By the time it incorporated as an independent town in 1726, Kingston had, for a century, been the prestigious "North Precinct" of the Plymouth Colony, where Pilgrim leaders such as Gov. William Bradford and Dr. Samuel Fuller established their farms and second homes. Residents were granted authority by the Massachusetts General Court in 1717 to be set off from Plymouth and, in that year, Maj. John Bradford, grandson of the governor, gave the new precinct...