He grew up under the teachings of the separatists of the established Church of England, so he would have empathized with the religious persecution they were under. He started out with the first company that sailed on the Mayflower, in the companion ship the Speedwell, which had to return to England because of leaks. Eventually, he was given a grant of one acre in Plymouth, which he gave up when he settled in Duxbury. His grant in Duxbury, dated Oct. 2, 1637 was for 40 acres, described as bounded on the south by John Alden, on the east by the sea, on the north by marshland of the Duck Hill River (and Mill River) and on the west by land of Edward Bumpas.

From 863 AD to 1600, the Delano family remained of pure Norman and Flemish blood, never intermarrying with the French. Philip was also a Walloon, French-speaking people who lived in southern Belgium. The family was from Lannoy, which is a few miles from Lille in northern France. Philip’s family moved to Leiden, Holland when the Catholic party took over Lannoy and the Inquisition began.

The family’s name was derived from Lannois, only with several different spellings, (L’Annoe, L’Aulnoy) more recently Alnetum. The family was descended from French (pre 863) and English noblemen and royalty. Some of these ancestors included William the Conqueror, King of England and the Duke of Normandy; Emperor Charlemagne; and several kings of England, France and Italy. Descendants of Philip include Ulysses S. Grant, Alan Shepard, Franklin Delano Rosevelt and many others. It is believed that Philip’s neighbor Edward Bumpas was also a Walloon and they were friends.

Philip was a land surveyor, as were several of his descendants. His son Thomas was a doctor and a surveyor. Recent descendants who were surveyors include Thomas Delano of Delano and Keith, and Robert Delano of Duxbury.

Philip Delano’s property passed through several generations of his sons and grandsons and finally into the hands of Ezra Weston, Jr. of the shipbuilding family. Gershom Bradford Weston, a son of Ezra, Jr. (the second King Caesar) built a house on St. George Street on the property that is the site of the present-day high school.

 The elegant mansion was built in 1840 for $60,000, but was destroyed by fire in 1850. Gershom had it rebuilt, and because the house was not insured, he went heavily into debt to his brother Alden Weston who held the mortgage. After living in the new house for about 12 years until 1867, Gershom lost ownership through business neglect, pressure of creditors and his brother Alden foreclosing on the house.

Readers of this column may remember when we discussed the Wright grant that Alden Weston sold the house to George W. and Georgianna B. Wright in 1868. There is also a deed from Deborah B. Weston, Gershom’s widow in 1869, to the Wrights, so possibly Gershom and his wife were paid for her right of dower. Dower rights are a wife’s right to one-third of her husband’s property at his death.

At 34, George Wellman Wright married Georgianna Buckham, 21, on Oct. 12, 1858. George was a successful cotton merchant; Georgianna’s father was an affluent New York lawyer. George died in 1897. His sister Mary Elizabeth’s son, William James (given name Todd) Wright was the executor of his uncle George’s estate.

Mary Elizabeth’s three sons had their names changed from Todd to Wright in 1867, as did their mother. She divorced her husband, Charles H. Todd, probably around that time. And as if divorce weren’t rare enough for the era, Georgianna at age 63 married her nephew William James in 1900, when he was 54. She gave her age as 56. Consolidating the estate? The culmination of a long-term relationship? We have no answer. Strange, but not illegal as they were not blood relatives.

Both George W. Wright and his nephew William J. were active in the Duxbury 250th Anniversary (1887), which was held in a tent on the Wright Estate. The Wrights demonstrated opulence on a grand scale. The house had 20 rooms. The estate had three private hydrants, its own water system, a water tower, its own electricity. Former Police Chief Lawrence C. Doyle said the Wrights put in the first section of blacktop in Duxbury on St. George Street in front of their house.

The Wrights had about 30 horses and their own racetrack near what is now Onion Hill Road. They employed as many as 80 people. They hosted a celebration of the establishment of the Atlantic cable (1867) in their home. William J. Wright in 1892 paid one third of the cost of building the Powder Point Bridge -- $10,000. They provided books and money to establish the library that was housed in the Wright Building, named in honor of their son George Buckham Wright who died in an elevator accident in 1888 at the age of 21.

Georgianna survived both of her husbands and all three of her children. Her estate continued her benevolence. In 1920, her executor deeded the tract of land that now is the library property of the town. Property was also deeded to Charles L. Alden for the benefit of the Alden Kindred. The estate, then called Pine Hill, was left to Harvard University with a life estate for the benefit of Mrs. John S. Wright, her son’s widow. Mrs. Wright (Sally), who lived in Virginia, visited Duxbury for several years in the ’20s. She brought her servants with her, but she must have tired of the “vacations.” In the late ’20s she settled for a buyout of her life estate with Harvard. Harvard held the property for a few years, and then sold it to Eben Ellison and Percy Walker in 1928. Eben bought out Mr. Walker’s share. The Ellison family made some effort to develop the property, all the while having caretakers living on-site. The Ellisons never lived in the house. It fell into disrepair and was torn down in 1966. William P. Ellison and his sister Mrs. Ellery Rogers gave the estate to the town for the new school in 1968. Mr. Ellison commented that “the site is a beautiful spot - it should belong to the town.”

You may want to attend Tony Kelso’s lecture, which will include the Wrights, at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 2 at the Duxbury Free Library for the 375th Anniversary of Duxbury lecture series.