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John Jenney 
John Jenney arrived in the Plymouth colony in 1623 on board the “Little James” after a harrowing trans-Atlantic crossing. With him were his wife Sarah and young children Samuel, Abigail and Sarah Jenney. He is described in “Morton’s Memorial” as:
“… a Godly, though otherwise a plain man, yet singular for publicness of spirit, setting himself to seek and promote the common good of the plantation of new Plimouth…”. John was a devout Christian, a separatist and a member of the Leyden congregation of Holland. They had lived in Holland for 12 years after being forced to flee England and the persecution by King James I for their beliefs and separation from the Anglican Church. John was a brewer and miller by trade and therein lies the curious beginnings of the John Jenney malting floor, brew house and later mill and corn exchange.
Some speculate that arrangements were made for John Jenney to set up a New England brewery to provide other southern colonies with beer. Virginia was too warm of a climate to produce beer and many believed plimouth’s survival was partially the result of the use of beer for drink instead of a sole reliance on local water supplies.
When John Jenney arrived in Plimouth in 1623 a small mill had already been setup by Dean and Delano just north of the plantation. This area is now the approximate location of the Village landing just North of Plymouth Center. The mill processed raw corn and ground it into a course corn meal from which various meals could be prepared.
John Jenney’s first endeavor at Plimouth was not the mill but the establishment of a malting floor and brew house. Beer was produced by soaking malt grains in water and spreading them onto the cool stone malting floor. The grains would subsequently sprout or “malt”. The sprouts were carefully dried in a kiln, ground to a fine texture and then brewed to form beer. The cool New England climate was ideal for this process and allowed John Jenney to produce beer for 10 months out of the year.
This original malting floor and the remains of John Jenney’s kiln are still clearly visible in the basement of the John Jenney house.
Corn had become a medium of exchange in the Plymouth Colony and John Jenney’s son in law, Nathaniel Jackson had added a “counting house and corn exchange” onto his father in laws brew and bake house. The counting house “loaned” seed in the spring to planters. When the crop came in the seed was “paid back” with “interest”. Excess corn crops could be deposited, traded, and drawn upon much like today’s banking system works.
By 1636 the original mill had been relocated to its current place next to the John Jenney house. The original mill owners had moved or died and it was decided that John Jenney, being an expert in grains, would be given the mill and corn grinding business to his heirs and assigns forever. Now the John Jenney enterprise comprised of a mill, a counting house, corn exchange, malting floor, bake house and brewery.
John Jenney died in 1644 and the milling operation was taken over by his wife Sarah Jenney. John’s son Samuel Jenney had become a talented ships joiner (boat builder & carpenter) and moved to Portsmouth Rhode Island in 1643. Samuel returned with his family at Sarah Jenney’s death in 1656. Samuel ran the mill and brew house for six years and then relocated to establish an extension of the Plimouth colony in the new settlement of Dartmouth. Partners were found to continue the family milling business.
The amazing story continues when 13 years later, in 1675, King Philips war broke out in Southeastern Massachusetts between the Indians and Colonists. The new Settlement of Dartmouth was burned out and destroyed by Indians and Samuel Jenney and family barely escaped by boat. There was considerable concern about Indian unrest throughout the area when Samuel arrived starving and destitute back to the Plymouth Colony. It was during this season of unrest that a new “watch house” was built to resist Indian attack. The new fort was built in the same location as the original 1622 fort, around the original fireplace, and using what was left of the 1622 fort timbers.
King Philips war and the Indian unrest was concluded by 1679. At this time Samuel Jenney and his family were still destitute and in great need of appropriate shelter for his large family. As the watch house was no longer needed, the elders of Plymouth decided to gift the watch house lumber to Samuel Jenney to make an addition onto the home and business of his late Mother, Sarah Jenney. Samuel Jenney being a carpenter and ships joiner by trade was well trained to disassemble, relocate, modify and rebuild a wooden structure.
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For more about the John Jenney house, please go to the Jenney House page.
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