After Kamesit: A chronical of a local habitation and some names, with notes, maps and photographs

"After Kamesit" by Carroll F. Daley is a historical chronicle written in the late 20th century. It traces the landscape, Indigenous presence, colonial settlement, and multigenerational ownership around South and Boot Ponds in Plymouth, Massachusetts, centering on a 1769 homestead and the Burgess family who lived there for more than a century and a half. Blending local history, genealogy, and personal observation, it evokes a strong “spirit of place” through deeds, maps, anecdotes, and photographs.

The opening of the work frames time and memory (with a Shunryu Suzuki epigraph), then introduces “Kamesit,” the Wampanoag name for the South Pond region, and the author’s aim to recount what came after the Native era—people, activities, and the old house on Boot Pond. It describes the glacially formed terrain, ponds, pines, and abundant wildflowers; sketches Wampanoag lifeways and early contact (including Verrazzano’s account); and explains how Plymouth’s common lands became “Great Lots,” situating Great South and Boot Ponds within that scheme and noting early roads. A concise chain of ownership follows: Churchills, neighboring Cotton lands, Henry Richmond (who built the homestead), Nathaniel Clark, and Samuel Wright, before the Burgesses acquire it in 1801. The narrative then broadens to Burgess genealogy and John Burgess’s large household, illustrated by his will and an inventory that reveal daily labor, fuel needs, and modest means, before surveying the surrounding community—schools, mills, fisheries and whaling, stage and rail, and local anti-slavery activity (including Jonathan Walker). Finally, it introduces Phineas and Charlotte Burgess, their children, the famed Boot Pond picnics, and the rhythms of mid‑19th‑century farm life, setting the stage for more intimate family portraits to come.