Desire Minter (or Minther) was undoubtedly the daughter of Sarah, who, the "Troth Book" (or "marriage-in-tention" records) for 1616, at the Stadtbuis of Leyden, shows, was probably wife or widow of one William Minther—evidently of Pastor Robinson's congregation—when she appeared on May 13 as a "voucher" for Elizabeth Claes, who then pledged herself to Heraut Wilson, a pump-maker, John Carver being one of Wilson's "vouchers." In 1618 Sarah Minther (then recorded as the widow of William) reappeared, to plight her troth to Roger Simons, brick-maker, from Amsterdam. These two records and the rarity of the name warrant an inference that Desire Minter (or Minther) was the daughter of William and Sarah (Willet) Minter (or Minther), of Robinson's flock; that her father had died prior to 1618 (perhaps before 1616); that the Carvers were near friends, perhaps kinsfolk; that her father being dead, her mother, a poor widow (there were clearly no rich ones in the Leyden congregation), placed this daughter with the Carvers, and, marrying herself, and removing to Amsterdam the year before the exodus, was glad to leave her daughter in so good a home and such hands as Deacon and Mistress Carver's. The record shows that the father and mother of Mrs. Sarah Minther, Thomas and Alice Willet, the probable grandparents of Desire Minter, appear as "vouchers" for their daughter at her Leyden betrothal. Of them we know nothing further, but it is a reasonable conjecture that they may have returned to England after the remarriage of their daughter and her removal to Amsterdam, and the removal of the Carvers and their granddaughter to America, and that it was to them that Desire went, when, as Bradford records, "she returned to her friends in England, and proved not very well and died there."
"Mrs. Carver's maid" we know but little about, but the presumption is naturally strong that she came from; Leyden with her mistress. Her early marriage and; death are duly recorded.
Roger Wilder, Carver's "servant;" was apparently in his service at Leyden and accompanied the family from thence. Bradford calls him "his [Carver's] man Roger," as if an old, familiar household servant, which (as Wilder died soon after the arrival at Plymouth) Bradford would not have been as likely to do—writing in 1650, thirty years after—if he had been only a short-time English addition to Carver's household, known to Bradford only during the voyage. The fact that he speaks of him as a "man" also indicates something as to his age, and renders it certain that he was not an "indentured" lad. It is fair to presume he was a passenger on the SPEEDWELL to Southampton. (It is probable that Carver's "servant-boy," William Latham, and Jasper More, his "bound-boy," were obtained in England, as more fully appears.)
Master William Bradford and his wife were certainly of the party in the
SPEEDWELL, as shown by his own recorded account of the embarkation.
(Bradford's "Historie," etc.)
Master Edward Winslow's very full (published) account of the embarkation
("Hypocrisie Unmasked," pp. 10-13, etc.) makes it certain that
himself and family were SPEEDWELL passengers.
George Soule, who seems to have been a sort of "upper servant" or
"steward," it is not certain was with Winslow in Holland, though it
is probable.
Elias Story, his "under-servant," was probably also with him in Holland, though not surely so. Both servants might possibly have been procured from London or at Southampton, but probably sailed from Delfshaven with Winslow in the SPEEDWELL.
Elder William Brewster and his family, his wife and two boys, were passengers on the SPEEDWELL, beyond reasonable doubt. He was, in fact, the ranking man of the Leyden brethren till they reached Southampton and the respective ships' "governors" were chosen. The Church to that point was dominant. (The Elder's two "bound-boys," being from London, do not appear as SPEEDWELL passengers.) There is, on careful study, no warrant to be found for the remarkable statements of Goodwin ("Pilgrim Republic," p. 33), that, during the hunt for Brewster in Holland in 1619, by the emissaries of James I. of England (in the endeavor to apprehend and punish him for printing and publishing certain religious works alleged to be seditious), "William Brewster was in London . . . and there he remained until the sailing of the MAYFLOWER, which he helped to fit out;" and that during that time "he visited Scrooby." That he had no hand whatever in fitting out the MAYFLOWER is certain, and the Scrooby statement equally lacks foundation. Professor Arber, who is certainly a better authority upon the "hidden press" of the Separatists in Holland, and the official correspondence relating to its proprietors and their movements, says ("The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers," p.196): "The Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Church was, for more than a year before he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL, on the 22 July- 1 August, 1620, a hunted man." Again (p. 334), he says: "Here let us consider the excellent management and strategy of this Exodus. If the Pilgrims had gone to London to embark for America, many, if not most of them, would have been put in prison [and this is the opinion of a British historian, knowing the temper of those times, especially William Brewster.] So only those embarked in London against whom the Bishops could take no action." We can understand, in light, why Carver—a more objectionable person than Cushman to the prelates, because of his office in the Separatist Church—was chiefly employed out of their sight, at Southampton, etc., while the diplomatic and urbane Cushman did effective work at London, under the Bishops' eyes. It is not improbable that the personal friendship of Sir Robert Naunton (Principal Secretary of State to King James) for Sir Edward Sandys and the Leyden brethren (though officially seemingly active under his masters' orders in pushing Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, to an unrelenting search for Brewster) may have been of material aid to the Pilgrims in gaining their departure unmolested. The only basis known for the positive expression of Goodwin resides in the suggestions of several letters' of Sir Dudley Carleton to Sir Robert Naunton, during the quest for Brewster; the later seeming clearly to nullify the earlier.
Under date of July 22, 1619, Carleton says: "One William Brewster, a Brownist, who has been for some years an inhabitant and printer at Leyden, but is now within these three weeks removed from thence and gone back to dwell in London," etc.
On August 16, 1619 (N.S.), he writes: "I am told William Brewster is come again for Leyden," but on the 30th adds: "I have made good enquiry after William Brewster and am well assured he is not returned thither, neither is it likely he will; having removed from thence both his family and goods," etc.