The women Who Came in the Mayflower 4

The women Who Came in the Mayflower 4

Among the passengers brought by _The Fortune_ were some of great

helpfulness. William Wright, with his wife Priscilla (the sister of

Governor Bradford’s second wife), was an expert carpenter, and Stephen

Dean, who came with his wife, was able to erect a small mill and grind

corn. Robert Hicks (or Heeks) was another addition to the colony, whose

wife was later the teacher of some of the children. Philip De La Noye,

progenitor of the Delano family in America, John and Kenelm Winslow and

Jonathan Brewster were eligible men to join the group of younger

men,—John Alden, John Howland and others.

 

The great joy in the arrival of these friends was succeeded by an

agitating fear regarding the food supply, for _The Fortune_ had suffered

from bad weather and its colonists had scarcely any extra food or

clothing. By careful allotments the winter was endured and when spring

came there were hopes of a large harvest from more abundant sowing, but

the hopes were killed by the fearful drought which lasted from May to

the middle of July. Some lawless and selfish youths frequently stole

corn before it was ripe and, although public whipping was the

punishment, the evil persisted. These conditions were met with the same

courage and determination which ever characterized the leaders; a

rationing of the colony was made which would have done credit to a

“Hoover.” They escaped famine, but the worn, thin faces and “the low

condition, both in respect of food and clothing” was a shock to the

sixty more colonists who arrived in _The Ann_ and _The James_ in 1623.

 

The friends who came in these later ships included some women from

Leyden, “dear gossips” of _Mayflower_ colonists, women whose resources

and characters gave them prominence in the later history of Plymouth.

Notable among them was Mrs. Alice Southworth, soon to wed Governor

Bradford. With her came Barbara, whose surname is surmised to have been

Standish, soon to become the wife of Captain Standish. Bridget Fuller

joined her husband, the noble doctor of Plymouth; Elizabeth Warren, with

her five daughters, came to make a home for her husband, Richard;

Mistress Hester Cooke came with three children, and Fear and Patience

Brewster, despite their names, brought joy and cheer to their mother and

girlhood friends; they were later wed to Isaac Allerton and Thomas

Prence, the Governor.

 

Fortunately, _The Ann_ and _The James_ brought supplies in liberal

measure and also carpenters, weavers and cobblers, for their need was

great. _The James_ was to remain for the use of the colony. Rations had

been as low as one-quarter pound of bread a day and sometimes their fare

was only “a bit of fish or lobster without any bread or relish but a cup

of fair spring water.”[23] It is not strange that Bradford added: “ye

long continuance of this diete and their labors abroad had somewhat

abated ye freshness of their former complexion.”

 

An important change in the policy of the colony, which affected the

women as well as men, was made at this time. Formerly the administration

of affairs had been upon the communal basis. All the men and grown boys

were expected to plant and harvest, fish and hunt for the common use of

all the households. The women also did their tasks in common. The

results had been unsatisfactory and, in 1623, a new division of land was

made, allotting to each householder an acre for each member of his

family. This arrangement, which was called “every man for his owne

particuler,” was told by Bradford with a comment which shows that the

women were human beings, not saints nor martyrs. He wrote: “The women

now went willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ones with them

to set corne, which before would aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to

have compelled would have bene thought great tiranie and oppression.”

After further comment upon the failure of communism as “breeding

confusion and discontent” he added this significant comment: “For ye

yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine

that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s

wives and children without any recompense.... And for men’s wives to be

commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing

their cloathes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could

many husbands well brooke it.”

 

If food was scarce, even a worse condition existed as to clothing in the

summer of 1623. Tradition has ascribed several spinning-wheels and looms

to the women who came in _The Mayflower_, but we can scarcely believe

that such comforts were generously bestowed. There could have been

little material or time for their use. Much skilful weaving and spinning

of linen, flax, and wool came in later Colonial history. The women must

have been taxed to keep the clothes mended for their families as

protection against the cold and storms. The quantity on hand, after the

stress of the two years, would vary according to the supplies which each

brought from Holland or England; in some families there were sheets and

“pillow-beeres” with “clothes of substance and comeliness,” but other

households were scantily supplied. A somewhat crude but interesting

ballad, called “Our Forefathers’ Song,” is given by tradition from the

lips of an old lady, aged ninety-four years, in 1767. If the suggestion

is accurate that she learned this from her mother or grandmother, its

date would approximate the early days of Plymouth history. More probably

it was written much later, but it has a reminiscent flavor of those days

of poverty and brave spirit:

 

“The place where we live is a wilderness wood,

Where grass is much wanted that’s fruitful and good;

Our mountains and hills and our valleys below,

Are commonly covered with frost and with snow.

 

“Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn,

They need to be clouted soon after they are worn,

But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing,

Clouts _double_ are warmer than _single_ whole clothing.

 

“If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish,

We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish,

And if we’ve a mind for a delicate dish,

We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish.

 

“For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,

Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies!

We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon,

If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon.”[24]

 

What did these Pilgrim women wear? The manifest answer is,—what they had

in stock. No more absurd idea was ever invented than the picture of

these Pilgrims “in uniform,” gray gowns with dainty white collars and

cuffs, with stiff caps and dark capes. They wore the typical garments of

the period for men and women in England. There is no evidence that they

adopted, to any extent, Dutch dress, for they were proud of their

English birth; they left Holland partly for fear that their young people

might be educated or enticed away from English standards of conduct.[25]

Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has emphasized wisely[26] that the “sad-colored”

gowns and coats mentioned in wills were not “dismal”; the list of colors

so described in England included (1638) “russet, purple, green, tawny,

deere colour, orange colour, buffs and scarlet.” The men wore doublets

and jerkins of browns and greens, and cloaks with red and purple

linings. The women wore full skirts of say, paduasoy or silk of varied

colors, long, pointed stomachers,—often with bright tone,—full,

sometimes puffed or slashed sleeves, and lace collars or “whisks”

resting upon the shoulders. Sometimes the gowns were plaited or

silk-laced; they often opened in front showing petticoats that were

quilted or embroidered in brighter colours. Broadcloth gowns of russet

tones were worn by those who could not afford silks and satins;

sometimes women wore doublets and jerkins of black and browns. For dress

occasions the men wore black velvet jerkins with white ruffs, like those

in the authentic portrait of Edward Winslow. Velvet and quilted hoods of

all colors and sometimes caps, flat on the head and meeting below the

chin with fullness, are shown in existent portraits of English women and

early colonists.

 

Among relics that are dated back to this early period are the

slipper[27] belonging to Mistress Susanna White Winslow, narrow,

pointed, with lace trimmings, and an embroidered lace cap that has been

assigned to Rose Standish.[28] Sometimes the high ruffs were worn above

the shoulders instead of “whisks.” The children were dressed like

miniature men and women; often the girls wore aprons, as did the women

on occasions; these were narrow and edged with lace. “Petty coats” are

mentioned in wills among the garments of the women. We would not assume

that in 1621-2 _all_ the women in Plymouth colony wore silken or even

home-spun clothes of prevailing English fashion. Many of these that are

mentioned in inventories and retained as heirlooms, with rich laces and

embroideries, were brought later from England; probably Winslow,

Allerton and even Standish brought back such gifts to the women when

they made their trips to England in 1624 and later. If the pioneer women

had laces and embroideries of gold they probably hoarded them as

precious heirlooms during those early years of want, for they were too

sensible to wear and to waste them. As prosperity came, however, and new

elements entered the colony they were, doubtless, affected by the law of

the General Court, in 1634, which forbade further acquisition of laces,

threads of silver and gold, needle-work caps, bands and rails, and

silver girdles and belts. This law was enacted _not_ by the Pilgrims of

Plymouth, but by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

 

When Edward Winslow returned in _The Charity_, in 1624, he brought not

alone a “goodly supply of clothing”[29] but,—far more important,—the

first bull and heifers that were in Plymouth. The old tradition of the

white bull on which Priscilla Alden rode home from her marriage, in 1622

or early 1623, must be rejected. This valuable addition of “neat cattle”

to the resources of the colony caused a redistribution of land and

shares in the “stock.” By 1627 a partnership or “purchas” had been

arranged, for assuming the debts and maintenance of the Plymouth colony,

freed from further responsibility to “the adventurers” in London. The

new division of lots included also some of the cattle. It was specified,

for instance, that Captain Standish and Edward Winslow were to share

jointly “the Red Cow which belongeth to the poor of the colony to which

they must keep her Calfe of this yeare being a Bull for the Companie,

Also two shee goats.”[30] Elder Brewster was granted “one of the four

Heifers came in _The Jacob_ called the Blind Heifer.”

 

Among interesting sidelights upon the economic and social results of

this extension of land and cattle is the remark of Bradford:[31] “Some

looked for building great houses, and such pleasant situations for them

as themselves had fancied, as if they would be great men and rich all of

a suddaine; but they proved castles in air.” Within a short time,

however, with the rapid increase of children and the need of more

pasturage for the cattle, many of the leading men and women drifted away

from the original confines of Plymouth towards Duxbury, Marshfield,

Scituate, Bridgewater and Eastham. Agriculture became their primal

concern, with the allied pursuits of fishing, hunting and trading with

the Indians and white settlements that were made on Cape Cod and along

the Kennebec.

 

Soon after 1630 the families of Captain Standish, John Alden, and

Jonathan Brewster (who had married the sister of John Oldham), Thomas

Prence and Edward Winslow were settled on large farms in Duxbury and

Marshfield. This loss to the Plymouth settlement was deplored by

Bradford both for its social and religious results. April 2, 1632,[32] a

pledge was taken by Alden, Standish, Prence, and Jonathan Brewster that

they would “remove their families to live in the towne in the

winter-time that they may the better repair to the service of God.” Such

arrangement did not long continue, however, for in 1633 a church was

established at Duxbury and the Plymouth members who lived there “were

dismiste though very unwillingly.”[33] Later the families of Francis

Eaton, Peter Brown and George Soule joined the Duxbury colony. Hobomok,

ever faithful to Captain Standish had a wigwam near his master’s home

until, in his old age, he was removed to the Standish house, where he died in 1642.