THE MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS

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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
{Illustrated capital}

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”)

{Illustrated capital}

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.”

LAND DIVIDED

And so “to every family was assigned a parcell of land according to the proportion of their number for that end (but made no provision for inheritance) and ranged all boys & youths under some family. This had very good success for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corne was planted then other waise would have bene by any means the Governor or any other could use.”

This was followed the next season by a division of land wherein “to every person was given only one acre, to them and theirs, as near the towne as might be, and they had no more till the seven years were expired.”

Note: This was in accordance, at least in spirit, with the imposed provisions of their contract with the English company of Merchant Adventurers who had financed their expedition.

A further division of land, following a division of livestock, was made in 1627, wherein “every person or share should have 20 acres of land divided unto them, besides the single acres they had already.” (sic).

—Quotations from Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation

THEY CARRY ON

Fortified by faith and grim determination the colonists carried on in the face of great adversity, yet getting more and more firmly established.

In 1636, owing to the growth of the original colony or plantation and the establishment of separate settlements at Scituate and Duxbury, the purely democratic rule which had obtained under the Mayflower Compact, wherein matters pertaining to the interests of the colony were settled in general assembly, was superseded by a law passed providing for government by deputies representing the several towns.

The first legislative body met in 1639 and brought together representatives from the outlying towns of Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Taunton, Scituate, Duxbury and Plymouth.

In 1643, for mutual interests and against the menace of Indian attack, a confederation was formed between the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies in combination with Connecticut and New Haven as separate units, with authority vested in commissioners.

This remained in force until 1672 when a new compact was made upon the union of Connecticut and New Haven, which gave less authority to the commissioners.

In 1686 Sir Edmund Andros was sent by King James to rule over the Dominion of New England, to which in 1688 New York and New Jersey were added, the seat of government remaining in Boston.

Conditions under Andros with his autocratic assumptions and restrictions were not pleasant. It is interesting to note in this connection that Clark’s Island which had for some time been used for the support of the poor, was turned over by Andros to one of his followers who had been attracted by its natural beauties.

The ascension of William III to the throne of England in 1689 had much to do with shaping the destinies of the colonists. The regime of Andros continued until word was received that the landing of William, Prince of Orange, in England threatened the overthrow of the Stuart dynasty when the citizens of Boston revolted, took possession of a British ship in the harbor and overthrew the crown’s despotic representative. Plymouth again acquired Clark’s Island and later the proclamation of William and Mary established once more the freedom the colonists had previously enjoyed.

In 1692 came the union of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies. Sir William Phipps was appointed by the crown chief magistrate over the Massachusetts Colony with which the Plymouth Colony was united under one royal charter.

The Light Refreshment

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Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co., Inc. of Plymouth
124 Sandwich St. Plymouth, Mass.

PLYMOUTH ROPE, THE NATION’S SERVANT

Plymouth ropes have helped to write exciting chapters in American history.

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There’s a Plymouth rope serving the nation every minute of every day.

PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Established 1824


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FIRST NATIONAL Stores

A PILGRIM DISCOVERY

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Cranberries, growing wild on Cape Cod, were made into cranberry sauce by an unknown Pilgrim housewife. The Indians ate their cranberries raw, but the Pilgrim ladies stewed them with sugar as they did other fruits ... thus, cranberry sauce!

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OUR HOME SINCE JULY, 1952

Main Building 1803 Addition and Renovation 1952
Organized 1882—Federalized 1937

For 75 years this financial institution has contributed to the community welfare of Plymouth and vicinity. It has encouraged ... and made possible, home ownership for many. It has extended a financial helping hand to broaden the cultural, educational and social horizons of its citizens. It is aiding many to acquire security and independence through systematic saving. We welcome long term investment funds seeking sound placement at better than average yield.

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PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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