Part 13 (1/2)
Love Brewster was the second son of his parents, his elder brother Jonathan coming over afterwards.
Wrestling Brewster was but a ”lad,” and his father's third son.
Richard More and his brother, Bradford states, ”were put to him” (Elder Brewster) as bound-boys. For a full account of their English origin, Richard's affidavit, etc., see ante. This makes him but about six, but he was perhaps older.
Governor Edward Winslow's known age at his death fixes his age at the time of the exodus, and his birth is duly recorded at Droitwich, in Worcester, England. (See ”Winslow Memorial,” David Parsons Holton, vol. i. p. 16.)
Mrs. Elizabeth (Barker) Winslow, the first wife of the Governor, appears by the data supplied by the record of her marriage in Holland, May 27, 1618, to have been a maiden of comporting years to her husband's, he being then twenty-three. Tradition makes her slightly younger than her husband.
George Soule, it is evident,--like Howland,--though denominated a ”servant” by Bradford, was more than this, and should rather have been styled, as Goodwin points out, ”an employee” of Edward Winslow.
His age is approximated by collateral evidence, his marriage, etc.
Elias Story is called ”man-servant” by Bradford, and his age is unknown.
The fact that he did not sign the Compact indicates that he was under age, but extreme illness may have prevented, as he died early.
Ellen More, ”a little girl that was put to him” (Winslow), died early.
She was sister of the other More children, ”bound out” to Carver and Brewster, of whom extended mention has been made.
Governor William Bradford's date of birth fixes his age in 1620. His early home was at Austerfield, in Yorks.h.i.+re. Belknap (”American Biography,” vol. ii. p. 218) says: ”He learned the art of silk-dyeing.”
Mrs. Dorothy (May) Bradford's age (the first wife of the Governor) is fixed at twenty-three by collateral data, but she may have been older. She was probably from Wisbeach, England. The manner of her tragic death (by drowning, having fallen overboard from the s.h.i.+p in Cape Cod harbor), the first violent death in the colony, was especially sad, her husband being absent for a week afterward. It is not known that her body was recovered.
Dr. Samuel Fuller, from his marriage record at Leyden, made in 1613, when he was a widower, it is fair to a.s.sume was about thirty, perhaps older, in 1620, as he could, when married, have hardly been under twenty-one. His (third) wife and child were left in Holland.
William b.u.t.ten (who died at sea, November 6/16), Bradford calls ”a youth.” He was undoubtedly a ”servant”-a.s.sistant to the doctor.
Isaac Allerton, it is a fair a.s.sumption, was about thirty-four in 1620, from the fact that he married his first wife October 4, 1611, as he was called ”a young man” in the Leyden marriage record. He is called ”of London, England,” by Bradford and on the Leyden records.
He was made a ”freeman” of Leyden, February 7, 1614. Arber and others state that his early occupation was that of ”tailor,” but he was later a tradesman and merchant.
Mary (Norris) Allerton is called a ”maid of Newbury in England,” in the Leyden record of her marriage, in October, 1611, and it is the only hint as to her age we have. She was presumably a young woman. Her death followed (a month later) the birth of her still-born son, on board the MAY-FLOWER in Plymouth harbor, February 25/March 7, 1621.
Bartholomew Allerton, born probably in 1612/13 (his parents married October, 1611), was hence, as stated, about seven or eight years old at the embarkation. He has been represented as older, but this was clearly impossible. He was doubtless born in Holland.
Remember Allerton, apparently Allerton's second child, has (with a novelist's license) been represented by Mrs. Austin as considerably older than six, in fact nearer sixteen (Goodwin, p. 183, says, ”over 13”), but the known years of her mother's marriage and her brother's birth make this improbable. She was, no doubt, born in Holland about 1614--She married Moses Maverick by 1635, and Thomas Weston's only child, Elizabeth, was married from her house at Marblehead to Roger Conant, son of the first ”governor” of a Ma.s.sachusetts Bay ”plantation.”
Mary Allerton, apparently the third child, could hardly have been much more than four years old in 1620, though Goodwin (”Pilgrim Republic,” p. 184) calls her eleven, which is an error. She was probably born in Holland about 1616. She was the last survivor of the pa.s.sengers of the MAY-FLOWER, dying at Plymouth, New England, 1699.
John Hooke, described by Bradford as a ”servant-boy,” was probably but a youth. He did not sign the Compact. Nothing further is known of him except that he died early. It is quite possible that he may have been of London and have been ”indentured” by the munic.i.p.ality to Allerton, but the presumption has been that he came, as body-servant of Allerton, with him from Leyden.
Captain Standish's years in 1620 are conjectural (from fixed data), as is his age at death. His early home was at Duxborough Hall, in Lancas.h.i.+re. His commission as Captain, from Queen Elizabeth, would make his birth about 1584. Rose Standish, his wife, is said by tradition to have been from the Isle of Man, but nothing is known of her age or antecedents, except that she was younger than the Captain. She died during the ”general sickness,” early in 1621.
Master Christopher Martin, as previously noted, was from Billerica, in Ess.e.x. From collateral data it appears that he must have been ”about forty” years old when he joined the Pilgrims. He appears to have been a staunch ”Independent” and to have drawn upon himself the ire of the Archdeacon of Chelmsford, (probably) by his loud-mouthed expression of his views, as only ”a month before the MAY-FLOWER sailed” he, with his son and Solomon Prower of his household (probably a relative), were cited before the archdeacon to answer for their shortcomings, especially in reverence for this church dignitary. He seems to have been at all times a self-conceited, arrogant, and unsatisfactory man. That he was elected treasurer and s.h.i.+p's ”governor” and permitted so much unbridled liberty as appears, is incomprehensible. It was probably fortunate that he died early, as he did, evidently in utter poverty. He had a son, in 1620, apparently quite a grown youth, from which it is fair to infer that the father was at that time ”about forty.” Of his wife nothing is known. She also died early.
Solomon Prower, who is called by Bradford both ”son” and ”servant” of Martin, seems from the fact of his ”citation” before the Archdeacon of Chelmsford, etc., to have been something more than a ”servant,”
possibly a kinsman, or foster-son, and probably would more properly have been termed an ”employee.” He was from Billerica, in Ess.e.x, and was, from the fact that he did not sign the Compact, probably under twenty-one or very ill at the time. He died early. Of John Langemore, his fellow ”servant,” nothing is known, except that he is spoken of by Young as one of two ”children” brought over by Martin (but on no apparent authority), and he did not sign the Compact, though this might have been from extreme illness, as he too died early.
William White was of the Leyden congregation. He is wrongly called by Davis a son of Bishop John White, as the only English Bishop of that name and time died a bachelor. At White's marriage, recorded at the Stadthaus at Leyden, January 27/February 1, 1612, to Anna [Susanna]
Fuller, he is called ”a young man of England.” As he presumably was of age at that time, he must have been at least some twenty-nine or thirty years old at the embarkation, eight years later. His son Peregrine was born in Cape Cod harbor. Mr. White died very early.
Susanna (Fuller) White, wife of William, and sister of Dr. Fuller (?), was apparently somewhat younger than her first husband and perhaps older than her second. She must, in all probability (having been married in Leyden in 1612), have been at least twenty-five at the embarkation eight years later. Her second husband, Governor Winslow, was but twenty-five in 1620, and the presumption is that she was slightly his senior. There appears no good reason for ascribing to her the austere and rather unlovable characteristics which the pen of Mrs. Austin has given her.