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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7252-8.txt b/7252-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b950e1e --- /dev/null +++ b/7252-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2184 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women Who Came in the Mayflower, by +Annie Russell Marble + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Women Who Came in the Mayflower + +Author: Annie Russell Marble + + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7252] +This file was first posted on March 31, 2003 +Last Updated: May 14, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +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 New England +Genealogic-Historical Register, the American Antiquarian Society, the +Register of Deeds, Pilgrim Hall, and the Russell Library of Plymouth, +private and public libraries of Duxbury and Marshfield, and to Mr. +Arthur Lord and all other individuals who have assisted in this +research. The publications of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, +and the remarkable researches of its editor, Mr. George E. Bowman, +call for special appreciation. + +ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE. _Worcester, Massachusetts._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +FOREWORD + + I ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING + + II COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 + +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 New England, even at its best, is a test of +physical endurance. With warm clothes and sheltering homes today, we +find compensations for the cold winds and storms in the exhilarating +winter sports and the good cheer of the holiday season. + +The passengers of _The Mayflower_ anchored in Plymouth harbor, +three hundred years ago, lacked compensations of sports or fireside +warmth. One hundred and two in number when they sailed,--of whom +twenty-nine were women,--they had been crowded for ten weeks into a +vessel that was intended to carry about half the number of +passengers. In low spaces between decks, with some fine weather when +the open hatchways allowed air to enter and more stormy days when they +were shut in amid discomforts of all kinds, they had come at last +within sight of the place where, contrary to their plans, they were +destined to make their settlement. + +At Plymouth, England, their last port in September, they had "been +kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there +dwelling," [Footnote: Relation or Journal of a Plantation Settled at +Plymouth in New-England and Proceedings Thereof; London, 1622 +(Bradford and Winslow) Abbreviated In Purchas' Pilgrim, X; iv; London, +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 Plymouth Plantation; ch. 9.] + +Recent research [Footnote: "The Mayflower," by H. G. Marsden; +Eng. Historical Review, Oct., 1904; The Mayflower Descendant, Jan., +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 +Virginia, in September, 1620, according to this account. With the most +generous treatment which the captain and crew could give to the women, +they must have been sorely tried. There were sick to be nursed, +children to be cared for, including some lively boys who played with +powder and nearly caused an explosion at Cape Cod; nourishment must be +found for all from a store of provisions that had been much reduced by +the delays and necessary sales to satisfy their "merchant adventurers" +before they left England. They slept on damp bedding and wore musty +clothes; they lacked exercise and water for drink or cleanliness. +Joyful for them must have been the day recorded by Winslow and +Bradford, [Footnote: Relation or Journal, etc. (1622).]--"On Monday +the thirteenth of November our people went on shore to refresh +themselves and our women to wash, as they had great need." + +During the anxious days when the abler men were searching on land for +a site for the settlement, first on Cape Cod and later at Plymouth, +there were events of excitement on the ship left in the harbor. +Peregrine White was born and his father's servant, Edward Thompson, +died. Dorothy May Bradford, the girl-wife of the later Governor of the +colony, was drowned during his absence. There were murmurings and +threats against the leaders by some of the crew and others who were +impatient at the long voyage, scant comforts and uncertain future. +Possibly some of the complaints came from women, but in the hearts of +most of them, although no women signed their names, was the resolution +that inspired the men who signed that compact in the cabin of _The +Mayflower_,--"to promise all due submission and obedience." They +had pledged their "great hope and inward zeal of laying good +foundation for ye propagating and advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom +of Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should +be but as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a +work"; with such spirit they had been impelled to leave Holland and +such faith sustained them on their long journey. + +Many of the women who were pioneers at Plymouth had suffered severe +hardships in previous years. They could sustain their own hearts and +encourage the younger ones by remembrance of the passage from England +to Holland, twelve years before, when they were searched most cruelly, +even deprived of their clothes and belongings by the ship's master at +Boston. Later they were abandoned by the Dutchman at Hull, to wait +for fourteen days of frightful storm while their husbands and +protectors were carried far away in a ship towards the coast of +Norway, "their little ones hanging about them and quaking with cold." +[Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; ch. 2.] + +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 New England." Ten years ago it would have been +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: Bradford's History of Plymouth +Plantation; Bk. II.] was manifested among the women as well as the +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 Holland not alone their loved pastor, John Robinson, and +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 Cape Cod. Winslow declared, in his account of +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 England and Holland were buried on Plymouth hillside during the +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 England in April and the captain offered free passage 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 +Leyden, for seven years, they had chosen their friends and there they +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: Bradford's History of Plymouth +Plantation, ch. 3.] of the Dutch city. + +Many of the men, on leaving England, had renounced their more +leisurely occupations and professions to practise trades in +Leyden,--Brewster and Winslow as printers, Allerton as tailor, Dr. +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 University of Leyden, where Robinson and +Brewster taught. Some educational influences would thus fall upon +their families. [Footnote: The England and Holland of the Pilgrims, +Henry M. Dexter and Morton Dexter, Boston, 1905.] On the other hand, +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 Leyden with nearly three hundred more associated with them. Such +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 Plymouth, on the other hand, the women +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 Plymouth later on +_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 PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 + + +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 Plymouth as a "hopeful place," with +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 Plymouth three years +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 League of Nations to preserve peace in the new world. + +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 Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras +for the women and they prepared a "brew" which almost equalled their +ale of old England. The friendly Indians assisted the men, as the +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 Holland or England, a +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 +Hopkins, Elizabeth Tilley and, possibly, Desire Minter and Humility +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 Plymouth women bestowed upon their households. + +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 Plymouth rose." +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 Billington Sea, was discovered by +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 Plymouth today. The mosquito had a sting,--for Bradford gave a +droll and pungent answer to the discontented colonists who had +reported, in 1624, that "the people are much annoyed with musquetoes." +He wrote: [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, +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 Holland. Nuts were used for food, giving piquant flavor both to +"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 England 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 +Plymouth.] and boards or palings were substituted. During the first +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 Plymouth, in 1627, one can visualize +this first street in New England, leading from Plymouth harbor up the +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 England and she was alone to care for two young +boys, one a baby a few weeks old. Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died +seven weeks before the wedding day. Perhaps the Plymouth women +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 +Hopkins. Tradition ascribed the cause to a quarrel over the attractive +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 Plymouth +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 Plymouth +by Robert Cushman at this time (preserved in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth) +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 Delano family in America, John and Kenelm +Winslow and Jonathan Brewster were eligible men to join the group of +younger men,--John Alden, John Howland and others. + +The great joy in the arrival of these friends was succeeded by an +agitating fear regarding the food supply, for _The Fortune_ had +suffered from bad weather and its colonists had scarcely any extra +food or clothing. By careful allotments the winter was endured and +when spring came there were hopes of a large harvest from more +abundant sowing, but the hopes were killed by the fearful drought +which lasted from May to the middle of July. Some lawless and selfish +youths frequently stole corn before it was ripe and, although public +whipping was the punishment, the evil persisted. These conditions were +met with the same courage and determination which ever characterized +the leaders; a rationing of the colony was made which would have done +credit to a "Hoover." They escaped famine, but the worn, thin faces +and "the low condition, both in respect of food and clothing" was a +shock to the sixty more colonists who arrived in _The Ann_ and +_The James_ in 1623. + +The friends who came in these later ships included some women from +Leyden, "dear gossips" of _Mayflower_ colonists, women whose +resources and characters gave them prominence in the later history of +Plymouth. Notable among them was Mrs. Alice Southworth soon to wed +Governor Bradford. With her came Barbara, whose surname is surmised to +have been Standish, soon to become the wife of Captain Standish. +Bridget Fuller joined her husband, the noble doctor of Plymouth; +Elizabeth Warren, with her five daughters, came to make a home for her +husband, Richard; Mistress Hester Cooke came with three children, and +Fear and Patience Brewster, despite their names, brought joy and cheer +to their mother and girlhood friends; they were later wed to Isaac +Allerton and Thomas Prence, the Governor. + +Fortunately, _The Ann_ and _The James_ brought supplies in +liberal measure and also carpenters, weavers and cobblers, for their +need was great. _The James_ was to remain for the use of the +colony. Rations had been as low as one-quarter pound of bread a day +and sometimes their fare was only "a bit of fish or lobster without +any bread or relish but a cup of fair spring water." [Footnote: +Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; Bk. II.] It is not strange +that Bradford added: "ye long continuance of this diete and their +labors abroad had somewhat abated ye freshness of their former +complexion." + +An important change in the policy of the colony, which affected the +women as well as men, was made at this time. Formerly the +administration of affairs had been upon the communal basis. All the +men and grown boys were expected to plant and harvest, fish and hunt +for the common use of all the households. The women also did their +tasks in common. The results had been unsatisfactory and, in 1623, a +new division of land was made, allotting to member householder an acre +for each member of his family. This arrangement, which was called +"every man for his owne particuler," was told by Bradford with a +comment which shows that the women were human beings, not saints nor +martyrs. He wrote: "The women now went willingly into ye field, and +tooke their little-ones with them to set corne, which before would +aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene +thought great tiranie and oppression." After further comment upon the +failure of communism as "breeding confusion and discontent" he added +this significant comment: "For ye yong-men that were most able and +fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their +time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without +any recompense.... And for men's wives to be commanded to doe servise +for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloathes, etc., +they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well +brooke it." + +If food was scarce, even a worse condition existed as to clothing in +the summer of 1623. Tradition has ascribed several spinning-wheels and +looms to the women who came in _The Mayflower_, but we can +scarcely believe that such comforts were generously bestowed. There +could have been little material or time for their use. Much skilful +weaving and spinning of linen, flax, and wool came in later Colonial +history. The women must have been taxed to keep the clothes mended for +their families as protection against the cold and storms. The quantity +on hand, after the stress of the two years, would vary according to +the supplies which each brought from Holland or England; in some +families there were sheets and "pillow-beeres" with "clothes of +substance and comeliness," but other households were scantily +supplied. A somewhat crude but interesting ballad, called "Our +Forefathers' Song," is given by tradition from the lips of an old lady +aged ninety-four years, in 1767. If the suggestion is accurate that +she learned this from her mother or grandmother, its date would +approximate the early days of Plymouth history. More probably it was +written much later, but it has a reminiscent flavor of those days of +poverty and brave spirit: + + "The place where we live is a wilderness wood, + Where grass is much wanted that's fruitful and good; + Our mountains and hills and our valleys below, + Are commonly covered with frost and with snow. + + "Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn, + They need to be clouted soon after they are worn, + But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing, + Clouts _double_ are warmer than _single_ whole clothing. + + "If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish, + We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish, + And if we've a mind for a delicate dish, + We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish. + + "For pottage and puddings and custards and pies, + Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies! + We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon, + If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon." + + [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 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women Who Came in the Mayflower, by +Annie Russell Marble + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + +***** This file should be named 7252-8.txt or 7252-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/5/7252/ + +Produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Women Who Came in the Mayflower + +Author: Annie Russell Marble + + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7252] +This file was first posted on March 31, 2003 +Last Updated: May 14, 2013 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + + + + +Text file produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Annie Russell Marble + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_FORE"> FOREWORD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE + AND LANDING </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH + 1621-1623 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. MATRONS AND MAIDENS WHO CAME IN THE + MAYFLOWER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. COMPANIONS WHO ARRIVED IN THE FORTUNE + AND THE ANN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> INDEX TO PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_FORE" id="link2H_FORE"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOREWORD + </h2> + <p> + This little book is intended as a memorial to the women who came in <i>The + Mayflower</i>, and their comrades who came later in <i>The Ann</i> and <i>The + Fortune</i>, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The author feels deep gratitude, and would here express it, to the + librarians of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England + Genealogic-Historical Register, the American Antiquarian Society, the + Register of Deeds, Pilgrim Hall, and the Russell Library of Plymouth, + private and public libraries of Duxbury and Marshfield, and to Mr. Arthur + Lord and all other individuals who have assisted in this research. The + publications of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and the remarkable + researches of its editor, Mr. George E. Bowman, call for special + appreciation. + </p> + <p> + ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE. <i>Worcester, Massachusetts.</i> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." + + —<i>Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantations. Chap. VII.</i> +</pre> + <p> + December weather in New England, even at its best, is a test of physical + endurance. With warm clothes and sheltering homes today, we find + compensations for the cold winds and storms in the exhilarating winter + sports and the good cheer of the holiday season. + </p> + <p> + The passengers of <i>The Mayflower</i> anchored in Plymouth harbor, three + hundred years ago, lacked compensations of sports or fireside warmth. One + hundred and two in number when they sailed,—of whom twenty-nine were + women,—they had been crowded for ten weeks into a vessel that was + intended to carry about half the number of passengers. In low spaces + between decks, with some fine weather when the open hatchways allowed air + to enter and more stormy days when they were shut in amid discomforts of + all kinds, they had come at last within sight of the place where, contrary + to their plans, they were destined to make their settlement. + </p> + <p> + At Plymouth, England, their last port in September, they had "been kindly + entertained and courteously used by divers friends there dwelling," + [Footnote: Relation or Journal of a Plantation Settled at Plymouth in + New-England and Proceedings Thereof; London, 1622 (Bradford and Winslow) + Abbreviated In Purchas' Pilgrim, X; iv; London, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Plymouth + Plantation; ch. 9.] + </p> + <p> + Recent research [Footnote: "The Mayflower," by H. G. Marsden; Eng. + Historical Review, Oct., 1904; The Mayflower Descendant, Jan., 1916] has + argued that the captain of <i>The Mayflower</i> was probably not <i>Thomas + Jones</i>, with reputation for severity, but a Master Christopher Jones of + kindlier temper. The former captain was in Virginia, in September, 1620, + according to this account. With the most generous treatment which the + captain and crew could give to the women, they must have been sorely + tried. There were sick to be nursed, children to be cared for, including + some lively boys who played with powder and nearly caused an explosion at + Cape Cod; nourishment must be found for all from a store of provisions + that had been much reduced by the delays and necessary sales to satisfy + their "merchant adventurers" before they left England. They slept on damp + bedding and wore musty clothes; they lacked exercise and water for drink + or cleanliness. Joyful for them must have been the day recorded by Winslow + and Bradford, [Footnote: Relation or Journal, etc. (1622).]—"On + Monday the thirteenth of November our people went on shore to refresh + themselves and our women to wash, as they had great need." + </p> + <p> + During the anxious days when the abler men were searching on land for a + site for the settlement, first on Cape Cod and later at Plymouth, there + were events of excitement on the ship left in the harbor. Peregrine White + was born and his father's servant, Edward Thompson, died. Dorothy May + Bradford, the girl-wife of the later Governor of the colony, was drowned + during his absence. There were murmurings and threats against the leaders + by some of the crew and others who were impatient at the long voyage, + scant comforts and uncertain future. Possibly some of the complaints came + from women, but in the hearts of most of them, although no women signed + their names, was the resolution that inspired the men who signed that + compact in the cabin of <i>The Mayflower</i>,—"to promise all due + submission and obedience." They had pledged their "great hope and inward + zeal of laying good foundation for ye propagating and advancing ye gospell + of ye kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though + they should be but as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so + great a work"; with such spirit they had been impelled to leave Holland + and such faith sustained them on their long journey. + </p> + <p> + Many of the women who were pioneers at Plymouth had suffered severe + hardships in previous years. They could sustain their own hearts and + encourage the younger ones by remembrance of the passage from England to + Holland, twelve years before, when they were searched most cruelly, even + deprived of their clothes and belongings by the ship's master at Boston. + Later they were abandoned by the Dutchman at Hull, to wait for fourteen + days of frightful storm while their husbands and protectors were carried + far away in a ship towards the coast of Norway, "their little ones hanging + about them and quaking with cold." [Footnote: Bradford's History of + Plymouth Plantation; ch. 2.] + </p> + <p> + 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 New England." Ten years ago it would have + been 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: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; Bk. II.] was + manifested among the women as well as the men. + </p> + <p> + 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 + Holland not alone their loved pastor, John Robinson, and 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 Cape Cod. Winslow + declared, in his account of 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 England + and Holland were buried on Plymouth hillside during the 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.] + </p> + <p> + Although the women's strength of body and soul must have been sapped yet + their fidelity stood well the test; when <i>The Mayflower</i> was to + return to England in April and the captain offered free passage 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 Leyden, for + seven years, they had chosen their friends and there they 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: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, ch. 3.] of the Dutch + city. + </p> + <p> + Many of the men, on leaving England, had renounced their more leisurely + occupations and professions to practise trades in Leyden,—Brewster + and Winslow as printers, Allerton as tailor, Dr. 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 + University of Leyden, where Robinson and Brewster taught. Some educational + influences would thus fall upon their families. [Footnote: The England and + Holland of the Pilgrims, Henry M. Dexter and Morton Dexter, Boston, 1905.] + On the other hand, 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 Leyden with nearly three hundred more associated with them. Such + economic and social conditions gave to the women certain privileges and + pleasures in addition to the interesting events in this picturesque city. + </p> + <p> + In <i>The Mayflower</i> and at Plymouth, on the other hand, the women 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower,</i> although the fathers arrived at + Plymouth later on <i>The Fortune</i> and <i>The Ann</i>. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 + </h2> + <p> + 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 Plymouth as a "hopeful place," with 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 Plymouth three + years 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 League of Nations to preserve peace in the new world. + </p> + <p> + 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 + Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras for the women and + they prepared a "brew" which almost equalled their ale of old England. The + friendly Indians assisted the men, as the 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 + Holland or England, a 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Hopkins, + Elizabeth Tilley and, possibly, Desire Minter and Humility 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 Plymouth women + bestowed upon their households. + </p> + <p> + The flowers that grew in abundance about the settlement must have given + them joy,—<i>arbutus</i> 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 Plymouth rose." 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 Billington Sea, + was discovered by 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 + Plymouth today. The mosquito had a sting,—for Bradford gave a droll + and pungent answer to the discontented colonists who had reported, in + 1624, that "the people are much annoyed with musquetoes." He wrote: + [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. II.] <i>"They</i> + 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 <i>end</i> has not + yet come! + </p> + <p> + 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 + Holland. Nuts were used for food, giving piquant flavor both to "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. + </p> + <p> + 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 England 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 Plymouth.] and boards or palings + were substituted. During the first 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 Plymouth, + in 1627, one can visualize this first street in New England, leading from + Plymouth harbor up the 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: <i>Ibid.</i>] 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> left England and + she was alone to care for two young boys, one a baby a few weeks old. + Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died seven weeks before the wedding day. + Perhaps the Plymouth women 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. + </p> + <p> + Even more disturbing to the peaceful life was the first duel on June 18, + between Edward Lister and Edward Dotey, both servants of Stephen Hopkins. + Tradition ascribed the cause to a quarrel over the attractive 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + Plymouth Colony. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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.) +</pre> + <p> + Even more exciting than the days already mentioned was the great event of + surprise and rejoicing, November 19, 1621, when <i>The Fortune</i> arrived + with thirty-five more Pilgrims. Some of these were soon to wed <i>Mayflower</i> + 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 <i>The Fortune</i> was at anchor + and left his son as ward for Governor Bradford. The notable sermon which + was preached at Plymouth by Robert Cushman at this time (preserved in + Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth) 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. + </p> + <p> + Among the passengers brought by <i>The Fortune</i> were some of great + helpfulness. William Wright, with his wife Priscilla (the sister of + Governor Bradford's second wife), was an expert carpenter, and Stephen + Dean, who came with his wife, was able to erect a small mill and grind + corn. Robert Hicks (or Heeks) was another addition to the colony, whose + wife was later the teacher of some of the children. Philip De La Noye, + progenitor of the Delano family in America, John and Kenelm Winslow and + Jonathan Brewster were eligible men to join the group of younger men,—John + Alden, John Howland and others. + </p> + <p> + The great joy in the arrival of these friends was succeeded by an + agitating fear regarding the food supply, for <i>The Fortune</i> had + suffered from bad weather and its colonists had scarcely any extra food or + clothing. By careful allotments the winter was endured and when spring + came there were hopes of a large harvest from more abundant sowing, but + the hopes were killed by the fearful drought which lasted from May to the + middle of July. Some lawless and selfish youths frequently stole corn + before it was ripe and, although public whipping was the punishment, the + evil persisted. These conditions were met with the same courage and + determination which ever characterized the leaders; a rationing of the + colony was made which would have done credit to a "Hoover." They escaped + famine, but the worn, thin faces and "the low condition, both in respect + of food and clothing" was a shock to the sixty more colonists who arrived + in <i>The Ann</i> and <i>The James</i> in 1623. + </p> + <p> + The friends who came in these later ships included some women from Leyden, + "dear gossips" of <i>Mayflower</i> colonists, women whose resources and + characters gave them prominence in the later history of Plymouth. Notable + among them was Mrs. Alice Southworth soon to wed Governor Bradford. With + her came Barbara, whose surname is surmised to have been Standish, soon to + become the wife of Captain Standish. Bridget Fuller joined her husband, + the noble doctor of Plymouth; Elizabeth Warren, with her five daughters, + came to make a home for her husband, Richard; Mistress Hester Cooke came + with three children, and Fear and Patience Brewster, despite their names, + brought joy and cheer to their mother and girlhood friends; they were + later wed to Isaac Allerton and Thomas Prence, the Governor. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, <i>The Ann</i> and <i>The James</i> brought supplies in + liberal measure and also carpenters, weavers and cobblers, for their need + was great. <i>The James</i> 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 Plymouth + Plantation; Bk. II.] It is not strange that Bradford added: "ye long + continuance of this diete and their labors abroad had somewhat abated ye + freshness of their former complexion." + </p> + <p> + 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 Bradford with a comment which shows that the women were human + beings, not saints nor martyrs. He wrote: "The women now went willingly + into ye field, and tooke their little-ones with them to set corne, which + before would aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would + have bene thought great tiranie and oppression." After further comment + upon the failure of communism as "breeding confusion and discontent" he + added this significant comment: "For ye yong-men that were most able and + fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time + and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any + recompense.... And for men's wives to be commanded to doe servise for + other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloathes, etc., they + deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it." + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i>, but we can scarcely believe + that such comforts were generously bestowed. There could have been little + material or time for their use. Much skilful weaving and spinning of + linen, flax, and wool came in later Colonial history. The women must have + been taxed to keep the clothes mended for their families as protection + against the cold and storms. The quantity on hand, after the stress of the + two years, would vary according to the supplies which each brought from + Holland or England; in some families there were sheets and "pillow-beeres" + with "clothes of substance and comeliness," but other households were + scantily supplied. A somewhat crude but interesting ballad, called "Our + Forefathers' Song," is given by tradition from the lips of an old lady + aged ninety-four years, in 1767. If the suggestion is accurate that she + learned this from her mother or grandmother, its date would approximate + the early days of Plymouth history. More probably it was written much + later, but it has a reminiscent flavor of those days of poverty and brave + spirit: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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 <i>double</i> are warmer than <i>single</i> 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.] +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + <i>all</i> 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 <i>not</i> by the Pilgrims of Plymouth, but by the Puritans of + Massachusetts Bay Colony. + </p> + <p> + When Edward Winslow returned in <i>The Charity</i>, 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 <i>The Jacob</i> called the Blind Heifer." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. MATRONS AND MAIDENS WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>there</i> 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> and thus she had + less strength to endure the hardships which followed. [Footnote: History + of the Allerton Family; W. S. Allerton, N. Y., 1888.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i>, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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; <i>these</i> 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>Boston News Letter</i>, 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> and, at the end of the voyage, bore + her son, Peregrine White. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>Mr.</i> 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, <i>Mayflower</i>. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>Boston News Letter</i> + [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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + When <i>The Fortune </i>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 <i>Speedwell</i>, with cargoes of pork, sugar and tobacco, and + a Barke <i>Mary</i>, 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).] + </p> + <p> + 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, <i>her</i> + will is even more important for us. It is one of the three <i>original</i> + known wills of <i>Mayflower</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Ann</i>. 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. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. COMPANIONS WHO ARRIVED IN THE FORTUNE AND THE ANN + </h2> + <p> + After the arrival of <i>The Ann</i>, in the summer of 1623, the women who + came in <i>The Mayflower</i> 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)." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + Bridget Fuller followed her husband, Dr. Samuel, and came in <i>The Ann</i>. + 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 <i>The Ann</i>, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Ann</i>. + [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 <i>The + Mayflower</i>, compiled by William Hyslop Fuller, Palmer.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i>. [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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "hands with such convenient skill + As to conduce to vertu void of shame" +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>The Ann</i>. 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 <i>The Fortune</i>; + Dr. Fuller's first wife had been another sister; Juliana, wife of George + Morton, was a third who came also in <i>The Ann</i>. 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." +</pre> + <p> + 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: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "To one whose grace and virtue did surpasse, + I mean good Edward Southworth whoe not long + Continued in this world the saints amonge." +</pre> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "life of holynes and faith, + In reading of God's word and contemplation + Which healped her to assurance of salvation." +</pre> + <p> + 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 <i>The Mayflower</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>women</i> as + well as the <i>men</i> of the old Plymouth Colony,—the women who + faithfully performed, without any serious discontent, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "that whole sweet round + Of littles that large life compound." +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDEX TO PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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 +</pre> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women Who Came in the Mayflower, by +Annie Russell Marble + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + +***** This file should be named 7252-h.htm or 7252-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/5/7252/ + + +Text file produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Women Who Came in the Mayflower + +Author: Annie Russell Marble + + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7252] +This file was first posted on March 31, 2003 +Last Updated: May 14, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +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 New England +Genealogic-Historical Register, the American Antiquarian Society, the +Register of Deeds, Pilgrim Hall, and the Russell Library of Plymouth, +private and public libraries of Duxbury and Marshfield, and to Mr. +Arthur Lord and all other individuals who have assisted in this +research. The publications of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, +and the remarkable researches of its editor, Mr. George E. Bowman, +call for special appreciation. + +ANNIE RUSSELL MARBLE. _Worcester, Massachusetts._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +FOREWORD + + I ENDURANCE AND ADVENTURE: THE VOYAGE AND LANDING + + II COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 + +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 New England, even at its best, is a test of +physical endurance. With warm clothes and sheltering homes today, we +find compensations for the cold winds and storms in the exhilarating +winter sports and the good cheer of the holiday season. + +The passengers of _The Mayflower_ anchored in Plymouth harbor, +three hundred years ago, lacked compensations of sports or fireside +warmth. One hundred and two in number when they sailed,--of whom +twenty-nine were women,--they had been crowded for ten weeks into a +vessel that was intended to carry about half the number of +passengers. In low spaces between decks, with some fine weather when +the open hatchways allowed air to enter and more stormy days when they +were shut in amid discomforts of all kinds, they had come at last +within sight of the place where, contrary to their plans, they were +destined to make their settlement. + +At Plymouth, England, their last port in September, they had "been +kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there +dwelling," [Footnote: Relation or Journal of a Plantation Settled at +Plymouth in New-England and Proceedings Thereof; London, 1622 +(Bradford and Winslow) Abbreviated In Purchas' Pilgrim, X; iv; London, +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 Plymouth Plantation; ch. 9.] + +Recent research [Footnote: "The Mayflower," by H. G. Marsden; +Eng. Historical Review, Oct., 1904; The Mayflower Descendant, Jan., +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 +Virginia, in September, 1620, according to this account. With the most +generous treatment which the captain and crew could give to the women, +they must have been sorely tried. There were sick to be nursed, +children to be cared for, including some lively boys who played with +powder and nearly caused an explosion at Cape Cod; nourishment must be +found for all from a store of provisions that had been much reduced by +the delays and necessary sales to satisfy their "merchant adventurers" +before they left England. They slept on damp bedding and wore musty +clothes; they lacked exercise and water for drink or cleanliness. +Joyful for them must have been the day recorded by Winslow and +Bradford, [Footnote: Relation or Journal, etc. (1622).]--"On Monday +the thirteenth of November our people went on shore to refresh +themselves and our women to wash, as they had great need." + +During the anxious days when the abler men were searching on land for +a site for the settlement, first on Cape Cod and later at Plymouth, +there were events of excitement on the ship left in the harbor. +Peregrine White was born and his father's servant, Edward Thompson, +died. Dorothy May Bradford, the girl-wife of the later Governor of the +colony, was drowned during his absence. There were murmurings and +threats against the leaders by some of the crew and others who were +impatient at the long voyage, scant comforts and uncertain future. +Possibly some of the complaints came from women, but in the hearts of +most of them, although no women signed their names, was the resolution +that inspired the men who signed that compact in the cabin of _The +Mayflower_,--"to promise all due submission and obedience." They +had pledged their "great hope and inward zeal of laying good +foundation for ye propagating and advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom +of Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should +be but as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a +work"; with such spirit they had been impelled to leave Holland and +such faith sustained them on their long journey. + +Many of the women who were pioneers at Plymouth had suffered severe +hardships in previous years. They could sustain their own hearts and +encourage the younger ones by remembrance of the passage from England +to Holland, twelve years before, when they were searched most cruelly, +even deprived of their clothes and belongings by the ship's master at +Boston. Later they were abandoned by the Dutchman at Hull, to wait +for fourteen days of frightful storm while their husbands and +protectors were carried far away in a ship towards the coast of +Norway, "their little ones hanging about them and quaking with cold." +[Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; ch. 2.] + +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 New England." Ten years ago it would have been +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: Bradford's History of Plymouth +Plantation; Bk. II.] was manifested among the women as well as the +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 Holland not alone their loved pastor, John Robinson, and +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 Cape Cod. Winslow declared, in his account of +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 England and Holland were buried on Plymouth hillside during the +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 England in April and the captain offered free passage 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 +Leyden, for seven years, they had chosen their friends and there they +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: Bradford's History of Plymouth +Plantation, ch. 3.] of the Dutch city. + +Many of the men, on leaving England, had renounced their more +leisurely occupations and professions to practise trades in +Leyden,--Brewster and Winslow as printers, Allerton as tailor, Dr. +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 University of Leyden, where Robinson and +Brewster taught. Some educational influences would thus fall upon +their families. [Footnote: The England and Holland of the Pilgrims, +Henry M. Dexter and Morton Dexter, Boston, 1905.] On the other hand, +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 Leyden with nearly three hundred more associated with them. Such +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 Plymouth, on the other hand, the women +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 Plymouth later on +_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 PLYMOUTH 1621-1623 + + +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 Plymouth as a "hopeful place," with +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 Plymouth three years +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 League of Nations to preserve peace in the new world. + +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 Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras +for the women and they prepared a "brew" which almost equalled their +ale of old England. The friendly Indians assisted the men, as the +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 Holland or England, a +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 +Hopkins, Elizabeth Tilley and, possibly, Desire Minter and Humility +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 Plymouth women bestowed upon their households. + +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 Plymouth rose." +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 Billington Sea, was discovered by +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 Plymouth today. The mosquito had a sting,--for Bradford gave a +droll and pungent answer to the discontented colonists who had +reported, in 1624, that "the people are much annoyed with musquetoes." +He wrote: [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, +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 Holland. Nuts were used for food, giving piquant flavor both to +"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 England 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 +Plymouth.] and boards or palings were substituted. During the first +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 Plymouth, in 1627, one can visualize +this first street in New England, leading from Plymouth harbor up the +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 England and she was alone to care for two young +boys, one a baby a few weeks old. Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died +seven weeks before the wedding day. Perhaps the Plymouth women +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 +Hopkins. Tradition ascribed the cause to a quarrel over the attractive +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 Plymouth +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 Plymouth +by Robert Cushman at this time (preserved in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth) +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 Delano family in America, John and Kenelm +Winslow and Jonathan Brewster were eligible men to join the group of +younger men,--John Alden, John Howland and others. + +The great joy in the arrival of these friends was succeeded by an +agitating fear regarding the food supply, for _The Fortune_ had +suffered from bad weather and its colonists had scarcely any extra +food or clothing. By careful allotments the winter was endured and +when spring came there were hopes of a large harvest from more +abundant sowing, but the hopes were killed by the fearful drought +which lasted from May to the middle of July. Some lawless and selfish +youths frequently stole corn before it was ripe and, although public +whipping was the punishment, the evil persisted. These conditions were +met with the same courage and determination which ever characterized +the leaders; a rationing of the colony was made which would have done +credit to a "Hoover." They escaped famine, but the worn, thin faces +and "the low condition, both in respect of food and clothing" was a +shock to the sixty more colonists who arrived in _The Ann_ and +_The James_ in 1623. + +The friends who came in these later ships included some women from +Leyden, "dear gossips" of _Mayflower_ colonists, women whose +resources and characters gave them prominence in the later history of +Plymouth. Notable among them was Mrs. Alice Southworth soon to wed +Governor Bradford. With her came Barbara, whose surname is surmised to +have been Standish, soon to become the wife of Captain Standish. +Bridget Fuller joined her husband, the noble doctor of Plymouth; +Elizabeth Warren, with her five daughters, came to make a home for her +husband, Richard; Mistress Hester Cooke came with three children, and +Fear and Patience Brewster, despite their names, brought joy and cheer +to their mother and girlhood friends; they were later wed to Isaac +Allerton and Thomas Prence, the Governor. + +Fortunately, _The Ann_ and _The James_ brought supplies in +liberal measure and also carpenters, weavers and cobblers, for their +need was great. _The James_ was to remain for the use of the +colony. Rations had been as low as one-quarter pound of bread a day +and sometimes their fare was only "a bit of fish or lobster without +any bread or relish but a cup of fair spring water." [Footnote: +Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation; Bk. II.] It is not strange +that Bradford added: "ye long continuance of this diete and their +labors abroad had somewhat abated ye freshness of their former +complexion." + +An important change in the policy of the colony, which affected the +women as well as men, was made at this time. Formerly the +administration of affairs had been upon the communal basis. All the +men and grown boys were expected to plant and harvest, fish and hunt +for the common use of all the households. The women also did their +tasks in common. The results had been unsatisfactory and, in 1623, a +new division of land was made, allotting to member householder an acre +for each member of his family. This arrangement, which was called +"every man for his owne particuler," was told by Bradford with a +comment which shows that the women were human beings, not saints nor +martyrs. He wrote: "The women now went willingly into ye field, and +tooke their little-ones with them to set corne, which before would +aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene +thought great tiranie and oppression." After further comment upon the +failure of communism as "breeding confusion and discontent" he added +this significant comment: "For ye yong-men that were most able and +fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their +time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without +any recompense.... And for men's wives to be commanded to doe servise +for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloathes, etc., +they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well +brooke it." + +If food was scarce, even a worse condition existed as to clothing in +the summer of 1623. Tradition has ascribed several spinning-wheels and +looms to the women who came in _The Mayflower_, but we can +scarcely believe that such comforts were generously bestowed. There +could have been little material or time for their use. Much skilful +weaving and spinning of linen, flax, and wool came in later Colonial +history. The women must have been taxed to keep the clothes mended for +their families as protection against the cold and storms. The quantity +on hand, after the stress of the two years, would vary according to +the supplies which each brought from Holland or England; in some +families there were sheets and "pillow-beeres" with "clothes of +substance and comeliness," but other households were scantily +supplied. A somewhat crude but interesting ballad, called "Our +Forefathers' Song," is given by tradition from the lips of an old lady +aged ninety-four years, in 1767. If the suggestion is accurate that +she learned this from her mother or grandmother, its date would +approximate the early days of Plymouth history. More probably it was +written much later, but it has a reminiscent flavor of those days of +poverty and brave spirit: + + "The place where we live is a wilderness wood, + Where grass is much wanted that's fruitful and good; + Our mountains and hills and our valleys below, + Are commonly covered with frost and with snow. + + "Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn, + They need to be clouted soon after they are worn, + But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing, + Clouts _double_ are warmer than _single_ whole clothing. + + "If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish, + We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish, + And if we've a mind for a delicate dish, + We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish. + + "For pottage and puddings and custards and pies, + Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies! + We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon, + If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon." + + [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 L1000, 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 L500 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 L2059, 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 L1259, "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 L490 and the entire estate for +L2946-14-10. He had a Katch _Speedwell_, with cargoes of pork, +sugar and tobacco, and a Barke _Mary_, whose produce was worth +L209; 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 L6-10, 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 +L1005,--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 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women Who Came in the Mayflower, by +Annie Russell Marble + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER *** + +***** This file should be named 7252.txt or 7252.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/5/7252/ + +Produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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