Part 3 (2/2)

Bradford's Letter Book, ”Plymouth Church Records,” i. 42.) In his letter dated at Leyden, December 15, 1625, he says: ”G.o.d hath taken away my son that was with me in the s.h.i.+p MAYFLOWER when I went back again.”

Edward Tilley (sometimes given the prefix of Master) his wife Ann are known to have been of the Leyden company. (Bradford's ”Historie,”

p. 83.) It is doubtful if their ”cousins,” Henry Sampson and Humility Cooper, were of Leyden. They apparently were English kinsfolk, taken to New England with the Tilleys, very likely joined them at Southampton and hence were not of the SPEEDWELL'S pa.s.sengers. Humility Cooper returned to England after the death of Tilley and his wife. That Mrs. Tilley's ”given name” was Ann is not positively established, but rests on Bradford's evidence.

John Tilley (who is also sometimes called Master) is reputed a brother of Edward, and is known to have been--as also his wife--of the Leyden church (Bradford, Deane's ed. p. 83.) His second wife Bridget Van der Velde, was evidently of Holland blood, and their marriage is recorded in Leyden. Elizabeth Tilley was clearly a daughter by an earlier wife. He is said by Goodwin (”Pilgrim Republic,” p. 32) to have been a ”silk worker” Leyden, but earlier authority for this occupation is not found.

John Crackstone is of record as of the Leyden congregation. His daughter remained there, and came later to America.

John Crackstone, Jr., son of above. Both were SPEEDWELL pa.s.sengers.

Francis Cooke has been supposed a very early member of Robinson's flock in England, who escaped with them to Holland, in 1608. He and his son perhaps embarked at Delfshaven, leaving his wife and three other children to follow later. (See Robinson's letter to Governor Bradford, ”Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll.,” vol. iii. p. 45, also Appendix for account of Cooke's marriage.)

John Cooke, the son, was supposed to have lived to be the last male survivor of the MAY-FLOWER, but Richard More proves to have survived him. He was a prominent man in the colony, like his father, and the founder of Dartmouth (Ma.s.s.).

John Turner and his sons are also known to have been of the Leyden party, as he was undoubtedly the messenger sent to London with the letter (of May 31) of the leaders to Carver and Cushman, arriving there June 10, 1620. They were beyond doubt of the SPEEDWELL'S list.

Degory Priest--or ”Digerie,” as Bradford calls him--was a prominent member of the Leyden body. His marriage is recorded there, and he left his family in the care of his pastor and friends, to follow him later. He died early.

Thomas Rogers and his son are reputed of the Leyden company. He left (according to Bradford) some of his family there--as did Cooke and Priest--to follow later. It has been suggested that Rogers might have been of the Ess.e.x (England) lineage, but no evidence of this appears. The Rogers family of Ess.e.x were distinctively Puritans, both in England and in the Ma.s.sachusetts colony.

Moses Fletcher was a ”smith” at Leyden, and of Robinson's church. He was married there, in 1613, to his second wife. He was perhaps of the English Amsterdam family of Separatists, of that name. As the only blacksmith of the colonists, his early death was a great loss.

Thomas Williams, there seems no good reason to doubt, was the Thomas Williams known to have been of Leyden congregation. Hon. H. C.

Murphy and Arber include him--apparently through oversight alone --in the list of those of Leyden who did not go, unless there were two of the name, one of whom remained in Holland.

Thomas Tinker, wife, and son are not certainly known to have been of the Leyden company, or to have embarked at Delfshaven, but their constant a.s.sociation in close relation with others who were and who so embarked warrants the inference that they were of the SPEEDWELL'S pa.s.sengers. It is, however, remotely possible, that they were of the English contingent.

Edward Fuller and his wife and little son were of the Leyden company, and on the SPEEDWELL. He is reputed to have been a brother of Dr.

Fuller, and is occasionally so claimed by early writers, but by what warrant is not clear.

John Rigdale and his wife have always been placed by tradition and a.s.sociation with the Leyden emigrants but there is a possibility that they were of the English party. Probability a.s.signs them to the SPEEDWELL, and they are needed to make her accredited number.

Francis Eaton, wife, and babe were doubtless of the Leyden list. He is said to have been a carpenter there (Goodwin, ”Pilgrim Republic,” p.

32), and was married there, as the record attests.

Peter Browne has always been cla.s.sed with the Leyden party. There is no established authority for this except tradition, and he might possibly have been of the English emigrants, though probably a SPEEDWELL pa.s.senger; he is needed to make good her putative number.

William Ring is in the same category as are Eaton and Browne. Cushman speaks of him, in his Dartmouth letter to Edward Southworth (of August 17), in terms of intimacy, though this, while suggestive, of course proves nothing, and he gave up the voyage and returned from Plymouth to London with Cushman. He was certainly from Leyden.

Richard Clarke is on the doubtful list, as are also John Goodman, Edward Margeson, and Richard Britteridge. They have always been traditionally cla.s.sed with the Leyden colonists, yet some of them were possibly among the English emigrants. They are all needed, however, to make up the number usually a.s.signed to Leyden, as are all the above ”doubtfuls,” which is of itself somewhat confirmatory of the substantial correctness of the list.

Thomas English, Bradford records, ”was hired to goe master of a [the]

shallopp” of the colonists, in New England waters. He was probably hired in Holland and was almost certainly of the SPEEDWELL.

John Alderton (sometimes written Allerton) was, Bradford states, ”a hired man, reputed [reckoned] one of the company, but was to go back (being a seaman) and so making no account of the voyages for the help of others behind” [probably at Leyden]. It is probable that he was hired in Holland, and came to Southampton on the SPEEDWELL.

Both English and Alderton seem to have stood on a different footing from Trevore and Ely, the other two seamen in the employ of the colonists.

William Trevore was, we are told by Bradford, ”a seaman hired to stay a year in the countrie,” but whether or not as part of the SPEEDWELL'S Crew (who, he tells us, were all hired for a year) does not appear.

As the Master (Reynolds) and others of her crew undoubtedly returned to London in her from Plymouth, and her voyage was cancelled, the presumption is that Trevore and Ely were either hired anew or--more probably--retained under their former agreement, to proceed by the MAY-FLOWER to America, apparently (practically) as pa.s.sengers.

Whether of the consort's crew or not, there can be little doubt that he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL.

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