THE WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER
BY
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
Genealogic-Historical
Register, the American Antiquarian Society, the
Register of Deeds,
Pilgrim Hall, and the Russell Library of
private and public
libraries of Duxbury and
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._
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
I ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND
LANDING
II COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN
III MATRONS AND
MAIDENS WHO CAME IN "THE MAYFLOWER"
IV COMPANIONS WHO ARRIVED IN "THE
FORTUNE" AND "THE ANN"
INDEX
CHAPTER 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._
December weather in
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
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
kindly entertained
and courteously used by divers friends there
dwelling,"
[Footnote: Relation or Journal of a Plantation Settled at
(Bradford and
Winslow) Abbreviated In Purchas' Pilgrim, X; iv;
1625.] 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.
[Footnote:
Bradford's History of
Recent research
[Footnote: "The Mayflower," by H. G. Marsden;
1916] 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
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
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
clothes; they
lacked exercise and water for drink or cleanliness.
Joyful for them
must have been the day recorded by Winslow and
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
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
such faith
sustained them on their long journey.
Many of the women
who were pioneers at
hardships in
previous years. They could sustain their own hearts and
encourage the
younger ones by remembrance of the passage from
to
even deprived of
their clothes and belongings by the ship's master at
for fourteen days
of frightful storm while their husbands and
protectors were
carried far away in a ship towards the coast of
[Footnote:
Bradford's History of
There were women
with frail bodies, like Rose Standish and Katherine
Carver, but there
were strong physiques and dauntless hearts sustained
to great old age,
matrons like Susanna White and Elizabeth Hopkins and
young women like
Priscilla Mullins, Mary Chilton, Elizabeth Tilley and
Constance Hopkins.
In our imaginations today, few women correspond to
the clinging,
fainting figures portrayed by some of the painters of
"The
Departure" or "The Landing of the Pilgrims." We may more readily
believe that most
of the women were upright and alert, peering
anxiously but
courageously into the future. Writing in 1910, John
Masefield said:
[Footnote: Introduction to Chronicles of the Pilgrim
Fathers (Everyman's
Library).] "A generation fond of pleasure,
disinclined towards
serious thought, and shrinking from hardship, even
if it may be
swiftly reached, will find it difficult to imagine the
temper, courage and
manliness of the emigrants who made the first
Christian
settlement of
as difficult for
women of our day to understand adequately the
womanliness of the
Pilgrim matrons and girls. The anxieties and
self-denials
experienced by women of all lands during the last five
years may help us
to "imagine" better the dauntless spirit of these
women of
New-Plymouth. During those critical months of 1621-1623 they
sustained their
households and assisted the men in establishing an
orderly and
religious colony. We may justly affirm that some of "the
wisdom, prudence
and patience and just and equall carriage of things
by the better
part" [Footnote:
men.
In spite of the
spiritual zeal which comes from devotion to a good
cause, and the
inspiration of steady work, the women must have
suffered from
homesickness, as well as from anxiety and illness. They
had left in
their valiant
friend, Robert Cushman, but many fathers, mothers,
brothers and
sisters besides their "dear gossips." Mistress Brewster
yearned for her
elder son and her daughters, Fear and Patience;
Priscilla Mullins
and Mary Chilton, soon to be left orphans, had been
separated from
older brothers and sisters. Disease stalked among them
on land and on
shipboard like a demon. Before the completion of more
than two or three
of the one-room, thatched houses, the deaths were
multiplying.
Possibly this disease was typhus fever; more probably it
was a form of
infectious pneumonia, due to enervated conditions of the
body and to
exposures at
the expedition on
shore, "It blowed and did snow all that day and
night and froze
withal. Some of our people that are dead took the
original of their
death there." Had the disease been "galloping
consumption,"
as has been suggested sometimes, it is not probable that
many of those
"sick unto death" would have recovered and have lived to
be octogenarians.
The toll of deaths
increased and the illness spread until, at one
time, there were
only "six or seven sound persons" to minister to the
sick and to bury
the dead. Fifteen of the twenty-nine women who sailed
from
winter and spring.
They were: Rose Standish; Elizabeth, wife of Edward
Winslow; Mary, wife
of Isaac Allerton; Sarah, wife of Francis Eaton;
Katherine, wife of
Governor John Carver; Alice, wife of John Rigdale;
Ann, wife of Edward
Fuller; Bridget and Ann Tilley, wives of John and
Edward; Alice, wife
of John Mullins or Molines; Mrs. James Chilton;
Mrs. Christopher
Martin; Mrs. Thomas Tinker; possibly Mrs. John
Turner, and Ellen
More, the orphan ward of Edward Winslow. Nearly
twice as many men
as women died during those fateful months of
1621. Can we
"imagine" the courage required by the few women who
remained after this
devastation, as the wolves were heard howling in
the night, the food
supplies were fast disappearing, and the houses of
shelter were
delayed in completion by "frost and much foul weather,"
and by the very few
men in physical condition to rive timber or to
thatch roofs? The
common house, twenty foot square, was crowded with
the sick, among
them Carver and Bradford, who were obliged "to rise in
good speed"
when the roof caught on fire, and their loaded muskets in
rows beside the
beds threatened an explosion. [Footnote: Mourt's
Relation.]
Although the
women's strength of body and soul must have been sapped
yet their fidelity
stood well the test; when _The Mayflower_ was
to return to
the women as well
as to any men who wished to go, if the women "would
cook and nurse such
of the crew as were ill," not a man or a woman
accepted the offer.
Intrepid in bravery and faith, the women did their
part in making this
lonely, impoverished settlement into a home. This
required
adjustments of many kinds. Few in number, the women
represented
distinctive classes of society in birth and education. In
formed a happy
community, in spite of some poverty and more anxiety
about the education
and morals of their children, because of "the
manifold
temptations" [Footnote:
Many of the men, on
leaving
leisurely
occupations and professions to practise trades in
Samuel Fuller as
say-weaver and others as carpenters, wool-combers,
masons, cobblers,
pewterers and in other crafts. A few owned
residences near the
famous
Brewster taught.
Some educational influences would thus fall upon
their families.
[Footnote: The
Henry M. Dexter and
Morton Dexter,
others were
recorded as "too poor to be taxed." Until July, 1620,
there were two
hundred and ninety-eight known members of this church
in
economic and social
conditions gave to the women certain privileges
and pleasures in
addition to the interesting events in this
picturesque city.
In _The Mayflower_
and at
were thrust into a
small company with widely differing tastes and
backgrounds. One of
the first demands made upon them was for a
democratic
spirit,--tolerance and patience, adaptability to varied
natures. The old
joke that "the Pilgrim Mothers had to endure not
alone their
hardships but the Pilgrim Fathers also" has been
overworked. These
women would never have accepted pity as
martyrs. They came
to this new country with devotion to the men of
their families and,
in those days, such a call was supreme in a
woman's life. They
sorrowed for the women friends who had been left
behind,--the wives
of Dr. Fuller, Richard Warren, Francis Cooke and
Degory Priest, who
were to come later after months of anxious waiting
for a message from
New-Plymouth.
The family, not the
individual, characterized the life of that
community. The
father was always regarded as the "head" of the
family. Evidence of
this is found when we try to trace the posterity
of some of the
pioneer women from the Old Plymouth Colony Records. A
child is there
recorded as "the son of Nicholas Snow," "the son of
John Winslow"
or "the daughter of Thomas Cushman" with no hint that
the mothers of
these children were, respectively, Constance Hopkins,
Mary Chilton and
Mary Allerton, all of whom came in _The
Mayflower,_
although the fathers arrived at
_The Fortune_ and
_The Ann_.
It would be unjust
to assume that these women were conscious heroines.
They wrought with
courage and purpose equal to these traits in the
men, but probably
none of the Pilgrims had a definite vision of the
future. With words
of appreciation that are applicable to both sexes,
ex-President
Charles W. Eliot has said: [Footnote: Eighteenth Annual
Dinner of Mayflower
Society, Nov. 20, 1913.] "The Pilgrims did not
know the issue and
they had no vision of it. They just loved liberty
and toleration and
truth, and hoped for more of it, for more liberty,
for a more perfect
toleration, for more truth, and they put their
lives, their
labors, at the disposition of those loves without the
least vision of
this republic, or of what was going to come out of
their industry,
their devotion, their dangerous and exposed lives."
CHAPTER II
COMMUNAL AND FAMILY
LIFE IN
Spring and summer
came to bless them for their endurance and
unconscious
heroism. Then they could appreciate the verdict of their
leaders, who chose
the site of
running brooks,
vines of sassafras and strawberry, fruit trees, fish
and wild fowl and
"clay excellent for pots and will wash like soap."
[Footnote: Mourt's
Relation] So early was the spring in 1621 that on
March the third
there was a thunder storm and "the birds sang in the
woods most
pleasantly." On March the sixteenth, Samoset came with
Indian greeting.
This visit must have been one of mixed sentiments for
the women and we
can read more than the mere words in the sentence,
"We lodged him
that night at Stephen Hopkins' house and watched him."
[Footnote: Mourt's
Relation.] Perhaps it was in deference to the women
that the men gave
Samoset a hat, a pair of stockings, shoes, a shirt
and a piece of
cloth to tie about his waist. Samoset returned soon
with Squanto or
Tisquantum, the only survivor of the Patuxet tribe of
Indians which had
perished of a pestilence
before. He shared
with Hobomok the friendship of the settlers for many
years and both
Indians gave excellent service. Through the influence
of Squanto the
treaty was made in the spring of 1621 with Massasoit,
the first
Squanto showed the
men how to plant alewives or herring as fertilizer
for the Indian
corn. He taught the boys and girls how to gather clams
and mussels on the
shore and to "tread eels" in the water that is
still called
for the women and
they prepared a "brew" which almost equalled their
ale of old
seasons opened, in
hunting wild turkeys, ducks and an occasional deer,
welcome additions
to the store of fish, sea-biscuits and cheese. We
are told [Footnote:
Mourt's Relation] that Squanto brought also a dog
from his Indian
friends as a gift to the settlement. Already there
were, at least, two
dogs, probably brought from
mastiff and a
spaniel [Footnote: Winslow's Narration] to give comfort
and companionship
to the women and children, and to go with the men
into the woods for
timber and game.
It seems
paradoxical to speak of child-life in this hard-pressed,
serious-minded
colony, but it was there and, doubtless, it was normal
in its joyous and
adventuresome impulses. Under eighteen years of age
were the girls,
Remember and Mary Allerton, Constance and Damaris
Cooper. The boys
were Bartholomew Allerton, who "learned to sound the
drum," John
Crakston, William Latham, Giles Hopkins, John and Francis
Billington, Richard
More, Henry Sampson, John Cooke, Resolved White,
Samuel Fuller, Love
and Wrestling Brewster and the babies, Oceanus
Hopkins and
Peregrine White. With the exception of Wrestling Brewster
and Oceanus
Hopkins, all these children lived to ripe old age,--a
credit not alone to
their hardy constitutions, but also to the care
which the
The flowers that
grew in abundance about the settlement must have
given them
joy,--_arbutus_ or "mayflowers," wild roses, blue
chicory, Queen
Anne's lace, purple asters, golden-rod and the
beautiful sabbatia
or "sentry" which is still found on the banks of
the fresh ponds
near the town and is called "the
Edward Winslow
tells [Footnote: Relation of the Manners, Customs,
etc., of the
Indians.] of the drastic use of this bitter plant in
developing
hardihood among Indian boys. Early in the first year one of
these fresh-water
ponds, known as
Francis Billington
when he had climbed a high hill and had reported
from it "a
smaller sea." Blackberries, blueberries, plums and cherries
must have been
delights to the women and children. Medicinal herbs
were found and used
by advice of the Indian friends; the bayberry's
virtues as salve,
if not as candle-light, were early applied to the
comforts of the
households. Robins, bluebirds, "Bob Whites" and other
birds sang for the
pioneers as they sing for the tourist and resident
in
droll and pungent
answer to the discontented colonists who had
reported, in 1624,
that "the people are much annoyed with musquetoes."
He wrote:
[Footnote:
Bk. II.]
_"They_ are too delicate and unfitte to begin new
plantations and
colonies that cannot enduer the biting of a
muskeet. We would
wish such to keep at home till at least they be
muskeeto proof. Yet
this place is as free as any and experience
teacheth that ye
land is tild and ye woods cut downe, the fewer there
will be and in the
end scarce any at all." The _end_ has not yet
come!
Good harvests and
some thrilling incidents varied the hard conditions
of life for the
women during 1621-2. Indian corn and barley furnished
a new foundation
for many "a savory dish" prepared by the housewives
in the mortar and
pestles, kettles and skillets which they had brought
from
"cakes"
baked in the fire and to the stuffing of wild turkeys. The
fare was simple,
but it must have seemed a feast to the Pilgrims after
the months of
self-denials and extremity.
Before the winter
of 1621-2 was ended, seven log houses had been built
and four
"common buildings" for storage, meetings and workshops.
Already clapboards
and furs were stored to be sent back to
the merchant
adventurers in the first ship. The seven huts, with
thatched roofs and
chimneys on the outside, probably in cob-house
style, were of hewn
planks, not of round logs. [Footnote: The Pilgrim
Republic, John A.
Goodwin, p. 582.] The fireplaces were of stones laid
in clay from the
abundant sand. In 1628 thatched roofs were condemned
because of the
danger of fire, [Footnote: Records of the Colony of New
two years or
longer, light came into the houses through oiled paper in
the windows. From
the plans left by Governor Bradford and the record
of the visit of De
Rassieres to
this first street
in New England, leading from
hill to the cannon
and stockade where, later, was the fort. At the
intersection of the
first street and a cross-highway stood the
Governor's house.
It was fitting that the lot nearest to the fort hill
should be assigned
to Miles Standish and John Alden. All had free
access to the brook
where flagons were filled for drink and where the
clothes were
washed.
A few events that
have been recorded by Winslow, Bradford and Morton
were significant
and must have relieved the monotony of life. On
January fourth an
eagle was shot, cooked and proved "to be excellent
meat; it was hardly
to be discerned from mutton." [Footnote: Mourt's
Relation.] Four
days later three seals and a cod were caught; we may
assume that they
furnished oil, meat and skins for the household.
About the same
time, John Goodman and Peter Brown lost their way in
the woods, remained
out all night, thinking they heard lions roar
(mistaking wolves
for lions), and on their return the next day John
Goodman's feet were
so badly frozen "that it was a long time before he
was able to
go." [Footnote: _Ibid._] Wild geese were shot and
used for broth on
the ninth of February; the same day the Common House
was set ablaze, but
was saved from destruction. It is easy to imagine
the exciting
effects of such incidents upon the band of thirteen boys
and seven girls,
already enumerated. In July, the cry of "a lost
child" aroused
the settlement to a search for that "unwhipt rascal,"
John Billington,
who had run away to the Nauset Indians at Eastham,
but he was found
unharmed by a posse of men led by Captain Standish.
To the women one of
the most exciting events must have been the
marriage on May 22,
1621, of Edward Winslow and Mistress Susanna
White. Her husband
and two men-servants had died since _The
Mayflower_ left
boys, one a baby a
few weeks old. Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died
seven weeks before
the wedding day. Perhaps the
gossiped a little
over the brief interval of mourning, but the
exigencies of the
times easily explained the marriage, which was
performed by a
magistrate, presumably the Governor.
Even more
disturbing to the peaceful life was the first duel on June
18, between Edward
Lister and Edward Dotey, both servants of Stephen
elder daughter of
their master, Constance Hopkins. The duel was fought
with swords and
daggers; both youths were slightly wounded in hand and
thigh and both were
sentenced, as punishment, to have their hands and
feet tied together
and to fast for twenty-four hours but, says a
record, [Footnote:
A Chronological History of New England, by Thomas
Prence.]
"within an hour, because of their great pains, at their own
and their master's
humble request, upon promise of better carriage,
they were released
by the Governor." It is easy to imagine this scene:
Stephen Hopkins and
his wife appealing to the Governor and Captain
Standish for
leniency, although the settlement was seriously troubled
over the
occurrence; Elder Brewster and his wife deploring the lack of
Christian affection
which caused the duel; Edward Winslow and his
wife, dignified yet
tolerant; Goodwife Helen Billington scolding as
usual; Priscilla
Mullins, Mary Chilton and Elizabeth Tilley condoling
with the tearful
and frightened Constance Hopkins, while the children
stand about,
excited and somewhat awed by the punishment and the
distress of the
offenders.
Another day of
unusual interest and industry for the householders was
the Thanksgiving
Day when peace with the Indians and assured
prosperity seemed
to follow the ample harvests. To this feast, which
lasted for three
days or more, came ninety-one Indians bringing five
deer which they had
killed and dressed. These were a great boon to the
women who must
prepare meals for one hundred and forty people. Wild
turkeys, ducks,
fish and clams were procured by the colonists and
cooked, perhaps
with some marchpanes also, by the more expert
cooks. The serious
prayers and psalms of the Pilgrims were as amazing
to the Indians as
were the strange whoops, dances, beads and feathers
of the savages
marvellous to the women and children of
Colony.
In spite of these
peaceable incidents there were occasional threats of
Indian treachery,
like the theft of tools from two woodsmen and the
later bold challenge
in the form of a headless arrow wrapped in a
snake's skin; the
latter was returned promptly and decisively with the
skin filled with
bullets, and the danger was over for a time. The
stockade was
strengthened and, soon after, a palisade was built about
the houses with
gates that were locked at night. After the fort of
heavy timber was
completed, this was used also as a meeting-house and
"was fitted
accordingly for that use." It is to be hoped that
warming-pans and
foot-stoves were a part of the "fittings" so that the
women might not be
benumbed as, with dread of possible Indian attacks,
they limned from
the old Ainsworth's Psalm Book:
"In the Lord do I trust, how then to
my soule doe ye say,
As doth a little bird unto your mountaine
fly away?
For loe, the wicked bend their bow, their
arrows they prepare
On string; to shoot at dark at them
In heart that upright are."
(Psalm xi.)
Even more exciting
than the days already mentioned was the great event
of surprise and
rejoicing, November 19, 1621, when _The Fortune_
arrived with
thirty-five more Pilgrims. Some of these were soon to wed
_Mayflower_
passengers. Widow Martha Ford, recently bereft,
giving birth on the
night of her arrival to a fourth child, was wed to
Peter Brown; Mary
Becket (sometimes written Bucket) became the wife of
George Soule; John
Winslow; later married Mary Chilton, and Thomas
Cushman, then a lad
of fourteen, became the husband, in manhood, of
Mary Allerton. His
father, Robert Cushman, remained in the settlement
while _The Fortune_
was at anchor and left his son as ward for
Governor Bradford.
The notable sermon which was preached at
by Robert Cushman
at this time (preserved in Pilgrim Hall,
was from the text,
"Let no man seek his own; but every man another's
wealth." Some
of the admonitions against swelling pride and
fleshly-minded
hypocrites seem to us rather paradoxical when we
consider the
poverty and self-sacrificing spirit of these pioneers;
perhaps, there were
selfish and slothful malcontents even in that
company of devoted,
industrious men and women, for human nature was
the same three
hundred years ago, in large and small communities, as
it is today, with
some relative changes.
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
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 "
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
resources and
characters gave them prominence in the later history of
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
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." [Footnote:
Bradford's History
of
that
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 member householder an acre
for each member of
his family. This arrangement, which was called
"every man for
his owne particuler," was told by
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
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
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."
[Footnote: The Pilgrim Fathers; W. H.
Bartlett, London, 1852.]
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. [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth
Plantation, ch. 4.]
Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has emphasized wisely
[Footnote: Two
Centuries of Costume in America; N. Y., 1903.] 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
[Footnote: In
Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.] belonging to Mistress Susanna
White Winslow,
narrow, pointed, with lace trimmings, and an
embroidered lace
cap that has been assigned to Rose Standish.
[Footnote: Two
Centuries of Costume In America; Earle.] 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 homespun clothes of
prevailing English
fashion. Many of these that are mentioned in
inventories and
retained 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" [Footnote: Bradford's
History of Plymouth
Plantation, Bk. 2.] 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."
[Footnote: Records of the Colony of New Plymouth In New
England, edited by
David Pulslfer, 1861.] 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:
[Footnote:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.] "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,
[Footnote: Records
of the Colony of New Plymouth In New England,
edited by David
Pulslfer, 1861.] 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."
[Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation,
Bk. 2.] 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.
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
Descendants," [Footnote: Editorial rooms at 53 Mt. Vernon
St., Boston.]
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.
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, [Footnote: Now in Pilgrim Hall,
Plymouth.] 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. [Footnote:
For discussion of the ancestry of Standish, see "Some
Recent
Investigations of the Ancestry of Capt. Myles Standish," by
Thomas Cruddas
Porteus of Coppell, Lancashire; N. E. Gen. Hist.
Register, 68;
339-370; also in edition, Boston, 1914.] 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
[Footnote:
Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, iv, 322.]
"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,
[Footnote: England
and Holland of the Pilgrims, Dexter.] 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. [Footnote:
The Mayflower
Descendant, v. 256.]
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. [Footnote: History of the Allerton Family;
W. S. Allerton, N.
Y., 1888.]
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. [Footnote:
New England
Memorial; Morton.] 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. [Footnote: The Colonial, I, 46; also
Gen. Hist. Reg.,
67; 382, note.] 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 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 house
keeper 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. [Footnote: Life of Pilgrim
Alden; Augustus E.
Alden; Boston, 1902.] The only known facts about
Desire Minter are
those given by Bradford, "she returned to friends
and proved not
well, and dyed in England." [Footnote: Bradford's
History of Plymouth
Plantation; Appendix.] By research among the
Leyden records,
collated by H. M. Dexter, [Footnote: The England and
Holland of the
Pilgrims.] 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. [Footnote: N. E. Gen. Hist. Reg., 45, 56.]
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.
[Footnote: N. E. Gen. Hist.; iv, 108.]
The
"mother" of this group of matrons and maidens, who survived the
winters of 1621-2,
was undoubtedly Mistress Mary Brewster. Wife of the
Elder, she shared
his religious faith and zeal, and exercised a strong
moral influence
upon the women and children. Pastor John Robinson, in
a letter to
Governor Bradford, in 1623, refers to "her weake and
decayed state of
body," but she lived until April 17, 1627, according
to records in
"the Brewster Book." She was only fifty-seven years at
her death but, as
Bradford said with tender appreciation, "her great
and continuall
labours, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it
before y'e
time." As Elder Brewster "could fight as well as he could
pray," could
build his own house and till his own land, [Footnote: The
Pilgrim Republic;
John A. Goodwin.] so, we may believe, his wife was
efficient in all
domestic ways. When her strength failed, it is
pleasant to think
that she accepted graciously the loving assistance
of the younger
women to whom she must have seemed, in her presence,
like a benediction.
Her married life was fruitful; five children lived
to maturity and two
or more had died in Holland. The Elder was "wise
and discreet and
well-spoken--of a cheerful spirit, sociable and
pleasant among his
friends, undervaluing himself and his abilities and
sometimes
overvaluing others." [Footnote: Bradford's History of
Plymouth
Plantation.] Such a person is sure to be a delightful
companion. To these
attractive qualities the Elder added another proof
of tact and wisdom:
"He always thought it were better for ministers to
pray oftener and
divide their prayers, than be long and tedious in the
same."
While Mistress
Brewster did not excel the women of her day, probably,
in education, for
to read easily and to write were not considered
necessary graces
for even the better-bred classes,--she could
appreciate the
thirty-eight copies of the Scriptures which were found
among her husband's
four hundred volumes; _these_ would be
familiar to her,
but the sixty-four books in Latin would not be read
by the women of her
day. Fortunately, she did not survive, as did her
husband, to endure
grief from the deaths of the daughters, Fear and
Patience, both of
whom died before 1635; nor yet did she realize the
bitterness of
feeling between the sons, Jonathan and Love, and their
differences of
opinion in the settlement of the Elder's
estate. [Footnote:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.]
A traditional
picture has been given [Footnote: The Pilgrim Republic;
John A. Goodwin;
foot-note, p.181.] of Captain Peregrine White of
Marshfield,
"riding a black horse and wearing a coat with buttons the
size of a silver
dollar, vigorous and of a comely aspect to the last,"
[Footnote: Account
of his death in _Boston News Letter_, July 31,
1704.] paying daily
visits to his mother, Mistress Susanna White
Winslow. We may
imagine this elderly matron, sitting in the Winslow
arm-chair, with its
mark, "Cheapside, 1614," [Footnote: This chair and
the cape are now In
Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth; here also are portraits of
Edward Winslow and
Josiah Winslow and the latter's wife, Penelope.]
perhaps wearing the
white silk shoulder-cape with its trimmings of
embossed velvet
which has been preserved, proud that she was
privileged to be
the mother of this son, the first child born of white
parents in New
England, proud that she had been the wife of a Governor
and Commissioner of
eminence, and also the mother of Josiah Winslow,
the first
native-born Governor of any North American commonwealth.
Hers was a record
of which any woman of any century might well be
proud! [Footnote:
More material may be found in Winslow Memorial;
Family Record,
Holton, N. Y., 1877, and in Ancestral Chronological
Record of the
William White Family, 1607-1895, Concord, 1895.]
In social position
and worldly comforts her life was pre-eminent among
the colonists.
Although Edward Winslow had renounced some of his
English wealth,
possibly, when he went to Holland and adopted the
trade of printer,
he "came into his own" again and was in high favor
with English courts
and statesmen. His services as agent and
commissioner, both
for the Plymouth colony and later for Cromwell,
must have
necessitated long absences from home, while his wife
remained at
Careswell, the estate at Green Harbor, Marshfield, caring
for her younger
children, Elizabeth and Josiah Winslow. By family
tradition, Mistress
Susanna was a woman of graceful, aristocratic
bearing and of
strong character. Sometimes called Anna, as in her
marriage record to
William White at Leyden, February 11, 1612,
[Footnote: The
Mayflower Descendant, vii, 193.] she was the sister of
Dr. Samuel Fuller.
Two children by her first marriage died in 1615 and
1616; with her boy,
Resolved, about five or six years old, she came
with her husband on
_The Mayflower_ and, at the end of the
voyage, bore her
son, Peregrine White.
The tact, courtesy
and practical sagacity of Edward Winslow fitted him
for the many
demands that were made upon his diplomacy. One of the
most amusing
stories of his experiences as agent for Plymouth colony
has been related by
himself [Footnote: Winslow's Relation.] when, at
the request of the
Indians, he visited Massasoit, who was ill, and
brought about the
recovery of this chief by common sense methods of
treatment and by a
"savory broth" made from Indian corn, sassafras and
strawberry leaves,
"strained through his handkerchief." The skill with
which Winslow
cooked the broth and the "relish" of ducks reflected
credit upon the
household methods of Mistress Winslow.
After 1646, Edward
Winslow did not return to Plymouth for any long
sojourn, for
Cromwell and his advisers had recognized the worth of
such a man as
commissioner. [Footnote: State Papers, Colonial
Service, 1574-1660.
Winthrop Papers, ii, 283.] In 1655 he was sent as
one of three
commissioners against the Spaniards in the West Indies to
attack St. Domingo.
Because of lack of supplies and harmony among the
troops, the attack
was a failure. To atone for this the fleet started
towards Jamaica,
but on the way, near Hispaniola, Winslow was taken
ill of fever and
died, May 8, 1655; he was buried at sea with a
military salute
from forty-two guns. The salary paid to Winslow during
these years was
£1000, which was large for those times. On April 18,
1656, a
"representation" from his widow, Susanna, and son was
presented to the
Lord Protector and council, asking that, although
Winslow's death
occurred the previous May, the remaining £500 of his
year's salary might
be paid to satisfy his creditors.
To his wife and
family Winslow, doubtless, wrote letters as graceful
and interesting as
are the few business epistles that are preserved in
the Winthrop
Papers. [Footnote: Hutchinson Collections, 110, 153,
etc.] That he was
anxious, to return to his family is evident from a
letter by President
Steele of the Society for Propagating the Gospel
in New England (in
1650), which Winslow was also serving; [Footnote:
The Pilgrim
Republic; Goodwin, 444.] "Winslow was unwilling to be
longer kept from
his family, but his great acquaintance and influence
were of service to
the cause so great that it was hoped he would
remain for a time
longer." In his will, which is now in Somerset
House, London,
dated 1654, he left his estate at Marshfield to his
son, Josiah, with
the stipulation that his wife, Susanna, should be
allowed a full
third part thereof through her life. [Footnote: The
Mayflower
Descendant, iv. i.] She lived twenty-five years longer,
dying in October,
1680, at the estate, Careswell. It is supposed that
she was buried on
the hillside cemetery of the Daniel Webster estate
in Marshfield,
where, amid tangles and flowers, may be located the
grave-stones of her
children and grandchildren. Sharing with Mistress
Susanna White
Winslow the distinction of being mother of a child born
on _The Mayflower_
was Mistress Elizabeth Hopkins, whose son,
Oceanus, was named
for his birthplace. She was the second wife of
Stephen Hopkins,
who was one of the leaders with Winslow and Standish
on early
expeditions. With her stepchildren, Constance and Giles, and
her little
daughter, Damaris, she bore the rigors of those first
years, bore other
children,--Caleb, Ruth, Deborah and Elizabeth,--and
cared for a large
estate, including servants and many cattle. The
inventory of the
Hopkins estate revealed an abundance of beds and
bedding, yellow and
green rugs, curtains and spinning-wheels, and much
wearing apparel.
The home-life surely had incidents of excitement, as
is shown by the
accusations and fines against Stephen Hopkins for
"suffering
excessive drinking at his house, 1637, when William
Reynolds was drunk
and lay under the table," and again for "suffering
men to drink in his
house on the Lord's Day, both before and after the
meeting--and
allowing his servant and others to drink more than for
ordinary refreshing
and to play shovell board and such like
misdemeanors."
[Footnote: Records of the Colony of New
Plymouth.] Such
lapses in conduct at the Hopkins house were atoned
for by the services
which Stephen Hopkins rendered to the colony as
explorer, assistant
to the governor and other offices which suited his
reliable and
fearless disposition.
These occasional
"misdemeanors" in the Hopkins household were slight
compared with the
records against "the black sheep" of the colony, the
family of
Billingtons from London. The mother, Helen or Ellen, did not
seem to redeem the
reputation of husband and sons; traditionally she
was called
"the scold." After her husband had been executed in 1630,
for the first
murder in the colony, for he had waylaid and killed John
Newcomen, she
married Gregory Armstrong. She had various controversies
in court with her
son and others. In 1636, she was accused of slander
by
"Deacon" John Doane,--she had charged him with unfairness in mowing
her pasture
lot,--and she was sentenced to a fine of five pounds and
"to sit in the
stocks and be publickly whipt." [Footnote: Records of
the Colony of New
Plymouth.] Her second husband died in 1650 and she
lived several years
longer, occupying a "tenement" granted to her in
her son's house at
North Plymouth. Apparently her son, John, after
his fractious
youth, died; Francis married Christian Penn, the widow
of Francis Eaton.
Their children seem
to have "been bound out" for service while the
parents were
convicted of trying to entice the children away from
their work and,
consequently, they were punished by sitting in the
stocks on
"lecture days." [Footnote: The Pilgrim Republic; Goodwin.]
In his later life,
Francis Billington became more stable in character
and served on
committees. His last offense was the mild one "of
drinking tobacco on
the high-way." Apparently, Helen Billington had
many troubles and
little sympathy in the Plymouth colony.
As companions to
these matrons of the pioneer days were four maidens
who must have been
valuable as assistants in housework and care of the
children,--Priscilla
Mullins, Mary Chilton, Elizabeth Tilley and
Constance Hopkins.
The first three had been orphaned during that
first winter;
probably, they became members of the households of Elder
Brewster and
Governor Carver. All have left names that are most
honorably cherished
by their many descendants. Priscilla Mullins has
been celebrated in
romance and poetry. Very little real knowledge
exists about her
and many of the surmises would be more interesting if
they could be
proved. She was well-born, for her father, at his
death, was
mentioned with regret [Footnote: New England Memorial;
Morton.] as "a
man pious and well-deserving, endowed also with
considerable
outward estate; and had it been the will of God, that he
had survived, might
have proved an useful instrument in his place."
There was a family
tradition of a castle, Molyneux or Molines, in
Normandy. The title
of _Mr._ indicated that he was a man of
standing and he was
a counsellor in state and church. Perhaps he died
on shipboard at
Plymouth, because his, will, dated April 2, 1621, was
witnessed by John
Carver, Christopher Jones and Giles Heald,
probably the
captain and surgeon of the ship, _Mayflower_.
This will, which
has been recently found in Dorking, Surrey, England,
has had important
influence upon research. We learn that an older
sister, Sarah
Blunden, living in Surrey, was named as administratrix,
and that a son,
William (who came to Plymouth before 1637) was to have
money, bonds and
stocks in England. Goods in Virginia and more
money,--ten pounds
each,--were bequeathed equally to his wife Alice,
his daughter
Priscilla and the younger son, Joseph. Interesting also
is the item of
"xxj dozen shoes and thirteene paire of boots wch I
give unto the
Companie's hands for forty pounds at seaven yeares." If
the Company would
not accept the rate, these shoes and boots were to
be for the equal
benefit of his wife and son, William. To his friend,
John Carver, he
commits his wife and children and also asks for a
"special eye
to my man Robert wch hath not so approved himself as I
would he should
have done." [Footnote: Pilgrim Alden, by Augustus
E. Alden, Boston,
1902.] Before this will was probated, July 23, 1621,
John Carver,
Mistress Alice Mullins, the son, Joseph, and the man,
Robert Carter (or
Cartier) were all dead, leaving Priscilla to carry
on the work to
which they had pledged their lives. Perhaps, the
brother and sister
in England were children of an earlier marriage,
[Footnote: Gen.
Hist. Register, 40; 62-3.] as Alice Mullins has been
spoken of as a
second wife.
Priscilla was about
twenty years old when she came to Plymouth. By
tradition she was
handsome, witty, deft and skilful as spinner and
cook. Into her life
came John Alden, a cooper of unknown family, who
joined the Pilgrims
at Southampton, under promise to stay a
year. Probably he
was not the first suitor for Priscilla's hand, for
tradition affirmed
that she had been sought in Leyden. The single
sentence by
Bradford tells the story of their romance: "being a
hop[e]full yong man
was much desired, but left to his owne liking to
go or stay when he
came here; but he stayed, and maryed here." With
him he brought a
Bible, printed 1620, [Footnote: Now in Pilgrim Hall,
Plymouth.] probably
a farewell gift or purchase as he left
England. When the
grant of land and cattle was made in 1627, he was
twenty-eight years
old, and had in his family, Priscilla, his wife, a
daughter,
Elizabeth, aged three, and a son, John, aged one. [Footnote:
Records of the
Colony of New Plymouth.]
The poet,
Longfellow, was a descendant of Priscilla Alden, and he had
often heard the
story of the courtship of Priscilla by Miles Standish,
through John Alden
as his proxy. It was said to date back to a poem,
"Courtship,"
by Moses Mullins, 1672. In detail it was given by Timothy
Alden in
"American Epitaphs," 1814, [Footnote: American Epitaphs,
1814; iii, 139.]
but there are here some deflections from facts as
later research has
revealed them. The magic words of romance, "Why
don't you speak for
yourself, John?" are found in this early
narrative.
There was more than
romance in the lives of John and Priscilla Alden
as the "vital
facts" indicate. Their first home was at Town Square,
Plymouth, on the
site of the first school-house but, by 1633, they
lived upon a farm
of one hundred and sixty-nine acres in
Duxbury. Their
first house here was about three hundred feet from the
present Alden
house, which was built by the son, Jonathan, and is now
occupied by the
eighth John Alden. It must have been a lonely
farmstead for
Priscilla, although she made rare visits, doubtless on
an ox or a mare, or
in an ox-cart with her children, to see Barbara
Standish at
Captain's Hill, or to the home of Jonathan Brewster, a few
miles distant. As
farmer, John Alden was not so successful as he would
have been at his
trade of cooper. Moreover, he gave much of his time
to the service of
the colony throughout his manhood, acting as
assistant to the
Governor, treasurer, surveyor, agent and military
recruit. Like many
another public servant of his day and later, he
"became low in
his estate" and was allowed a small gratuity of ten
pounds because
"he hath been occationed to spend time at the Courts on
the Countryes
occasion and soe hath done this many yeares."
[Footnote: Records
of the Colony of New Plymouth.] He had also been
one of the eight
"undertakers" who, in 1627, assumed the debts and
financial support
of the Plymouth colony.
Eleven children had
been born to John and Priscilla Alden, five sons
and six daughters.
Sarah married Alexander Standish and so cemented
the two families in
blood as well as in friendship. Ruth, who married
John Bass, became
the ancestress of John Adams and John Quincy
Adams. Elizabeth,
who married William Pabodie, had thirteen children,
eleven of them
girls, and lived to be ninety-three years; at her death
the _Boston News
Letter_ [Footnote: June 17, 1717.] extolled her
as "exemplary,
virtuous and pious and her memory is blessed." Possibly
with all her piety
she had a good share of the independence of spirit
which was
accredited to her mother; in her husband's will [Footnote:
The Mayflower
Descendant, vi, 129.] she is given her "third at Little
Compton" and
an abundance of household stuff, but with this
reservation,--"If
she will not be contented with her thirds at Little
Compton, but shall
claim her thirds in both Compton and Duxbury or
marry again, I do
hereby make voyde all my bequest unto her and she
shall share only
the parte as if her husband died intestate." A
portrait of her
shows dress of rich materials.
Captain John Alden
seems to have been more adventuresome than the
other boys in
Priscilla's family. He was master of a merchantman in
Boston and commander
of armed vessels which supplied marine posts with
provisions. Like
his sister, Elizabeth, he had thirteen children. He
was once accused of
witchcraft, when he was present at a trial, and
was imprisoned
fifteen weeks without being allowed bail.
[Footnote: History
of Witchcraft; Upham.] He escaped and hurried to
Duxbury, where he
must have astonished his mother by the recital of
his adventures. He
left an estate of £2059, in his will, two houses,
one of wood worth
four hundred pounds, and another of brick worth two
hundred and seventy
pounds, besides much plate, brass and money and
debts amounting to
£1259, "the most of which are desperite." A tablet
in the wall of the
Old South Church at Copley Square, Boston, records
his death at the
age of seventy-five, March, 1701. He was an original
member of this
church. Perhaps Priscilla varied her peaceful life by
visits to this
affluent son in Boston. There is no evidence of the
date of Priscilla
Alden's death or the place of her burial. She was
living and present,
with her husband, at Josiah Winslow's funeral in
1680. She must have
died before her husband, for in his Inventory,
1686, he makes no
mention of her. He left a small estate of only a
little over forty
pounds, although he had given to his sons land in
Duxbury, Taunton,
Middleboro and Bridgewater. [Footnote: The
Mayflower
Descendant, iii, 10. The Story of a Pilgrim Family;
Rev. John Alden;
Boston, 1890.] Probably Priscilla also bestowed some
of her treasures
upon her children before she died. Some of her
spoons, pewter and
candle-sticks have been traced by inheritance. It
is not likely that
she was "rich in this world's goods" through her
marriage, but she
had a husband whose fidelity to state and religion
have ever been
respected. To his memory Rev. John Cotton wrote some
elegiac verses;
Justin Winsor has emphasized the honor which is still
paid to the name of
John Alden in Duxbury and Plymouth: [Footnote:
History of Duxbury;
Winsor.] "He was possessed of a sound judgment
and of talents
which, though not brilliant, were by no means
ordinary--decided,
ardent, resolute, and persevering, indifferent to
danger, a bold and
hardy man, stern, austere and unyielding and of
incorruptible
integrity." The name of Mary Chilton is pleasant to the
ear and
imagination. Chilton Street and Chiltonville in Plymouth, and
the Chilton Club in
Boston, keep alive memories of this girl who was,
by persistent
tradition, the first woman who stepped upon the rock of
landing at Plymouth
harbor. This tradition was given in writing, in
1773, by Ann
Taylor, the grandchild of Mary Chilton and John Winslow.
[Footnote: History
of Plymouth; James Thatcher.] Her father, James
Chilton, sometimes
with the Dutch spelling, Tgiltron, was a man of
influence among the
early leaders, but he died at Cape Cod, December
8, 1620. He came
from Canterbury, England, to Holland. By the records
on the Roll of
Freemen of the City of Canterbury, [Footnote: Probably
this freedom was
given, by the city or some board therein, as mark of
respect. N. E. Gen.
Hist. Reg., 63, 201.] he is named as James
Chylton, tailor,
"Freeman by Gift, 1583." Earlier Chiltons,--William,
spicer, and
Nicholas, clerk,--are classified as "Freemen by
Redemption."
Three children were baptized in St. Paul's Church,
Canterbury,--Isabella,
1586; Jane, 1589; and Ingle, 1599. Isabella
was married in
Leyden to Roger Chandler five years before _The
Mayflower_ sailed.
Evidently, Mary bore the same name as an older
sister whose burial
is recorded at St. Martin's, Canterbury, in
1593. Isaac
Chilton, a glass-maker, may have been brother or cousin of
James. Of Mary's
mother almost nothing has been found except mention
of her death during
the infection of 1621. [Footnote: Bradford's
History of Plymouth
Plantation; Appendix.]
When _The Fortune
_arrived in November, 1621, it brought Mary
Chilton's future
husband among the passengers,--John Winslow, younger
brother of Edward.
Not later than 1627 they were married and lived at
first in the central
settlement, and later in Plain Dealing, North
Plymouth. They had
ten children. The son, John, was Brigadier-General
in the Army. John
Winslow, Sr., seemed to show a spirit of enterprise
by the exchange and
sale of his "lots" in Plymouth and afterwards in
Boston where he
moved his family, and became a successful owner and
master of merchant
ships. Here he acquired land on Devonshire Street
and Spring Lane and
also on Marshall Lane and Hanover Street. From
Plans and Deeds,
prepared by Annie Haven Thwing, [Footnote:
Massachusetts
Historical Society, Boston. Also dimensions in Bowditch
Title Books: 26:
315.] one may locate a home of Mary Chilton Winslow
in Boston, a lot 72
and 85, 55 and 88, in the rear of the first Old
South Church, at
the southwest corner of Joyliffe's Lane, now
Devonshire Street,
and Spring Lane. It was adjacent to land owned by
John Winthrop and
Richard Parker. By John Winslow's will, probated May
21, 1674, he
bequeathed this house, land, gardens and a goodly sum of
money and shares of
stock to his wife and children. The house and
stable, with land,
was inventoried for £490 and the entire estate for
£2946-14-10. He had
a Katch _Speedwell_, with cargoes of pork,
sugar and tobacco,
and a Barke _Mary_, whose produce was worth
£209; these were to
be divided among his children. His money was also
to be divided,
including 133 "peeces of eight." [Footnote: The
Mayflower
Descendant, 111, 129 (1901).]
Interesting as are
the items of this will, which afford proofs that
Mary Chilton as
matron had luxuries undreamed of in the days of 1621,
_her_ will is even
more important for us. It is one of the three
_original_ known
wills of _Mayflower_ passengers, the others
being those of
Edward Winslow and Peregrine White. Mary Chilton's will
is in the Suffolk
Registry of Probate, [Footnote: This will Is
reprinted In The
Mayflower Descendant, I: 85.] Boston, in good
condition, on paper
18 by 14 inches. The will was made July 31,
1676. Among other
interesting bequests are: to my daughter Sarah
(Middlecot)
"my Best gowne and Pettecoat and my silver beare bowl" and
to each of her
children "a silver cup with a handle." To her
grandchild, William
Payne, was left her "great silver Tankard" and to
her granddaughter,
Ann Gray, "a trunk of Linning" (linen) with bed,
bolsters and ten
pounds in money. Many silver spoons and "ruggs" were
to be divided. To
her grandchild, Susanna Latham, was definite
allotment of
"Petty coate with silke Lace." In the inventory one may
find commentary
upon the valuation of these goods--"silk gowns and
pettecoats"
for £6-10, twenty-two napkins at seven shillings, and
three "great
pewter dishes" and twenty small pieces of pewter for two
pounds, six
shillings. She had gowns, mantles, head bands, fourteen in
number, seventeen
linen caps, six white aprons, pocket-handkerchiefs
and all other
articles of dress. Mary Chilton Winslow could not write
her name, but she
made a very neat mark, M. She was buried beneath the
Winslow coat of
arms at the front of King's Chapel Burial-ground in
Boston. She closely
rivalled, if she did not surpass in wealth and
social position,
her sister-in-law, Susanna White Winslow.
Elizabeth Tilley
had a more quiet life, but she excelled her
associates among
these girls of Plymouth in one way,--she could write
her name very well.
Possibly she was taught by her husband, John
Howland who left,
in his inventory, an ink-horn, and who wrote records
and letters often
for the colonists. For many years, until the
discovery and
printing of Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation in
1856, it was
assumed that Elizabeth Tilley was either the daughter or
granddaughter of
Governor Carver; such misstatement even appears upon
the Howland
tombstone in the old burying-ground at Plymouth. Efforts
to explain by
assuming a second marriage of Carver or a first marriage
of Howland fail to
convince, for, surely, such relationships would
have been mentioned
by Bradford, Winslow, Morton or Prence. After the
death of her
parents, during the first winter, Elizabeth remained with
the Carver
household until that was broken by death; afterwards she
was included in the
family over which John Howland was considered
"head";
according to the grant of 1624 he was given an acre each for
himself, Elizabeth
Tilley, Desire Minter, and the boy, William Latham.
The step-mother of
Elizabeth Tilley bore a Dutch name, Bridget Van De
Veldt. [Footnote:
N. E. Gen. Hist. Reg., i, 34.] Elizabeth was ten or
twelve years
younger than her husband, at least, for he was
twenty-eight years
old in 1620. They were married, probably, by
1623-4, for the
second child, John, was born in 1626. It is not known
how long Howland
had been with the Pilgrims at Leyden; he may have
come there with
Cushman in 1620 or, possibly, he joined the company at
Southampton. His
ancestry is still in some doubt in spite of the
efforts to trace it
to one John Howland, "gentleman and citizen and
salter" of
London. [Footnote: Recollections of John Howland,
etc. E. H. Stone,
Providence, 1857.] Probably the outfit necessary for
the voyage was
furnished to him by Carver, and the debt was to be paid
in some service,
clerical or other; in no other sense was he a
"servant."
He signed the compact of _The Mayflower_ and was one
of the "ten
principal men" chosen to select a site for the colony. For
many years he was
prominent in civic affairs of the state and
church. He was
among the liberals towards Quakers as were his brothers
who came later to
Marshfield,--Arthur and Henry. At Rocky Neck, near
the Jones River in
Kingston, as it is now called, the Howland
household was
prosperous, with nine children to keep Elizabeth
Tilley's hands
occupied. She lived until past eighty years, and died
at the home of her
daughter, Lydia Howland Brown, in Swanzey, in 1687.
Among the articles
mentioned in her will are many books of religious
type. Her husband's
estate as inventoried was not large, but
mentioned such
useful articles as silk neckcloths, four dozen buttons
and many skeins of
silk. [Footnote: The Mayflower Descendant, ii, 70.]
Constance or
Constanta Hopkins was probably about the same age as
Elizabeth Tilley,
for she was married before 1627 to Nicholas Snow,
who came in _The
Ann_. They had twelve children, and among the
names one
recognizes such familiar patronymics of the two families as
Mark, Stephen, Ruth
and Elizabeth. Family tradition has ascribed
beauty and patience
to this maiden who, doubtless, served well both in
her father's large
family and in the community. Her step-sister,
Damaris, married
Jacob Cooke, son of the Pilgrim, Francis Cooke.
CHAPTER IV
COMPANIONS WHO
ARRIVED IN THE FORTUNE AND THE ANN
After the arrival
of _The Ann_, in the summer of 1623, the women
who came in _The
Mayflower_ had more companions of good breeding
and efficiency.
Elizabeth Warren, wife of Richard, came with her five
daughters; it is
safe to assume the latter were attractive for, in a
few years, all were
well married. Two sons were born after Elizabeth
arrived at
Plymouth, Nathaniel and Joseph. For forty-five years she
survived her
husband, who had been a man of strength of character and
usefulness as well
as some wealth. When she died at the age of
ninety-three
leaving seventy-five great grandchildren, the old
Plymouth Colony
Records paid her tribute,--"Mistress Elizabeth Warren,
haveing lived a
Godly life came to her Grave as a Shock of corn full
Ripe. She was
honourably buried on the 24th of October (1673)."
Evidently, Mistress
Warren was a woman of independent means and
efficiency,--else
she would have remarried, as was the custom of the
times. She became
one of the "purchasers" of the colony and conveyed
land, at different
times, near Eel River and what is now Warren's
Cove, in Plymouth,
to her sons-in-law. An interesting sidelight upon
her character and
home is found in the Court Records; [Footnote: I,
35, July 5, 1635.]
her servant, Thomas Williams, was prosecuted for
"speaking
profane and blasphemous speeches against ye majestie of God.
There being some
dissension between him and his dame she, after other
things, exhorted
him to fear God and doe his duty."
Bridget Fuller
followed her husband, Dr. Samuel, and came in _The
Ann_. She also long
survived her husband and did not remarry. She
carried on his
household and probably also his teaching for many years
after he fell
victim to the epidemic of infectious fever in 1633. She
was his third wife,
but only two children are known to have used the
Fuller cradle, now
preserved in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth. It has been
stated that, in
addition to these two, Samuel and Mercy, another young
child came with its
mother in _The Ann_, but did not live
long. [Footnote:
Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth; W. T. Davis] The son,
Samuel, born about
1625, was minister for many years at Middleboro; he
married Elizabeth
Brewster, thus preserving two friendly families in
kinship.
Evidently, Bridget
Fuller was very ill and not expected to recover
when her husband
was dying, for in his will, made at that time, he
arranged for the
education of his children by his brother-in-law,
William Wright,
unless it "shall please God to recover my wife out of
her weake estate of
sickness." It is interesting also that, in this
will, provision was
made for the education of his daughter, Mercy, as
well as his son,
Samuel, by Mrs. Heeks or Hicks, the wife of Robert
Hicks who came in
_The Ann_. [Footnote: Plymouth Colony Wills and
Inventories; also
in The Mayflower Descendant, 1, 245.] Not alone for
his own children
did this good physician provide education, but also
for others
"put to him for schooling,"--with special mention of Sarah
Converse "left
to me by her sick father." This kind, generous doctor
left a considerable
estate, in spite of the many "debts for physicke,"
including that of
"Mr. Roger Williams which was freely given." One
specific gift was
for the good of the church and this forms the
nucleus of a fund
which is still known as the Fuller Ministerial Fund
of the Plymouth
Congregational Church. Its source was "the first cow
calfe that his
Brown Cow should have." [Footnote: Genealogy of Some
Descendants of Dr.
Samuel Fuller of _The Mayflower_, compiled by
William Hyslop
Fuller, Palmer.]
Mrs. Alice Morse
Earle says that gloves were gifts of sentiment;
[Footnote: Two
Centuries of Costume in America; Alice Morse Earle;
N. Y., 1903.] they
were generously bestowed by this physician of old
Plymouth. Money to
buy gloves, or gloves, were bequeathed to Mistress
Alice Bradford and
Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony;
also to John
Winslow, John Jenny and Rebecca Prence. The price allowed
for a pair of
gloves was from two to five shillings. Probably these
may have been the
fringed leather gloves or the knit gloves described
by Mrs. Earle.
Another bequest was his "best hat and band never worn
to old Mr. William
Brewster." To his wife was left not alone two
houses, "one
at Smeltriver and another in town," but also a fine
supply of
furnishings and clothes, including stuffe gown, red
pettecoate,
stomachers, aprons, shoes and kerchiefs. Mistress Fuller
lived until after
1667, and exerted a strong influence upon the
educational life of
Plymouth.
Is it heresy to question
whether the sampler, [Footnote: In Pilgrim
Hall, Plymouth.]
accredited to Lora or Lorea Standish, the daughter
of Captain Miles
and Barbara Standish, was not more probably the work
of the
granddaughter, Lorea, the child of Alexander Standish and Sarah
Alden? The style
and motto are more in accord with the work of the
later generation
and, surely, the necessary time and materials for
such work would be
more probable after the pioneer days. This later
Lora married
Abraham Sampson, son of the Henry who came as a boy in
_The Mayflower_.
[Footnote: Notes to Bradford's History, edition
1912.] The
embroidered cap [Footnote: In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.] and
bib, supposed to
have been made by Mistress Barbara for her daughter,
would prove that
she had
"hands with such convenient skill
As to conduce to vertu void of shame"
which were the
aspiration of the girl who embroidered, or "wrought,"
the sampler. It is
a pleasant commentary upon the tastes and industry
of Mistress Barbara
Standish that, amid the cares of a large family
and farm, she found
time for such dainty embroideries as we find in
the cap and bib.
Probably two young
sons of Captain and Barbara Standish, Charles and
John, died in the
infectious fever epidemic of 1633. A second Charles
with his brothers,
Alexander, Miles and Josiah, and his sister, Lorea,
gladdened the
hearth of the Standish home on Captain's Hill,
Duxbury. A goodly
estate was left at the death of Captain Miles,
including a
well-equipped house, cattle, mault mill, swords (as one
would expect),
sixteen pewter pieces and several books of classic
literature,--Homer,
Caesar's Commentaries, histories of Queen
Elizabeth's reign,
military histories, and three Bibles with
commentaries upon
religious matters. There were also medical books,
for Standish was
reputed to have been a student and practitioner in
times of emergency
in Duxbury. He suffered a painful illness at the
close of his
vigorous, adventuresome life. Perhaps Barbara needed, at
times, grace to
endure that "warm temper" which Pastor Robinson
deplored in Miles
Standish, a comment which the intrepid Captain
forgave and
answered by a bequest to the granddaughter of this loved
pastor. We may be
sure Barbara was proud of the mighty share which her
husband had in
saving Plymouth Colony from severe disaster, if not
from extinction. It
is surmised that Barbara Standish was buried in
Connecticut where
she lived during the last of her life with her son,
Josiah. Possibly,
however, she may have been buried beside her
husband, sons,
daughter and daughter-in-law, Mary Dingley, in
Duxbury. [Footnote:
Interesting facts on this subject may be found in
"The Grave of
Miles Standish and other Pilgrims," by E. V. J.
Huiginn; Beverly,
1914.]
The Colonial
Governor and his Lady ever held priority of rank. Such
came to Mrs. Alice
Southworth when she married Governor William
Bradford a few days
after her arrival on _The Ann_. Tradition
has said
persistently that this was the consummation of an earlier
romance which was
broken off by the marriage of Alice Carpenter to
Edward Southworth
in Leyden. The death of her first husband left her
with two sons,
Thomas and Constant Southworth, who came to Plymouth
before 1628. She
had sisters in the Colony: Priscilla, the wife of
William Wright,
came in _The Fortune_; Dr. Fuller's first wife
had been another
sister; Juliana, wife of George Morton, was a third
who came also in
_The Ann_. Still another sister, Mary Carpenter,
came later and
lived in the Governor's family for many years. At her
death in her
ninety-first year, she was mourned as "a Godly old maid,
never
married." [Footnote: Hunter's Collections, 1854.]
The first home of
the Bradfords in Plymouth was at Town Square where
now stands the
Bradford block. About 1627-8 they moved, for a part of
the year, to the
banks of the Jones River, now Kingston, a place which
had strongly
appealed to Bradford as a good site for the original
settlement when the
men were making their explorations in December,
1620. William,
Joseph and Mercy were born to inherit from their
parents the fine
characters of both Governor and Alice Bradford, and
also to pass on to
their children the carved chests, wrought and
carved chairs, case
and knives, desk, silver spoons, fifty-one pewter
dishes, five dozen
napkins, three striped carpets, four Venice
glasses, besides
cattle and cooking utensils and many books. That the
Governor had a
proper "dress suit" was proved by the inventory of
"stuffe suit
with silver buttons and cloaks of violet, light colour
and faced with
taffety and linen throw."
As Mistress
Bradford could only "make her mark," she probably did not
appreciate the
remarkable collection, for the times, of Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, Dutch and
French books as well as the studies in philosophy
and theology which
were in her husband's library. There is no doubt
that the first and
second generations of girls and boys in Plymouth
Colony had
elementary instruction, at least, under Dr. Fuller and
Mrs. Hicks as well
as by other teachers. Bradford, probably, would
also attend to the
education of his own family. The Governor's wife
has been accredited
with "labouring diligently for the improvement of
the young women of
Plymouth and to have been eminently worthy of her
high
position." [Footnote: The Pilgrim Republic; John A. Goodwin,
p. 460.] She was
the sole executrix of her husband's estate of
£1005,--a proof of
her ability.
Sometimes her
cheerfulness must have been taxed to comfort her
husband, as old age
came upon him and he fell into the gloomy mood
reflected in such
lines as these: [Footnote: New England Memorial;
Morton.]
"In fears and wants, through weal and
woe,
A pilgrim passed I to and fro;
Oft left of them whom I did trust,
How vain it is to rest in dust!
A man of sorrows I have been,
And many changes I have seen,
Wars, wants, peace, plenty I have known,
And some advanc'd, others thrown
down."
When Mistress Alice
Bradford died she was "mourned, though aged" by
many. To her
memory, Nathaniel Morton, her nephew, wrote some lines
which were more
biographic than poetical, recalling her early life as
an exile with her
father from England for the truth's sake, her first
marriage:
"To one whose grace and virtue did
surpasse,
I mean good Edward Southworth whoe not long
Continued in this world the saints
amonge."
With extravagant
words he extols the name of Bradford,--"fresh in
memory Which smeles
with odoriferous fragrancye." This elegist records
also that, after
her second widowhood, she lived a
"life of holynes and faith,
In reading of God's word and contemplation
Which healped her to assurance of
salvation."
This is not a very
lively, graphic description of the woman most
honored, perhaps,
of all the pioneer women of Plymouth, but we may
add, by
imagination, a few sure traits of human kindliness and
grace. She was
typical of those women who came in _The Mayflower_
and her sister
ships. Although she escaped the tragic struggles and
illness of that
first winter, yet she revealed the same qualities of
courage, good
sense, fidelity and vision which were the watchwords of
that group of women
in Plymouth colony. Yes,--they had vision to see
their part in the
sincere purpose to establish a new standard of
liberty in state
and church, to serve God and mankind with all their
integrity and
resources.
As the leaders
among the men were self-sacrificing and honorable in
their dealings with
their financiers, with the Indians and with each
other, so the women
were faithful and true in their homes and communal
life. They took
scarcely any part in the civic administration, for
such responsibility
did not come into the lives of seventeenth century
women. They were
actively interested in the educational and religious
life of the colony.
Their moral standards were high and inflexible;
they extolled, and
practised, the virtues of thrift and industry. It
may be well for
women in America today, who were querulous at the
restrictions upon
sugar and electric lights, to consider the good
sense, and good
cheer, with which these women of Plymouth Colony
directed their
thrifty households.
We would not assume
that they were free from the whims and foibles of
womankind,--and
sometimes of man-kind,--of all ages. They were,
doubtless,
contradictory and impulsive at times; they could scold and
they could gossip.
We believe that they laughed sometimes, in the
midst of dire want
and anxiety, and we know that they prayed with
sincerity and
trust. They bore children gladly and they trained them
"in the fear
and admonition of the Lord." They were the progenitors of
thousands of fine
men and women in all parts of America today who
honor the _women_
as well as the _men_ of the old Plymouth
Colony,--the women
who faithfully performed, without any serious
discontent,
"that whole sweet round
Of littles that large life compound."
INDEX TO PERSONS
MENTIONED IN THE TEXT
Alden, Augustus E.
Elizabeth
John
Captain John
Priscilla
Ruth
Sarah
Timothy
Allerton,
Bartholomew
Isaac
Mary Norton
Mary
Remember
Armstrong, Gregory
Austin, Jane G.
Bartlett, W. H.
Bass, Ruth Alden
Beckeet, Mary
Billington, Francis
Helen
John
John, Jr.
Bowman, George
Ernest
Bradford, Alice
Dorothy May
John
Mary
Joseph
Gov. William
William, Jr.
Brewster, Fear
Jonathan
Love
Mary
Patience
William, Elder
Wrestling
Brown, Lydia
Howland
Peter
Carpenter, Juliana
Mary
Priscilla
Carter, Robert
Carver, Catherine
Gov. John
Chandler, Isabella
Chilton
Roger
Chilton, Ingle
Isabella
Isaac
Chilton, James
Jane
Mary
Mrs. James
Nicolas
Converse, Sarah
Cooke, Francis
Hester
Jacob
John
Sarah
Cooper, Humility
Crakston, John
Cromwell
Cushman, Robert
Thomas
Davis, W. T.
De La Noye, Philip
De Rassieres
Dean, Stephen
Dexter, Henry M.
Morton
Doane, Deacon John
Dotey, Edward
Earle, Alice Morse
Eaton, Francis
Sarah
Eliot, Charles W.
Ford, Widow Martha
Fuller, Ann
Bridget
Edward
Mercy
Samuel, Dr.
Samuel
William Hyslop
Goodman, John
Goodwin, John A.
Heald, Giles
Hicks, Robert
Mrs. Robert
Hobomok
Hopkins, Caleb
Constance, or Constanta
Damaris
Hopkins, Elizabeth
Giles
Oceanus
Ruth
Stephen
Howland, Elizabeth
Tilley
Lydia (Brown)
John
Huiginn, E. V. J.
Jenny, John
Jeppson, William
William
Jones, Christopher,
Capt.
Thomas, Capt.
Latham, William
Lister, Edward
Longfellow, Henry
W.
Lord, Arthur, VI
Martin, Mrs.
Christopher
Masefield, John
Massasoit
Minter, Desire
John
Thomas
William
More, Ellen
Richard
Morton, George
Juliana Carpenter
Mullins, Alice,
Mrs.
Joseph
Moses
Priscilla
Sarah (Blunden)
William
William, Jr.
Newcomen, John
Oldham, John
Pabodie, Elizabeth
Alden
William
Parker, Richard
Penn, Christian
Prence, Thomas
Priest, Degory
Reynolds, William
Rigdale, Alice
Robinson, Pastor
John
Sampson, Alexander
Henry
Samoset
Snow, Nicholas
Soule, George
Southworth, Alice
Constant
Thomas
Squanto
Standish, Alexander
Barbara
Charles
John
Josiah
Lora or Lorea
Mary Dingley
Miles
Miles, Jr.
Rose
Taylor, Ann
Thompson, Edward
Thwing, Annie M.
Tilley, Ann
Bridget
Edward
Elizabeth
John
Tinker, Mrs. Thomas
Turner, John
Warren, Elizabeth
Richard
White, Peregrine
Resolved
Susanna
William
Williams, Roger
Thomas
Winslow, Edward
Elizabeth Barker
Elizabeth
John
John, Brig. Gen.
Josiah
Kenelm
Mary Chilton
Susanna
Winthrop, John
Wright, Priscilla
Carpenter
William