If all the people who have been claimed to have come
on the Mayflower to New England in 1620 actually had come on
that boat, it would have sunk mid-Atlantic. Likewise, all the ink used
to write about the ship and her passengers in the succeeding 385 years
could have floated her back to England. A great deal of what has been
written is mistaken, imaginary, or outright fraudulent. So how do you
know what is correct?
The best place to start is
Caleb Johnson’s website, http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/, which contains a list
of all of the Mayflower’s passengers and what is known about
them, whether they had descendants, transcriptions of books and
documents (many of them written by the Pilgrims) pertaining to both the
ship and passengers, and much more. If you don’t see a person on this
site, they didn’t come on the Mayflower.
When
the Mayflower left England she had 102 passengers. During the
voyage, one passenger died (William Butten), and one baby was born
(Oceanus Hopkins); thus, 102 passengers landed in New England (although
it should be noted at least two other pregnant women made the voyage –
Susanna White who gave birth to Peregrine White, the first European
child born in New England, shortly after arriving at Cape Cod, and Mary
Allerton who died in February, a few days after giving birth to a
stillborn son). During the first year in Plymouth Colony, half of the
passengers died.
Of these 102 passengers, the
Mayflower Society recognizes 26 heads of families who have proved
descendants. For the purposes of membership in the Mayflower Society,
wives and children who also came on the Mayflower are grouped
under the head of family:
- John Alden, also
representing Mayflower passenger (hereinafter MP)
Priscilla Mullins (daughter of William Mullins) whom he later
married. John and Priscilla had ten children born in Plymouth and
Duxbury, eight of whom had descendants (Elizabeth, John, Joseph,
Jonathan, Ruth, Sarah, Rebecca, and David).
- Isaac Allerton,
representing MPs first wife Mary, son Bartholomew, and
daughters Remember and Mary. Isaac’s wife Mary died after giving birth
to a stillborn son in February 1621. He remarried, to Fear Brewster (a
daughter of MP William Brewster, who was not herself on the Mayflower),
and later had a third wife. Bartholomew returned to England, where he
married and had children, although nothing is known about further
descendants. Daughters Remember and Mary both married and left
descendants.
- John Billington, representing MPs
wife Elinor and sons John and Francis. All survived; however, the older
John Billington, who had a history of troublemaking, became the first
man to be hanged in the colony. Only son Francis left descendants.
- William Bradford, representing MP first wife Dorothy
who died in December 1620. Their only child, John, left behind in
Holland, came to New England later. He married, but left no children.
William remarried, to widow Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, and had three
more children (William, Mercy, and Joseph), all of whom left
descendants.
- William Brewster, representing MPs
wife Mary and sons Love and Wrestling, who all survived. Left behind
were son Jonathan and daughters Patience and Fear, who came later. All
but Wrestling left descendants. Fear married MP Isaac Allerton
as his second wife.
- Peter Brown came alone, later
married twice and had four children, three of whom – Mary, Priscilla,
and Rebecca – left descendants.
- James Chilton, representing
MPs wife Susanna and daughter Mary. James died in December 1620
and Susanna in January 1621. James and Susanna had ten children in
total, but besides Mary, only their eldest daughter, Isabella (who came
to New England later), survived. Both Isabella and Mary left
descendants.
- Francis Cooke, representing MP son
John. His wife Hester and three other children remained behind and came
to Plymouth on the ship Anne in August 1623. Francis and Hester
had two more children born in Plymouth. Five of their children (Jane,
John, Jacob, Hester, and Mary) left descendants.
- Edward
Doty came as a servant to Stephen Hopkins. He married twice and had
nine children by his second wife (Edward, John, Thomas, Samuel, Desire,
Elizabeth, Isaac, Joseph, and Mary), all of whom left descendants.
- Francis Eaton, representing MPs wife Sarah and son
Samuel. Samuel survived to have descendants. Sarah died in the first
winter and Francis remarried twice. By his third wife, Christian Penn,
he had three children, two of whom (Rachel and Benjamin), left
descendants.
- Moses Fletcher came alone and returned to
Holland. He married twice and at his death left ten children, thirteen
grandchildren, and twenty great-grandchildren, all in Holland. One line
of descent has been accepted by the Mayflower Society.
- Edward
Fuller, representing MPs wife, name unknown, and son Samuel.
Edward’s wife died in January 1621. Their older son Matthew had
remained in England, but came to the colony later. Both Matthew and
Samuel left descendants. Edward was the brother of MP Samuel
Fuller.
- Samuel Fuller, brother of MP Edward
Fuller, Samuel left his third wife, Bridget Lee, and their son Samuel
behind in Holland (he had three children by his second wife, Agnes
Carpenter, who died without issue). Samuel, Jr., later came to New
England and left descendants.
- Stephen Hopkins, representing
MPs second wife Elizabeth, sons Giles and Oceanus, and daughters
Constance and Damaris. Constance and Giles were by Stephen’s first wife
and both survived to leave descendants. Stephen and Elizabeth’s
children Damaris and Oceanus who were on the Mayflower both died
young, but the couple had five more children born in Plymouth. Of these,
only two daughters, Deborah and another Damaris, left descendants.
- John Howland, representing MP (later wife) Elizabeth
Tilley, daughter of John Tilley. John and Elizabeth had ten children
(Desire, John, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, Joseph, Jabez, Ruth, and
Isaac), all of whom left descendants.
- Richard More came
as a child with his three siblings, Jasper, Ellen, and Mary, who all
died in the first winter. Richard married twice and had seven children
by his first wife, but only three (Richard, Susanna, and Christian) are
known to have had children. Of these, only Susanna has known
descendants. The More children are the only MPs with proved royal
ancestry.
- William Mullins, representing MPs
wife Alice, daughter Priscilla (who later married John Alden),
and son Joseph. William, Alice and Joseph all died in the first year.
Although William Mullins also had a son and daughter who remained in
England, all of his known descendants are through Priscilla. The claim
of Huguenot ancestry for William Mullins is a myth.
- Degory
Priest came alone leaving behind his wife Sarah (a sister of MP
Isaac Allerton) and two daughters, Mary and Sarah. He died in the first
winter, but Sarah and the girls came to New England later. Both girls
married and left descendants.
- Thomas Rogers,
representing MP son Joseph Rogers. Thomas died in the winter of
1620/21. His wife had stayed behind with three other surviving children
(two others had died). Joseph survived and he and his brother John have
proved descendants. Two sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, may have
married and had issue, but this has not been authenticated.
- Henry
Samson was a child who came with his cousins Edward and Ann Tilley.
He married and had nine children born in Duxbury, eight of whom left
descendants (Elizabeth, Hannah, a daughter [name unknown], Mary, Dorcas,
James, Stephen, and Caleb).
- George Soule came alone as
a servant of Edward Winslow. He married in Plymouth and had nine
children, seven of whom had descendants.
- Myles Standish,
representing MP first wife Rose, who died in January 1621. Myles
remarried and had seven children, three of whom (Alexander, Myles, and
Josiah) left descendants.
- John Tilley, representing MPs
wife Joan and their youngest daughter Elizabeth (who later married John
Howland). John and Joan died in the first year. In 1999 the
Mayflower Society also accepted a line through John Tilley’s son Robert,
who remained in England.
- Richard Warren came alone
leaving his wife Elizabeth and five daughters in England. Elizabeth and
the girls came later and the Warrens had two sons born in Plymouth. All
seven of the Warren children (Mary, Anna, Sarah, Elizabeth, Abigail,
Nathaniel, and Joseph) left descendants. Claims of royal ancestry for
Richard Warren are unfounded.
- William White,
representing MPs wife Susanna and sons Resolved and Peregrine.
William died in February 1621. Susanna remarried, to MP Edward
Winslow (see below). Both Resolved and Peregrine White left descendants.
- Edward Winslow, representing MPs first wife
Elizabeth and second wife Susanna, widow of William White.
Edward’s first wife died soon after landing in Plymouth and his marriage
to the widow Susanna White in May 1621 was the first marriage in the
new colony. He became stepfather to Susanna’s two boys, Resolved and
baby Peregrine White, and he and Susanna had five children born in
Plymouth. Only two, Josiah and Elizabeth, had descendants.
The Mayflower Society has published books detailing the first four
or five generations of most of these 26 families, which we will discuss
in the next installment of this series. The list of books is available
on http://www.mayflower.org/.
For the original, first-hand account of the voyage of the Mayflower
and the early history of Plymouth Colony, William Bradford’s Of
Plimoth Plantation is a must read, and Samuel Eliot Morrison’s
edition of that work is the most readable. Another interesting work, Mourt’s
Relation, A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, was written by the
first settlers as an enticement to bring more people to the colony. A
modern compilation that gives details on all of the early colonists is
Eugene Aubrey Stratton’s Plymouth Colony, Its History & People
1620-1691 (information for all of the above and other books about
the Pilgrims can be found on http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/), and Robert Charles
Anderson’s new work published by NEHGS, The Pilgrim Migration:
Immigrants to Plymouth Colony, 1620-1633 (updated sketches from his
larger series The Great Migration Begins) provides everything you
need to know about any immigrant to Plymouth Colony before 1634.
The
story of the Mayflower and her passengers was romanticized in
the nineteenth century by such people as orator Daniel Webster and poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (author of the famous poem "Courtship of
Myles Standish" that told the story of how Priscilla Mullins was wooed
by both Standish and John Alden). Fanciful and romantic novels were
written putting words into the mouths of the Pilgrims and describing
imaginary details of their lives. Often these imaginary details found
their way into so-called historical accounts. As the prestige of descent
from a Mayflower passenger rose, the rush to find an ancestor on
that boat led some to ignore good genealogical sources or even to make
up connections that were never there. Since many of the surnames of the MPs
are fairly common, some people have jumped to unfounded conclusions.For example, although there were two men on the Mayflower
named Clarke – Richard, a passenger, and John the mate – neither man
left descendants.[1] The Clarke family of Plymouth traces to Thomas
Clarke, who came on the ship Anne in 1623.
Many of these
imaginary Mayflower connections can still be found in print and
have unfortunately been disseminated throughout the Internet, but only
individuals on the above list are proved passengers of the ship Mayflower.
Further information about the ship, passengers, and settlement in
Plymouth Colony can be found on the websites of Pilgrim Hall (http://www.pilgrimhall.org/)
and Plimoth Plantation (http://www.plimoth.org/).
NOTE:
[1] The crew of the Mayflower,
perhaps as many as 25-30 men, are mostly unidentified and (other than
Captain Christopher Jones) no family information is known about them.
Only descent from a passenger qualifies for membership in the Mayflower
Society.