This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FO.2ADI/159.1 Message Board Post: You asked: "First, what was an "assistant" in Plymouth Colony?" This is from H. Roger King_Cape Cod and Plymouth Colony in the Seventeenth Century_(Lanham, MD, University Press of America, Inc. 1994) p. 147 "In 1636 the General Court established there would be seven Assistants chosen along with the Governor at the annual Court of Election in June. Together these eight men comprised the Court of Assistants." [with the Governor having two votes and the others one each] The function of the Court of Assistant's varied over time. George D. Langdon, Jr., in _Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth 1620-1691_(New Haven, Yale University Press, 1966) p. 201, writes, " When Thomas Hinkley succeeded Josias Winslow in June 1681, the general Court was the effective governing instrument over all matters which seemed to have colony-wide application. Of much less significance was the Court of Assistants; once without statuatory limitation to its power, this court, by the time Hinkley became governor, was principally a court for the settlement of civil suits in excess of forty shillings and for trial of major crimes." The shift of power away from the Court of Assistants seems to have had to do with the general shift of power from the original core of separatist settlers to a broader, more diverse population. "Second, Constant Southworth is sometimes called "ensign". Would that have been ensign of the militia?" Yes. From Nathaniel B.Shurtleff, _Records of the Colony of New Plymouth_( reprint New York, AMS Press, 1968) 2:105 ( July 7, 1646) "Constant Southworth is allowed by the Court to be ensigne bearrer of Duxborrow company." "Finally, Alice Alden, Constant's granddaughter (and she IS on-topic, because her father, David Alden, was a son of John & Priscilla) married Captain Judah Paddock (1681-1770). I had thought Judah was a militia captain until I read somewhere that he was a whaling captain. He and Alice lived in Yarmouth during their marriage, and she was buried in Dennis - isn't that on Cape Cod? (apologies for not being a New Englander!) " Here are two sites with pictures of the gravestone of Judah Paddock and others in the family. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/7401/cemetery.html http://www.capecodgravestones.com/dennispad.html Dennis is on Cape Cod. There's actually a bed & breakfast in East Dennis called the Captain Judah Paddock House. I'm not sure that not being a New Englander is forgivable though. I'm sorry, I don't know if Judah was a whaling captain--here's a URL for one superb whaling museum recently merged with another, the Kendall Whaling Museum. The Kendall Museum was a short walk from the house I grew up in. Naturally I never visited it. http://www.whalingmuseum.org/