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At anchorage

Another rough and stormy day.

Elizabeth Tilley (bapt. in Henlow on 30 August 1607) came on the Mayflower with her parents.  She was about thirteen years old, and is the only member of this family to survive the first winter in America.  At about seventeen years old, she married fellow Mayflower passenger John Howland (who was probably at least nine or ten years older than Elizabeth).  John and Elizabeth Howland had ten children and 88 grandchildren (!!).  John Howland died in 1672, and Elizabeth lived as a widow for an additional fourteen years, dying on 22 December 1687 in Swansea.  I would point out that Elizabeth was known as Elizabeth Tilley for only seventeen years, but was known as Elizabeth Howland for sixty-three years.  Her will is extant, and she notably bequeathed books to her heirs, including John Robinson’s Observations Divine and Moral.

At anchorage

Rough weather.

Now for the other Tilleys.  John Tilley of Henlow, Bedfordshire (bapt. 19 December 1571, and thus about fifty years old at the time of the voyage) was the elder brother of fellow Mayflower passenger Edward Tilley.  He was the eldest son of Robert and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown) Tilley; John married Joan (Hurst) Rogers on 20 September 1596.  While kid brother Edward shows up in Leiden records (once), no records have yet been found to indicate that either John or Joan were living in Holland before the Mayflower’s departure.  This does not, of course, prove that they were not living there, but very little is known about this family.  John signed the Mayflower Compact, and participated in the early explorations of Cape Cod and the Plymouth area.  He died during the first winter.

Joan (Hurst) Tilley died the first winter as well.  Joan was the youngest daughter of William and Rose (Marsh) Hurst, and was baptised in Henlow on 13 March 1567/68, making her several years older than her husband (is this a pattern with the Tilley men marrying older women?).  Remarkable work has been done in establishing the Hurst ancestry in Bedfordshire by Randy West (MD 66 [Winter 2018]: 10-13), Eugene Cole Zubrinsky (TAG 85 [2011]: 1-8), and Caleb Johnson (particularly the manorial records of Henlow Grey in MQ 76 [2010]: 125-134).  She married Thomas Rogers (no relation to the Mayflower passenger of the same name) and had a daughter Joan (bapt. 26 May 1594); Thomas died not long afterwards, and Joan [Hurst] Rogers married John Tilley a year or two later.  Joan Rogers (daughter of Thomas Rogers and Joan [Hurst] Rogers) married Edward Hawkins, brother of her half-brother Robert’s wife (confused yet?).   John Tilley and Joan [Hurst] had five children, all baptised in the parish in Henlow between 1597 and 1607 (see TAG 52 [1976]: 198): Rose (who died young), John, Rose (another), Robert, and Elizabeth (more on her tomorrow).  The fate of John and Rose (the younger) is not known; Robert married Mary Hawkins at Saint Paul’s Church in Bedford, Bedfordshire on 1 November 1632 (MQ 65 [1999]: 322-325).  Any children of Robert and Mary (Hawkins) Tilley would also be Mayflower descendants, even though there is no sign that Robert or Mary ever came to America; there is, however, no record of any children for this couple that has yet been discovered. 

At anchor in Plymouth harbour

The twelfth Sunday in this harbour.  Cooler.  Clear weather.  The Mayflower’s crew remain too ill to contemplate a return to England any time soon.

At anchorage

Fetched wood and water.  The wind was south, the morning misty, “but towards noon warm and fair; the birds sang in the woods most pleasantly. At one of the clock it thundered, which was the first we heard in that country; it was strong and great claps, but short, but after an hour it rained very sadly till midnight.”

At anchorage

Another blustery day.

The two children that were part of the (Edward) Tilley household are interesting subjects by themselves.  Humility Cooper, one of the youngest Mayflower passengers, was the niece of Agnes (Cooper) Tilley, the wife of Edward Tilley.  She was born in Leiden by about 1619, the daughter of Robert Cooper, Agnes’ brother, and Joan (Gresham) Cooper (TG 6 [Fall, 1985]: 166).  Robert Charles Anderson notes that Humility “was no more than a year old at the time the Mayflower sailed” (Mayflower Migration, 69); there is a possibility that she was orphaned in Holland, which would explain her presence in the Tilley household.  Edward and Agnes Tilley died the first winter, as we saw yesterday, and Humility received one acre as a passenger of the Mayflower in the 1623 Plymouth land division (Plymouth Colony Records 12:4).  She was a part of the 1627 cattle division as the last person in the fifth company (in the William Brewster group, suggesting that the Brewster family was taking care of her: Plymouth Colony Records 12:10), and this is the last record for her on this side of the Atlantic.  She reappears when she is baptised as an adult at Holy Trinity in Minories, London on 17 March 1638/39; the record states that she was nineteen years old and was born in Holland (TG 6 [1985]:166).  Bradford writes in his 1651 list of increasings that “the girl Humility, their [viz., Edward and Agnes Tilley’s] cousin, was sent for into England and died there.”  She must therefore have died between 1639 and 1651, although the exact date of her death is not now known.  There is no record of any marriage or of any children.  She is thus the second person we have seen permanently to return to England (we have already met Bartholomew Allerton).

Henry Samson was the nephew of Agnes Tilley, being the son of James Samson and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley’s sister, Martha (Cooper) Samson.  He was sixteen at the time of the voyage, having been baptised in Henlow, Bedfordshire on 15 January 1603/04; Henry’s parents and other siblings remained behind in Henlow.  Henry may have been apprenticed to his uncle, but the circumstances of how he came on the Mayflower are unclear.  His aunt and uncle both died the first winter, as did John and Joan Tilley (his uncle’s older brother and wife), leaving behind Henry and his two female relatives: Humility Cooper and Elizabeth Tilley.  It is probable that he (and his cousin Humility) were taken care of by the Brewster family, since they are included in that group in the 1627 division of cattle; he received an acre in the 1623 land division, next to Humility on “the north side of the town next adjoining to their gardens which came in the Fortune.”  He married Anne Plummer (who arrived in Plymouth in 1635); they lived mostly in Duxbury and had nine children (Anderson laments, “There are few chronological clues to help us in arranging the children of Henry Samson” Pilgrim Migration, 404).  Henry died in 1684/85 in Duxbury.

My particular interest in Henry arises from my descent from Abraham Sampson (don’t obsess about distinctions between the “p” and “non-p” Sam(p)sons); there is evidence that Abraham and Henry were cousins, but connecting the dots is not easy.  Abraham, called “of Duxbarrow,” first shows up in Plymouth Colony Records on 4 December 1638, when he was “presented for striking and abusing John Washbourne, the younger, in the meetinghouse [!] on the Lord’s Day [!!]” (1:107).  Until Robert Leigh Ward’s discovery of the origin of Henry Samson of the Mayflower (TAG 52 [1976]: 198-208), it was generally assumed that Henry and Abraham Sam(p)son were brothers, since they both lived in Duxbury.  Henry, however, did not have a brother named Abraham.  In a later article, Ward showed that Henry had a first cousin Abraham, baptised at Campton, Bedfordshire, on 14 August 1614, son of Lawrence Sampson, who may have been the Lawrence Samson who married Mary Sharbery at Cranfield, Bedfordshire on 2 June 1602 (TAG 56 [1980]: 141-143).  This Abraham Sampson may be the immigrant; further evidence is needed to prove or disprove this hypothesis (see Robert Wakefield, “The Daughters of Abraham Samson (born 1614?) of Duxbury MA” [TAG 63 [1988]: 207-210). The Descendants of Abraham Sampson is a 13 Generation Report [!!!] based on the Pilgrim Henry Samson Kindred’s “Abraham Sampson Database of Sources”; because there are no recent publications similar to the Mayflower Society’s Five Generation Project specifically for non-Pilgrim Abraham, the database was assembled to help prospective members find sources to help prove their lines to Abraham.  It is a work in progress that currently consists of more than 27,500 individuals. 

At anchorage

Blustering but milder weather.

Like the Mullins family, the Tilley families lost every member except for a younger child.  Also like the Mullins family, the daughter of John and Joan Tilley went on to marry another passenger.  But there were on this voyage two Tilley families: Edward Tilley, the younger brother of John Tilley, was also on board with his wife Ann Cooper and Ann’s sixteen year old nephew Henry Sampson and her one year old niece Humility Cooper.  A look at Edward’s group today and tomorrow will lead us to John’s group next week.

Edward Tilley (bapt. 27 May 1588, son of Robert and Elizabeth Tilley) and Ann Cooper (bapt. 7 November 1585, daughter of Edmund Cooper) were married in Henlow, Bedfordshire on 20 June 1614.  For more information on the manifold connections with other passengers, see Robert Leigh Ward, “English Ancestry of Seven Mayflower Passengers: Tilley, Sampson and Cooper,” TAG 52 (1976): 198-208.  It was certainly unusual for men to marry older women in this period, and the Pilgrims’ pastor John Robinson specifically warned that this was not a good idea in “Of Marriage” of his Observations Divine and Moral.  Edward and Ann appear in Leiden records in 1616, so they must have moved not long after they married; they are not known to have had any children.  His occupation was listed as a serge weaver (NEHGR 143 [1989]: 208).  Edward, 32 on this voyage, was a part of most of the early explorations in search of a place to settle, and Bradford notes that he became very sick, “and like to have sounded [swooned] with cold.”  He died in January or February, most likely of pneumonia, perhaps caught from wading through too many frozen waters.  His wife Ann died soon after.

At anchorage

The last day of the month of February (in the Julian calendar).  The settlers have lost seventeen this month, their highest mortality (Prince, p. 98); their total number is now a bit more than seventy.  The fifty-third day the ship has lain in this harbour, and from the present rate of sickness and death aboard, no present capacity or prospect of getting away, those recovering still being weak. 

At anchorage 

The sickness and deaths of the colonists on shore have steadily increased, and have extended to the ship, which has lost several of its petty officers, including the master gunner, three quarter-masters, the cook, and a third of the crew, many from scurvy.

At anchor in harbour

Burying-party went ashore to bury Mary Allerton.

Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton had a total of five children.  Bradford records: “Mr. Allerton his wife dyed with the first, and his servant, John Hooke.  His sone Bartle is maried in England, but I know not how many children he hath.  His doughter Remember is maried at Salem, & hath 3. or 4. children living.  And his doughter Mary is maried here, & hath 4. children.  Him selfe maried againe with ye doughter of Mr. Brewster, & hath one sone living by her, but she is long since dead.  And he is maried againe, and hath           left this place long agoe.  So I account his increase to be 8. besids his sons in England.”

Bartholomew Allerton (b. in Leiden, Holland c. 1613) came to America with his parents on the Mayflower.  He survived the first winter, and appears in the Division of Cattle in 1627 as part of Isaac Allerton’s group, when Bart would have been fourteen or fifteen.  This is his last appearance in any Plymouth Colony records.  He probably returned to England after 1630, perhaps with his father, who made numerous trips back and forth on personal and colony business.  This introduces the cast of those Mayflower passengers who returned to England, even though none of them did so on the Mayflower’s return voyage (in addition to Barthomew Allerton, we know of Humilty Cooper, Desire Minter, Richard Gardiner, William Lathan and Gilbert Winslow).  He was ordained in the Church of England, and thus must have attended university (even if he did not graduate) - so much for his Separatist roots.  He was serving in the Church of Ireland (in Knocktemple and Liscarroll in Cork) from 1641 to 1644, and as vicar of Bramfield, Suffolk, from 1644 to his death in 1658 (see David Furlow’s complete review of the evidence and marvellous presentation of the background in MJ 3 [2018]: n. 1: 63-79, n. 2: 24-50).  Bartholomew married twice and had at least four children.  Descendants of Bartholomew Allerton would obviously be Mayflower descendants, but “[n]o one has yet been able to connect Bartholomew’s lineage with any of the Allertons who lived in Suffolk during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but those efforts continue with the hope that DNA and additional research will link Isaac Allerton’s New World Allertons with Bartholomew Allerton’s Suffolk family” (MJ 3 [2018]: n. 2: 49).

Remember Allerton (b. in Leiden c. 1615) married Moses Maverick by May 1635, when Moses is listed as the son-in-law of Isaac Allerton in Massachusetts Bay Colony records.  Moses came to America on the Mary and John in 1630 along with his father.  Remember and Moses had seven children together; descendants are known from four of them.  Remember died somewhere between September 1652 (the baptism of their youngest child) and October 1656 (Moses Maverick’s second marriage).

Mary Allerton (my tenth great grandmother, b. in Leiden c. 1617) around 1636 married Thomas Cushman, son of Robert Cushman and passenger on the Fortune with his father in 1621.  Thomas was elder of the Plymouth Church from April 1649 until his death in December 1691 (quite a long tenure!).  Thomas and Mary had eight children, seven of whom have known descendants.  Mary herself died in Plymouth on 28 November 1699, “the last survivor of those who came on the Mayflower” (depending on how you classify Peregrine White, who made most of the voyage in utero).

Isaac and Mary Allerton had two other children: a son who was buried from the Pieterskerk in Leiden on 5 February 1620 (n.s. -- just about a year before Mary’s death), probably as an infant, and a son stillborn aboard the Mayflower in Plymouth harbour during a storm on 1 January 1621 (n.s.).

More on Isaac Allerton and his many adventures when I have more time.  Much more time.

At anchorage in Plymouth harbour

Eleventh Sunday in this harbour.  Mary (Norris) Allerton, wife of Isaac Allerton, died on board this day, not having mended well since the birth of her child, stillborn about two months ago.  Isaac Allerton and his sister the widow Sarah (Allerton) Vincent had a double wedding in Leiden on 4 November 1611; both Isaac and Sarah were identified as being “of London”: Sarah married Degory Priest, and Isaac married Mary Norris of Newbury, Berkshire (the marriage record is pictured, transcribed and translated in MD 7 [1905]: 129-130: Mary’s witnesses were Anne Fuller and Dille [Priscilla?] Carpenter).  Caleb Johnson, in his extensive survey of the Allerton family, writes: “No Mary Norris of Newbury has been identified, but five miles northwest of Newbury is the town of Welford, where a Mary Norris was baptized on 9 March 1592, daughter of John.  This would seem to be a reasonable match, though perhaps a tad younger than would be expected.  Additional research is definitely needed in identifying the origin of Mary” (Mayflower Passengers, 59).  Mary was a witness for Elizabeth Barker at her wedding to Edward Winslow in Leiden (27 April 1618).   In 5 February 1620 (n.s.), Isaac and Mary buried a child (name not recorded, probably an infant) at Saint Peter’s in Leiden (Dexter and Dexter, The England and Holland of the Pilgrims, 601).  The couple brought three of their children on the Mayflower voyage (Bartholomew [age 7], Remember [5], and Mary [3]); Mary was in her final trimester of pregnancy.  She gave birth to a stillborn son during a winter storm on 1 January (n.s.): see my post on that date.  Her death today left Isaac to care for their three young children.  More on them tomorrow.  I find this intriguing that, given the many passengers dying, daily, this one is mentioned by name on this date while the others are not.  I suspect that the reason is her husband’s prominence in the community -- Rose Standish was also mentioned on the date of her death, for example.