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Tabitha's School - The First Plaskett Educator

Widowed by a hunting accident in 1794, Tabitha Plaskett opened a school in Plymouth and taught her way through.

After Joseph Plaskett drowned in a hunting accident in 1794, his widow Tabitha was left to raise their children alone in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

She became a school teacher to support her family. The “Tabitha Plasket House” in Plymouth became one of the earliest schoolhouses in America and remains a documented stop on historical walking tours today.

Tabitha was known for her intelligence and determination. She wrote her own epitaph before she died in 1807 — an unusual act for a woman of that era. Her son Joseph William would go on to become a Revolutionary War soldier and whaling captain, but it was Tabitha who kept the family together during its most vulnerable years.

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