The women Who Came in the Mayflower 5

The women Who Came in the Mayflower 5

The women who had come in the earlier ships and had lived close to

neighbors at Plymouth must have had lonely hours on their farms in spite

of large families and many tasks. Wolves and other wild animals were

sometimes near, for traps for them were decreed and allotted. Chance

Indians prowled about and the stoutest hearts must have quailed when

some of the recorded hurricanes and storms of 1635 and 1638 uncovered

houses, felled trees and corn. In the main, however, there was peace and

many of the families became prosperous; we find evidence in their wills,

several of which have been deciphered from the original records by

George Ernest Bowman, editor of the “Mayflower Descendant,”[34] issued

quarterly. By the aid of such records and a few family heirlooms of

unquestioned genuineness, it is possible to suggest some individual

silhouettes of the women of early Plymouth, in addition to the glimpses

of their communal life.

 

-----

 

Footnote 12:

 

Mourt’s Relation.

 

Footnote 13:

 

Mourt’s Relation.

 

Footnote 14:

 

Mourt’s Relation.

 

Footnote 15:

 

Winslow’s Narration.

 

Footnote 16:

 

Relation of the Manners, Customs, etc., of the Indians.

 

Footnote 17:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. II.

 

Footnote 18:

 

The Pilgrim Republic, John A. Goodwin, p. 582.

 

Footnote 19:

 

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.

 

Footnote 20:

 

Mourt’s Relation.

 

Footnote 21:

 

_Ibid._

 

Footnote 22:

 

A Chronological History of New England, by Thomas Prence.

 

Footnote 23:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation; Bk. II.

 

Footnote 24:

 

The Pilgrim Fathers; W. H. Bartlett, London, 1852.

 

Footnote 25:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, ch. 4.

 

Footnote 26:

 

Two Centuries of Costume in America; N. Y., 1903.

 

Footnote 27:

 

In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.

 

Footnote 28:

 

Two Centuries of Costume in America; Earle.

 

Footnote 29:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.

 

Footnote 30:

 

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David

Pulsifer, 1861.

 

Footnote 31:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.

 

Footnote 32:

 

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David

Pulsifer, 1861.

 

Footnote 33:

 

Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.

 

Footnote 34:

 

Editorial rooms at 53 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III

 

MATRONS AND MAIDENS WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER

 

 

It has been said, with some justice, that the Pilgrims were not

remarkable men, that they lacked genius or distinctive personalities.

The same statement may be made about the women. They did possess, as men

and women, fine qualities for the work which they were destined to

accomplish;—remarkable energy, faith, purpose, courage and patience.

These traits were prominent in the leaders, Carver and Bradford.

Standish and Winslow, Brewster and Dr. Fuller. As assistants to the men

in the civic life of the colony, there were a few women who influenced

the domestic and social affairs of their own and later generations. From

chance records, wills, inventories and traditions their individual

traits must be discerned, for there is scarcely any sequential, historic

record.

 

Death claimed some of these brave-hearted women before the life at

Plymouth really began. Dorothy May Bradford, the daughter of Deacon May

of the Leyden church, came from Wisbeach, Cambridge; she was married to

William Bradford when she was about sixteen years old and was only

twenty when she was drowned at Cape Cod. Her only child, a son, John,

was left with her father and mother in Holland and there was long a

tradition that she mourned grievously at the separation. This son came

later to Plymouth, about 1627, and lived in Marshfield and Norwich,

Connecticut.

 

The tiny pieces of a padded quilt with faded threads of silver and gold,

which belonged to Rose Standish,[35] are fitting relics of this

mystical, delicate wife of “the doughty Captain.” She died January 29,

1621. She is portrayed in fiction and poetry as proud of her husband’s

bravery and his record as a Lieutenant of Queen Elizabeth’s forces in

aid of the Dutch. She was also proud of his reputed, and disputed,

inheritance among the titled families of Standish of Standish and

Standish of Duxbury Hall.[36] There has been a persistent tradition that

Rose was born or lived on the Isle of Man and was married there, but no

records have been found as proofs.

 

In the painting of “The Embarkation,” by Robert Weir, Elizabeth Barker,

the young wife of Edward Winslow, is attired in gay colors and extreme

fashion, while beside her stands a boy of about eight years with a

canteen strapped over his shoulders. It has been stated that this is the

silver canteen, marked “E. W.,” now in the cabinet of the Massachusetts

Historical Society. The only record _there_ is[37] “presentation, June,

1870, by James Warren, Senr., of a silver canteen and pewter plate which

once belonged to Gov. Edward Winslow with his arms and initials.” As

Elizabeth Barker, who came from Chatsun or Chester, England, to Holland,

was married April 3, 1618, to Winslow,[38] and as she was his first

wife, the son must have been a baby when _The Mayflower_ sailed.

Moreover, there is no record by Bradford of any child that came with the

Winslows, except the orphan, Ellen More. It has been suggested that the

latter was of noble lineage.[39]

 

Mary Norris, of Newbury in England, wife of one of the wealthiest and

most prominent of the Pilgrims in early years, Isaac Allerton, died in

February of the first winter, leaving two young girls, Remember and

Mary, and a son, Bartholomew or “Bart.” The daughters married well,

Remember to Moses Maverick of Salem, and Mary to Thomas Cushman. Mrs.

Allerton gave birth to a child that was still-born while on _The

Mayflower_ and thus she had less strength to endure the hardships which

followed.[40]

 

When Bradford, recording the death of Katherine Carver, called her a

“weak woman,” he referred to her health which was delicate while she

lived at Plymouth and could not withstand the grief and shock of her

husband’s death in April. She died the next month. She has been called

“a gracious woman” in another record of her death.[41] She was the

sister or sister-in-law of John Robinson, their pastor in England and

Holland. Recent investigation has claimed that she was first married to

George Legatt and later to Carver.[42] Two children died and were buried

in Holland in 1609 and 1617 and, apparently, these were the only

children born to the Carvers. The maid, Lois, who came with them on _The

Mayflower_, is supposed to have married Francis Eaton, but she did not

live long after 1622. Desire Minter, who was also of the Carver

household, has been the victim of much speculation. Mrs. Jane G. Austin,

in her novel, “Standish of Standish,” makes her the female scapegrace of

the colony, jealous, discontented and quarrelsome. On the other hand,

and still speculatively, she is portrayed as the elder sister and

housekeeper for John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, after the death of

Mistress Carver; this is assumed because the first girl born to the

Howlands was named Desire.[43] The only known facts about Desire Minter

are those given by Bradford, “she returned to friends and proved not

well, and dyed in England.”[44] By research among the Leyden records,

collated by H. M. Dexter,[45] the name, Minter, occurs a few times.

William Minter, the husband of Sarah, was associated with the Carvers

and Chiltons in marriage betrothals. William Minter was purchaser of a

house from William Jeppson, in Leyden, in 1614. Another record is of a

student at the University of Leyden who lived at the house of John

Minter. Another reference to Thomas Minter of Sandwich, Kent, may

furnish a clue.[46] Evidently, to some of these relatives, with

property, near or distant of kin, Desire Minter returned before 1626.

 

Another unmarried woman, who survived the hardships of the first winter,

but returned to England and died there, was Humility Cooper. We know

almost nothing about her except that she and Henry Sampson were cousins

of Edward Tilley and his wife. She is also mentioned as a relative of

Richard Clopton, one of the early religious leaders in England.