The Women Who Came in the Mayflower

Women Who Came in the
Mayflower , The

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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]

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Language: English
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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