What Does a New Nation Keep from the Old?

For Sandwich, Massachusetts, one answer lies in an unassuming piece of wood from across the Atlantic.

This wooden panel came from the Guildhall in Sandwich, Kent, England, the town that gave Sandwich, Massachusetts, its name. The Guildhall was built in 1579 and for centuries served as a center of civic and judicial life. Portions of its early interior survive today, including Court Room paneling dating to 1607. Exactly where our piece once fitted into the building is unknown, but in 1920 it was donated to the Sandwich Historical Society by Mrs. Elsie Wing.

Turn the panel over and another clue to its history appears. Attached to the back is a small red-and-white label bearing the ancient seal of the mayoralty of Sandwich, Kent. Its Latin inscription translates roughly as “Seal of the Office of the Mayoralty of the Town of Sandwich,” surrounding the town's distinctive arms. We don't know when the label was attached, but it provides another tangible link between this piece of wood and the English town from which it came.

When Sandwich, Massachusetts, was settled in 1637, its founders gave their new community the name of an English town more than 3,000 miles away. Less than 140 years later, thirteen British colonies declared their independence and began the complicated process of creating a new American identity.

But independence did not erase the past. Language, law, architecture, customs, family histories, and even the names of American towns and cities. continued to reflect connections to Britain. By the early 20th century, when this panel entered the Historical Society’s collection, Sandwich residents were actively preserving tangible reminders of those colonial roots.

And the connection did not end there. In 2014, Sandwich, Massachusetts, and Sandwich, Kent, formally became twin towns, renewing a relationship that stretches back nearly four centuries.

As we mark America’s 250th anniversary, this unassuming piece of wood reminds us that declaring independence created a new country, but did not sever all the connections to the old one.