In 1635 there was a great tempest in the Colony.   Mr. Thatcher, who was at one time a citizen of Marshfield, was in a vessel off Cape Ann with his cousin, John Avery, and their wives and children, when a storm overtook them on Friday night.   Saturday found the wretched people clinging to a rock, now called 'Avery's woe,' and there during the day the survivors lovingly comforted each other, as the waves with terrible deliberation singled out their victims.   That night the only survivors were Thatcher, who had reached a rocky islet with his bruised wife, whom he dragged from the surges.   A goat had also reached the rock, and a cheese, with some few trifles, washed ashore.   It was Monday afternoon before the forlorn couple were rescued.
   "But few of the many thousands who pass and visit the two lighthouses on Thatcher's Island know of the terrible wreck and horrible suffering and endurance of those two survivors on that fateful rock, from whom came the name."
   "In 1643 the confederacy, called "The United Colonies of New England," apportioned each town its quota of soldiers.   Marshfield was to furnish two, Scituate five, Duxbury five, and other towns proportionately, according to the number of inhabitants.   In 1689, the quota had changed: Plymouth only four, Scituate six, Duxbury only two, and Marshfield three.   During King Philip's war Marshfield had to furnish twenty-six soldiers, Duxbury sixteen, while Plymouth furnished only thirty, to Scituate's fifty.   But Marshfield furnished a commander-in-chief to all the forces in New England, Gen. Josiah Winslow.
   Some of the Indians were converted to Christianity, and