The women of the Mayflower and women of Plymouth colony

by Ethel J. R. C. Noyes

Thus Susanna became the first lady of Plymouth; easily pictured wearing the dainty white satin, lace trimmed slippers, or the white satin cape, actually to be seen now, in Plymouth, visible magic means of carrying us back to her days from the present. Alice Bradford smilingly relinquished her position to her friend and devoted her efforts to restoring her husband’s health. Yet this twelve-month contained more of trial, anxiety and annoyance than the colony had experienced in many a year; it could not have been other than a sorrowful memory to Susanna.

Early in the spring a strange swarm of large noisy flies came out of the ground—ate the young green things, and disappeared. Such had never been seen by the colonists and the Indians foretold sickness. This prophecy proved all too true and during the summer and autumn a devastating fever swept away a score or more of men, women and children; some were of the new comers from Leyden, but the weight of the sadness was among the old families. Gentle Fear Brewster Allerton was laid to rest beside her mother, on Burial Hill, leaving her baby boy, Isaac, to her sorrowing father’s care, who was spending the summer with his two unmarried sons on their farm in the country. Isaac Allerton’s sister, Sarah Cuthbertson, was also a victim to the infection, likewise her husband. While Susanna Winslow was mourning these two friends, her brother, the doctor, after fighting the disease for the help of others, succumbed. This shock and loss to the colonists was felt not only in Plymouth—while in Plymouth grief was deep. This educated, Christian gentleman was sadly missed for many a year. What he was to the people can be easily imagined. His widow and children were devoted to his memory; in after years, the son, Samuel, studied for the ministry and married a granddaughter of Elder Brewster; the daughter, Mercy, married Ralph James; but his profession was carried on in the Old Colony, after a time, by his nephews—his namesake Samuel—whom we have known of since the Pilgrims’ emigration from Holland—and Matthew, who came later to Plymouth.

The business affairs of the Colony became complicated in their trade on the Connecticut River, both because of the Dutch and Indians. At home, Roger Williams, whom they had befriended, acted in a very unpleasant manner, so they were glad when he left them. Notwithstanding the clouds over-shadowing them, this year’s return of the trade in furs was noteworthy, and as election time drew near, it was decided that it would be best for Edward Winslow to go again to England on their foreign business; therefore Thomas Prence was elected Governor and Susanna was again left alone with her children. The White boys were now sturdy, manly lads, a comfort and joy to Susanna and the admiration of their small brothers and sister, the Winslows. Another brother-in-law, Kenelm, was a visitor in her home, and appearances indicated that he would remain as a permanent resident of Plymouth.

Several marriages occurred before a year closed. Ann Warren became Mrs. Thomas Little and her sister, Sarah, became Mrs. John Cooke, Jr.

Recently a family of four girls had come to the colony with their father, William Collier, a wealthy merchant from London; from among them one of the Brewster boys selected his wife and Sarah Collier went as Love’s bride to the Duxbury home to try to bring cheerfulness to the three lonely men there and to help care for little Isaac Allerton, his mother’s legacy to her family, until he should grow up. Remember Allerton married also, and was one of the girls who went away from Plymouth to a new home in Salem, leaving her sister Mary, to give their father such attention as he needed in his rare visits home.

At this time, in Boston, eggs were three cents a dozen, milk one cent a quart, butter six and cheese five cents a pound, so housekeepers not caring for the somewhat higher prices in Plymouth, could send for butter or cheese at least, if they did not make it themselves, and felt economically inclined.

In the early part of the new administration, when Patience Brewster Prence was mistress of the executive mansion (which was the Governor’s own house, whichever one it was), certain affairs concerned two of the Plymouth women mightily, Priscilla Alden and Barbara Standish, but particularly the former, which was caused by the interference in Plymouth’s affairs by Massachusetts Bay, through misrepresentation. John Alden putting into Boston from a trip to the Kennebec trading station, was held there and imprisoned until Plymouth should explain its connection with a shooting incident in which two men were killed at the station. The ship was allowed to return to Plymouth bringing the news of this cool proceeding, which, we can imagine made John Alden’s wife anything but cool, and we can also think that the Governor was not allowed to delay in getting John Alden home to his family. To do so, Captain Myles Standish was dispatched to Boston, with the facts of the unpleasant incident at the trading station, which were so different from the representation which the Bay authorities had received that John Alden was immediately set at liberty. We can appreciate the feelings of both Barbara and Priscilla as they looked for the return of the ship again. Barbara anxious for the success of her husband’s efforts to release the husband of her friend, and Priscilla both indignant and worried. However, the incident was happily concluded, though more than Priscilla were indignant in Plymouth.

Later in the year, news came from London which caused the heart of Susanna to burn with indignation in her turn, and for the same cause concerning her husband as had agitated Priscilla. Through the old jealousy of the Church authorities, on trumped up charges concerning the business on which Winslow went to England, which was in behalf also of the Bay, he was held for many weeks in the Fleet Street prison. Fortunately friends were able to release him—but it was some time before he was able to return to his family in Plymouth.

Meanwhile Eleanor Newton Adams and Priscilla Carpenter Wright, both made widows by the epidemic of the previous year, became wives again. The marriage of the former, who had been left quite well off, was of special interest to Susanna since she became her sister-in-law, Mrs. Kenelm Winslow, the third Mrs. Winslow of Plymouth and Marshfield, as all had summer places in the latter suburb of Plymouth—Careswell, The Edward Winslow place, soon became a permanent abode, handsome of style and proportions.

This year saw sorrow once more fall on the members of the old families—bound together by the powerful ties formed in the old days—and many more, for at its close, the Governor’s wife was taken by death—and Patience Brewster Prence’s short, happy life was over. The religious convictions of the Pilgrims did not admit of undue mourning for their loved ones, since they regarded the departed not as victims to death, but as victors through death, and the lives of those remaining must go on. Hearts were true, nevertheless, and even in their wills the men sometimes especially requested to be laid beside the graves of their wives and daughters.