DUXBURY  , a township of

Plymouth county, Massachusetts, on Massachusetts Bay, 36 m . S.S.E. of Boston . Pop . (189o) 1908; (1905, state census) 2028 . Area, 25.5 sq. m . Duxbury is served by the Old Colony system of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway . In the township are the villages of Duxbury, South Duxbury, West Duxbury, North Duxbury, Island Creek and Millbrook . The soil is sandy, the surface of the country well wooded and broken by a number of ponds and creeks . Duxbury is a summer resort, with a large hotel at Standish Shore . Duxbury has a public library, and is the seat of the Powder Point school for boys, and Partridge Academy, founded in 1828 by a bequest of $ro,000 from George Partridge of Duxbury, and incorporated in 183o . On Captain's Hill is the Standish Monument (begun in 1872), a circular tower, on an octagonal base, of rough Hallowell granite, surmounted by a statue of Miles.Standish, 124 ft. from the ground . The Standish house, built in 1666 by Miles's son, Alexander, is still in existence .

In South Duxbury is an old burying ground, in which the

oldest marked grave is that of Jonathan Alden (d . 1697), son of John Alden . For many years there were important cod and mackerel fisheries here and Duxbury clams were famous; there were large shipyards in Duxbury in the 18th century. and in the first half of the 19th . At present cranberries are the only product of importance . The first settlement was made here in 1631 by Miles Standish (to whom Captain's Hill was granted) ,William Brewster, John Alden, and a few others . In 1632 a church was organized and the present name was adopted from Duxbury Hall, Lancashire, the old seat of the Standish family; the Indian name had been Mattakeeset .. The township was incorporated in 1637; itoriginally included Bridgewater and parts of Pembroke and Kingston . See Justin Winsor, History of Duxbury (Boston, 1849) ; and Laurence Bradford, Historic Duxbury in Plymouth County (Boston, 1900) .