The women Who Came in the Mayflower 1

The women Who Came in the Mayflower 1

The women Who Came in the Mayflower

Author: Annie Russell Marble

Foreword

 

 

This little book is intended as a memorial to the women who came in _The

Mayflower_, and their comrades who came later in _The Ann_ and _The

Fortune_, who maintained the high standards of home life in early

Plymouth Colony. There is no attempt to make a genealogical study of any

family. The effort is to reveal glimpses of the communal life during

1621-1623. This is supplemented by a few silhouettes of individual

matrons and maidens to whose influence we may trace increased resources

in domestic life and education.

 

One must regret the lack of proof regarding many facts, about which are

conflicting statements, both of the general conditions and the

individual men and women. In some instances, both points of view have

been given here; at other times, the more probable surmises have been

mentioned.

 

The author feels deep gratitude, and would here express it, to the

librarians of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England

Genealogic-Historical Register, the American Antiquarian Society, the

Register of Deeds, Pilgrim Hall, and the Russell Library of Plymouth,

private and public libraries of Duxbury and Marshfield, and to Mr.

Arthur Lord and all other individuals who have assisted in this

research. The publications of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and

the remarkable researches of its editor, Mr. George E. Bowman, call for

special appreciation.

 

ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE.

 

_Worcester, Massachusetts._

 

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CONTENTS

 

 

FOREWORD v

 

I ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING 3

 

II COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 21

 

III MATRONS AND MAIDENS WHO CAME IN “THE MAYFLOWER” 53

 

IV COMPANIONS WHO ARRIVED IN “THE FORTUNE” AND “THE ANN” 93

 

INDEX 109

 

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ERRATA

 

 

Page

 

49 (And foot-notes elsewhere) read _The Mayflower Descendant_

for Mayflower Descendants.

 

49 Foot-note, read _53 Mt. Vernon St._ for 9 Ashburton Pl.

 

78 Line 21, read _two hundred and seventy_ for seventy.

 

79 Line 12, read _inventory_ for will.

 

82 Line 12, omit Revolutionary.

 

84 Lines 4 and 5, read _Edward Winslow and Peregrine White_ for

William Mullins and Miles Standish.

 

84 Line 21, read _Petty coate with silke Lace_ for Pretty, etc.

 

86 Line 25, read _step-mother_ for mother.

 

88 Line 10, read _eighty_ for ninety years.

 

98 Line 14, read _Abraham_ for Alexander.

 

102 Line 9, read _Mercy_ for Mary.

 

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I

 

ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING

 

 

“_So they left ye goodly and pleasante citie, which had been ther

resting-place near 12. years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, &

looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to ye heavens,

their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits._”

 

—_Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantations. Chap. VII._

 

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CHAPTER I

 

ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING

 

 

December weather in New England, even at its best, is a test of physical

endurance. With warm clothes and sheltering homes today, we find

compensations for the cold winds and storms in the exhilarating winter

sports and the good cheer of the holiday season.

 

The passengers of _The Mayflower_ anchored in Plymouth harbor, three

hundred years ago, lacked compensations of sports or fireside warmth.

One hundred and two in number when they sailed,—of whom twenty-nine were

women,—they had been crowded for ten weeks into a vessel that was

intended to carry about half the number of passengers. In low spaces

between decks, with some fine weather when the open hatchways allowed

air to enter and more stormy days when they were shut in amid

discomforts of all kinds, they had come at last within sight of the

place where, contrary to their plans, they were destined to make their

settlement.

 

At Plymouth, England, their last port in September, they had “been

kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there

dwelling,”[1] but they were homeless now, facing a new country with

frozen shores, menaced by wild animals and yet more fearsome savages.

Whatever trials of their good sense and sturdy faith came later, those

days of waiting until shelter could be raised on shore, after the weeks

of confinement, must have challenged their physical and spiritual

fortitude.

 

There must have been exciting days for the women on shipboard and in

landing. There must have been hours of distress for the older and the

delight in adventure which is an unchanging trait of the young of every

race. Wild winds carried away some clothes and cooking-dishes from the

ship; there was a birth and a death, and occasional illness, besides the

dire seasickness. John Howland, “the lustie young man,” fell overboard

but he caught hold of the topsail halyard which hung extended and so

held on “though he was sundry fathoms under water,” until he was pulled

up by a rope and rescued by a boat-hook.[2]

 

Recent research[3] has argued that the captain of _The Mayflower_ was

probably not _Thomas_ Jones, with reputation for severity, but a Master

Christopher Jones of kindlier temper. The former captain was in

Virginia, in September, 1620, according to this account. With the most

generous treatment which the captain and crew could give to the women,

they must have been sorely tried. There were sick to be nursed, children

to be cared for, including some lively boys who played with powder and

nearly caused an explosion at Cape Cod; nourishment must be found for

all from a store of provisions that had been much reduced by the delays

and necessary sales to satisfy their “merchant adventurers” before they

left England. They slept on damp bedding and wore musty clothes; they

lacked exercise and water for drink or cleanliness. Joyful for them must

have been the day recorded by Winslow and Bradford,[4]—“On Monday the

thirteenth of November our people went on shore to refresh themselves

and our women to wash, as they had great need.”

 

During the anxious days when the abler men were searching on land for a

site for the settlement, first on Cape Cod and later at Plymouth, there

were events of excitement on the ship left in the harbor. Peregrine

White was born and his father’s servant, Edward Thompson, died. Dorothy

May Bradford, the girl-wife of the later Governor of the colony, was

drowned during his absence. There were murmurings and threats against

the leaders by some of the crew and others who were impatient at the

long voyage, scant comforts and uncertain future. Possibly some of the

complaints came from women, but in the hearts of most of them, although

no women signed their names, was the resolution that inspired the men

who signed that compact in the cabin of _The Mayflower_,—“to promise all

due submission and obedience.” They had pledged their “great hope and

inward zeal of laying good foundation for ye propagating and advancing

ye gospell of ye kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of ye world;

yea, though they should be but as stepping-stones unto others for ye

performing of so great a work”; with such spirit they had been impelled

to leave Holland and such faith sustained them on their long journey.