THE MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS
Prepared by George Ernest Bowman
Editor of “The Mayflower Descendant”
There were only one hundred and four (104) Mayflower Passengers. Every one of them is included in the two lists following. There were no other passengers.
The 50 passengers from whom descent can be proved:
John Alden Isaac Allerton wife Mary daughter Mary daughter Remember John Billington wife Eleanor son Francis William Bradford William Brewster wife Mary son Love Peter Brown James Chilton wife —— daughter Mary Francis Cooke son John Edward Doty Francis Eaton wife Sarah son Samuel Edward Fuller wife —— son Samuel Dr. Samuel Fuller Stephen Hopkins 2nd wife, Elizabeth son Gyles (by 1st wife) daughter Constance (by 1st wife) John Howland Richard More William Mullins wife Alice daughter Priscilla Degory Priest Thomas Rogers son Joseph Henry Samson George Soule Myles Standish John Tilley, and wife —— daughter Elizabeth Richard Warren William White wife Susanna son Resolved son Peregrine Edward Winslow
The 54 passengers from whom descent cannot be proved.
Bartholomew Allerton John Allerton John Billington Dorothy Bradford (1st wife of William) Wrestling Brewster Richard Britterige William Butten Robert Carter John Carver Katherine Carver (wife of John) Maid servant of the Carvers Richard Clarke Humility Cooper John Crakston son John —— Ely Thomas English Moses Fletcher Richard Gardiner John Goodman William Holbeck John Hooke Damaris Hopkins Oceanus Hopkins John Langmore William Latham Edward Leister Edmund Margeson Christopher Martin wife —— Desire Minter Ellen More Jasper More (a boy) More Joseph Mullins Solomon Prower John Rigdale wife Alice Rose Standish (1st wife of Myles) Elias Story Edward Thomson Edward Tilley wife Ann Thomas Tinker wife —— son —— William Trevore John Turner son —— son —— Roger Wilder Thomas Williams Elizabeth Winslow (1st wife of Edward) Gilbert Winslow
The migration of the Pilgrim company was the result of years of friction between the adherents of the established Church of England with its perfunctory ritualisms and those who demanded the right to worship according to their conscience and the simplicity of the gospel as exemplified in the scriptures.
This determined attitude on the part of the dissenters was met by arbitrary rulings on the part of the reigning monarch, King James I, of England and the bishops who received their support from the crown. The oppression became so great that in 1608 the congregation of the Pilgrim Church at Scrooby moved to Amsterdam, Holland, whence in 1609 they moved to Leyden, twenty-two miles distant. Here they remained for twelve years. It was a temporary refuge, however. There was the constantly growing fear of assimilation into Dutch life and habits as well as the absorption of a language foreign to themselves and their posterity. They preferred to remain English men and women although their relations had been friendly with the Dutch who commended their industry and their peaceful contacts. Nevertheless, King James was beginning to exercise his influence in the low countries again much to their discomfiture.
Finally deciding to leave Leyden, application was made to the Virginia Company which had been established in 1606, and held patents to land along the Atlantic coast of North America from the 34th to 45th degrees of north latitude, for a patent to land suitable for settlement.
Having secured their patent, estates were liquidated and, with the proceeds therefrom, together with money subscribed by the London company, styled the Merchant Adventurers, with whom they had formed a business alliance, the Speedwell, a small vessel of sixty tons, was secured and sent to Delfthaven to transport the colonists to Southampton where the Mayflower, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, was to join them.
On the 15th of August, 1620, both vessels left Southampton, but the Speedwell proving unseaworthy, they were obliged to return, putting into the harbor of Dartmouth for repairs. A second attempt resulted in abandoning the Speedwell at Plymouth, from which port the Mayflower sailed alone on the 16th of September. After a tempestuous voyage of sixty-six days, refuge was taken in Cape Cod harbor (Provincetown) on November 21st, 1620.
From here exploring parties set out in the shallop (small boat) to locate a suitable home site and on December 21st a landing was made at Plymouth, the Mayflower following on December 26th. And here a permanent settlement was established.
THE DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA
As the patent they held covered land in the vicinity of the Virginia capes, and settlement was made outside the limits defined therein, a second patent was obtained covering land contiguous to Cape Cod Bay. This second patent was brought over in the Fortune in 1621 and is now preserved in Pilgrim Hall.
It was while the Mayflower lay in Provincetown harbor that, to quote from Mourt’s Relation under date of November 23rd, 1620, “Our people went on shore to refresh themselves and our women to wash as they had great need.” This was on Monday, and is supposed to be the origin of our national “Wash Day.”
SCENE OF LANDING
It was here also that the famous document referred to by Bradford as a “combination” but later known as the Compact was drawn and signed. This document has often been referred to as the genesis of our present form of constitutional government as expounded in the Constitution of the United States and later expressed by Lincoln as “of the people, by the people and for the people.” It anticipates future growth and development and the enactment of laws necessary to meet changing conditions as “by vertue hereof to enacte, constitute and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & conuenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie.” (sic)
It has been said of the Pilgrims that “They builded better than they knew.” This should not be interpreted too literally. They laid a solid foundation upon which future generations could and did build, and upon this foundation rests the security of the structure that is our present form of government.
The literal text of this immortal document follows:
THE COMPACT
(Copied from Bradford’s “History of Plymouth Plantation”)
In ye name of God Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soueraigne Lord King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c. Haueing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and aduancemente of ye christian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another; couenant, & combine our selues togeather into a ciuill body politick; for our better ordering, & preseruation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hereof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & conuenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we haue hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye .11. of Nouember in ye year of ye raigne of our soueraigne Lord King James of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth. Ano: Dom. 1620.
John Carver William Bradford Edward Winslow William Brewster Isaac Allerton Myles Standish John Alden John Turner Francis Eaton James Chilton John Crakston John Billington Moses Fletcher John Goodman Samuel Fuller Christopher Martin William Mullins Degory Priest Thomas Williams Gilbert Winslow Edmund Margeson Peter Brown Richard Britterige George Soule Edward Tilley John Tilley Francis Cooke Thomas Rogers Thomas Tinker John Rigdale Edward Fuller Richard Clark Richard Gardiner John Allerton William White Richard Warren John Howland Stephen Hopkins Thomas English Edward Doty Edward Leister
During the first year the colony was reduced nearly one-half through exposure and disease. These losses were later offset by arrivals in the Fortune in 1621 and the Little James in 1623.
In April, 1621, a treaty was made with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag Indians, who occupied the surrounding territory. This was brought about through the good offices of Samoset and Squanto, two friendly Indians, the former having learned some English from contact with fishermen along the coast of Maine whence he had come, while the latter had been taken with a number of others by a Captain Hunt who had “got them under cover of trucking with them and carried them away and sold them as slaves.” He had made his escape and returned to his home with the Nausets on Cape Cod.
This treaty was held inviolate during the life of Massasoit and thereafter until the outbreak of the King Philip War in 1675. Precautionary measures were taken however to protect the settlement, and in 1622 a fort was erected on Burial Hill. This was supplemented by a watch tower in 1643. During the King Philip War a larger fort was erected on the same site. Fortunately the Plymouth colony escaped Indian attack although in 1676 a small community to the south near Eel River was attacked and eleven settlers killed.
It is hard to realize in these days of material comforts, not to speak of luxuries, the hardships of our forebears. It was a case of work for survival. And there must have been work for by December, 1621, “seven dwelling houses and four for the use of the plantation” had been erected. The harvest of 1621 had been successful and a season of Thanksgiving had been observed, wherein some of the friendly Indians had participated, this being the origin of our present Thanksgiving Day.
Nevertheless their existence was fraught with uncertainties. Their stocks of provisions were soon depleted and the problem of food supply became one of increasing concern. The very life of the colony depended upon the success of their crops. Corn had become increasingly valuable, not only as an article of food but as a medium of exchange, the colonists having little or no money.
Up to 1623 they worked together on company land, sharing the fruits of their combined labor. This year owing to the shortage of crops “they begane to think how they might raise as much corne as they could and abtaine a better crope than they had done that they might not still thus languish in miserie.”