Part 14 (2/2)

John Goodman we know little more about than that he and Peter Browne seem to have been ”lost” together, on one occasion (when he was badly frozen), and to have had, with his little spaniel dog, a rencontre with ”two great wolves,” on another. He was twice married, the last time at Leyden in 1619. He died before the end of March, 1621.

As he signed the Compact, he must have been over twenty-one.

Edward Margeson we know nothing about. As he signed the Compact, he was presumably of age.

Richard Britteridge affords little data. His age, birthplace, or occupation do not transpire, but he was, it seems, according to Bradford, the first of the company to die on board the s.h.i.+p after she had cast anchor in the harbor of New Plymouth. This fact negatives the pleasant fiction of Mrs. Austin's ”Standish of Standish” (p. 104), that Britteridge was one of those employed in cutting sedge on sh.o.r.e on Friday, January 12. Poor Britteridge died December 21, three weeks earlier. He signed the Compact, and hence may be accounted of age at the landing at Cape Cod.

Richard Clarke appears only as one of the pa.s.sengers and as dying before the end of March. He signed the Compact, and hence was doubtless twenty-one or over.

Richard Gardiner, we know from Bradford, ”became a seaman and died in England or at sea.” He was evidently a young man, but of his age or antecedents nothing appears. He signed the Compact, and hence was at least twenty-one years old.

John Alderton (sometimes spelled Allerton), we are told by Bradford,--as elsewhere noted,--”was hired, but was reputed one of the company, but was to go back, being a seaman and so, presumably, unmindful of the voyages, for the help of others.” Whether Bradford intended by the latter clause to indicate that he had left his family behind, and came ”to spy out the land,” and, if satisfied, to return for them, or was to return for the counsel and a.s.sistance of Robinson and the rest, who were to follow, is not clear, but the latter view has most to support it. We learn his occupation, but can only infer that he was a young man over twenty-one from the above and the fact that he signed the Compact. It has been suggested that he was a relative of Isaac Allerton, but this is nowhere shown and is improbable. He died before the MAY-FLOWER returned to England.

Thomas English (or Enlish), Bradford tells us (”Historie,” Ma.s.s. ed.

p. 533), ”was hired to goe Master of a [the] shallop here.” He, however, ”died here before the s.h.i.+p returned.” It is altogether probable that he was the savior of the colony on that stormy night when the shallop made Plymouth harbor the first time, and, narrowly escaping destruction, took shelter under Clarke's Island. The first three governors of the colony, its chief founders,--Carver, Bradford, and Winslow,--with Standish, Warren, Hopkins, Howland, Dotey, and others, were on board, and but for the heroism and prompt action of ”the l.u.s.ty sea man which steered,” who was--beyond reasonable doubt--English, as Bradford's narrative (”Morton's Memorial”) shows, the lives of the entire party must, apparently, have been lost. That English was, if on board--Bradford shows in the ”Memorial” that he was--as Master of the shallop, properly her helmsman in so critical a time, goes without saying, especially as the ”rudder was broken” and an oar subst.i.tuted; that the s.h.i.+p's ”mates,” Clarke and Coppin, were not in charge (although on board) fully appears by Bradford's account; and as it must have taken all of the other (four) seamen on board to pull the shallop, bereft of her sail, in the heavy breakers into which she had been run by Coppin's blunder, there would be no seaman but English for the steering-oar, which was his by right. Had these leaders been lost at this critical time,--before a settlement had been made,--it is certain that the colony must have been abandoned, and the Pilgrim impress upon America must have been lost. English's name should, by virtue of his great service, be ever held in high honor by all of Pilgrim stock. His early death was a grave loss. Bradford spells the name once Enlish, but presumably by error. He signed the Compact as Thomas English.

William Trevore was, according to Bradford, one of ”two seamen hired to stay a year in the countrie.” He went back when his time expired, but later returned to New England. Cushman (Bradford, ”Historie,”

p. 122) suggests that he was telling ”sailors' yarns.” He says: ”For William Trevore hath lavishly told but what he knew or imagined of Capewock Martha's Vineyard, Monhiggon, and ye Narragansetts.” In 1629 he was at Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in command of the HANDMAID (Goodwin, p. 320), and in February, 1633 (Winthrop, vol. i. p. 100), he seems to have been in command of the s.h.i.+p WILLIAM at Plymouth, with pa.s.sengers for Ma.s.sachusetts Bay. Captain Standish testified in regard to Thompson's Island in Boston harbor, that about 1620 he ”was on that Island with Trevore,” and called it ”Island Trevore.”

(Bradford, ”Historie,” Deane's ed. p. 209.) He did not sign the Compact, perhaps because of the limitations of his contract (one year).

--- Ely (not Ellis, as Arber miscalls him, ”The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers,” p. 377) was the other of the ”two seamen hired to stay a year,” etc. He also returned when his time expired. (Bradford, Hist. Ma.s.s. ed. p. 534.) He did not sign the Compact, probably for the reason operative in .Trevore's case. A digest of the foregoing data gives the following interesting, if incomplete, data (errors excepted):--

Adult males (hired seamen and servants of age included)... 44 Adult females (including Mrs. Carver's maid).............. 19 Youths, male children, and male servants, minors.......... 29 Maidens, female children.................................. 10 ------- 102

Married males............................................. 26 Married females........................................... 18 Single (adult) males (and young men)...................... 25 Single (adult) females (Mrs. Carver's maid)............... 1

Vocations of adults so far as known (except wives, who are presumed housekeepers for their husbands):--

Carpenters................................................ 2 Cooper.................................................... 1 Fustian-worker and silk-dyer.............................. 1 Hatter.................................................... 1 Lay-reader................................................ 1 Lady's-maid............................................... 1 Merchants................................................. 3 Physician................................................. 1 Printers and publishers................................... 2 Seamen.................................................... 4 Servants (adult).......................................... 10 Smith..................................................... 1 Soldier................................................... 1 Tailor.................................................... 1 Tradesmen................................................. 2 Wool-carders.............................................. 2

Allowing for the addition of Wilder and the two sailors, Trevore and Ely, who did not sign it, the number of those who signed the Compact tallies exactly with the adult males. Besides these occupations, it is known that several of the individuals representing them were skilled in other callings, and were at some time teachers, accountants, linguists, writers, etc., while some had formerly practised certain handicrafts; Dr. Fuller, e.g. having formerly been a ”silk-worker,” Brad ford (on the authority of Belknap), a ”silk-dyer,” and others ”fustian-workers.”

Hopkins had apparently sometime before dropped his character of ”lay-reader,” and was a pretty efficient man of affairs, but his vocation at the time of the exodus is not known.

The former occupations of fourteen of the adult colonists, Browne, Billington, Britteridge, Cooke, Chilton, Clarke, Crackstone, Goodman, Gardiner, Rogers, Rigdale, Turner, Warren, and Williams are not certainly known. There is evidence suggesting that Browne was a mechanic; Billington and Cooke had been trained to husbandry; that Chilton had been a small tradesman; that Edward Tilley had been, like his brother, a silk-worker; that Turner was a tradesman, and Warren a farmer; while it is certain that Cooke, Rogers, and Warren had been men of some means.

Of the above list of fourteen men whose last occupations before joining the colonists are unknown, only five, viz. Browne, Billington, Cooke, Gardiner, and Warren lived beyond the spring of 1621. Of these, Warren died early, Gardiner left the colony and ”became a seaman;” the other three, Billington, Browne, and Cooke, became ”planters.” Thomas Morton, of ”Merry Mount,” in his ”New Eng land's Canaan” (p. 217), gives Billington the sobriquet ”Ould Woodman.”

The early deaths of the others make their former handicrafts--except as so much data pertaining to the composi tion and history of the colony-- matters of only ephemeral interest.

CHAPTER VII

QUARTERS, COOKING, PROVISIONS

Probably no more vexatious problem presented itself for the time being to the ”governors” of the two vessels and their ”a.s.sistants,” upon their selection, than the a.s.signment of quarters to the pa.s.sengers allotted to their respective s.h.i.+ps. That these allotments were in a large measure determined by the requirements of the women and children may be considered certain. The difficulties attendant on due recognition of social and official station (far more imperative in that day than this) were in no small degree lessened by the voluntary a.s.signment of themselves, already mentioned, of some of the Leyden chief people to the smaller s.h.i.+p; but in the interests of the general welfare and of harmony, certain of the leaders, both of the Leyden and London contingents, were of necessity provided for in the larger vessel. The allotments to the respective s.h.i.+ps made at Southampton, the designation of quarters in the s.h.i.+ps themselves, and the final readjustments upon the MAY-FLOWER at Plymouth (England), when the remaining pa.s.sengers of both s.h.i.+ps had been united, were all necessarily determined chiefly with regard to the needs of the women, girls, and babes. Careful a.n.a.lysis of the list shows that there were, requiring this especial consideration, nineteen women, ten young girls, and one infant. Of the other children, none were so young that they might not readily bunk with or near their fathers in any part of the s.h.i.+p in which the latter might be located.

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