In 1924 the City of Boston place a memorial plaque to honor Rev. William Blaxton who sailed to New England with the Gorges Expedition on August 7, 1623. When Gorges abandoned his expedition, Blaxton settled the Shawmut Peninsula in 1625. William Blaxton was from Horncastle nineteen miles north of Boston, Lincolnshire and was a close friend of Isaac Johnson as the two had been roommates at Emmanuel College.