waterman
4. Kenelm Winslow (1716-1780) - md Abigail Bourn of Barnstable.  Note: Kenelm, Jr. died and was buried here in 1780 in Old Winslow Burial Ground .  The family would have moved north afterwards?
5. Kenelm Winslow (1756-) - last resident of the house before removing to Kennebec County, Maine, probably when the loyalists fled Marshfield after 1780 (?).

References

• Winslow Memorial, Vol. 1 : Family Records of Winslows and Their Descendants in America, With the English Ancestry as Far as Known; Winslow Family(Classic Reprint) - Tracing family roots of the descendants these early Plymouth Colony settlers back to England.
• Winslow in Plymouth County, Massachusetts - first families history
• Kenelm Winslow- disambiguation
• MainTour Marshfield
• Marshfield Historical Society
• Marshfield History - PlymouthColony.net Historical Listings