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
association with the Leyden emigrants but there is a possibility
that they were of the English party. Probability assigns 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 classed 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 passenger; 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 classed 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 assigned 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 passengers.
Whether of the consort’s crew or not, there can be little doubt that
he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL.
—- Ely, the other seaman in the Planters’ employ, also hired to “remain
a year in the countrie,” appears to have been drafted, like Trevore,
from the SPEEDWELL before she returned to London, having, no doubt,
made passage from Holland in her. Both Trevore and Ely survived
“the general sickness” at New Plimoth, and at the expiration of the
time for which they were employed returned on the FORTUNE to England