By John Leake
Courageous Discourse
November 26, 2025
In the summer of 2021, I visited an old friend on Cape Cod and took the opportunity to pay my respects to my mother's ancestors at the Ancient Sears Cemetery in West Brewster, Barnstable, Massachusetts. My mother is a direct descendent of Richard Sears, who was born around 1595, and settled in Plymouth Colony in 1638.
Though Richard Sears was a dedicated puritan who identified strongly with the faith of the original Plymouth congregation, his descendants in the 18th century came to embrace the enlightenment ideals of the Founding Fathers-that is, freedom of conscience and speech, limited government, and the primacy of the free individual to pursue his interests, unfettered by state power.