The Pilgrim Fathers - The Mayflower and Speedwell in Southampton in 1620

10/06/2024

05/06/2024

A page from William Bradford's Of Plimouth Plantation showing the More children allocated to the households of the leading separatists. I wonder if they were aware of what their father was doing and they were colluding with him on their removal from their mother?

The Mayflower Society says:

The passenger list of the Mayflower includes four children without parents; they were not orphans, however they may as well have been. The children, between the ages of four and eight, were placed with families making the voyage. The More children are the only passengers with known royal ancestry, with descent from King David I and King Edward I of England.

The children were baptized at Shipton Parish, Shropshire, England as follows. The only child to survive the first winter was Richard.

Elinor/Ellen [Ellinora] More, baptized, 24 May 1612; was placed with Edward and Rose Winslow;
Jasper [Jasperus] More, baptized, 8 August 1613; was placed with John and Katharine Carver
Richard [Richardus] More, baptized 13 November 1614; was placed with William and Mary Brewster.
Maria More, baptized 16 April 1616; was placed with William and Mary Brewster; [Bradford mistakenly said she was a brother of Richard’s.]

The union between the children’s parents (who were cousins), Samuel More, age 17, and Katharine More, age 25, ensured that the large properties of their families would remain intact.

Though all four of the children were baptized as the children of Samuel More, subsequent court proceedings led to the admission by Katharine that she had been unfaithful with Jacob Blakeway, a tenant farmer on the More property. Although Katharine did not have the required two witnesses, her defense was that she had a precontract with Jacob. It got worse for Katharine. The more Samuel looked at the children, the more he suspected they were not his.

As the children’s legal father, Samuel could do with them as he pleased. He certainly didn’t want another man’s children and he wanted to punish his wife, so he decided to take them away from her. He wanted to dispose of the children in a way in which they would benefit. He learned of the voyage of the Separatists, god-fearing people, and found his solution, to place the children with influential families as servants. He paid £80 for their passage, which was double the usual children’s fare, to ensure that the childen would receive their fair allotment of land at the end of the voyage.

Richard continued living with the Brewsters; he is listed with them in the 1627 cattle division. In 1635, a Richard More age 20 was a passenger on a ship bound for New England. When he left for England is not known, but perhaps he had gone looking for answers into the plight of he and his siblings. In 1637, for £21, he sold twenty-five acres in Duxbury and removed to Salem, where he was granted a half-acre as an “Inhabitant.” He would remain there, when he was not master of a ship. Capt. Richard More died at Salem, between 19 March 1693/94 and 20 April 1696; note that the date of 1692 on his gravestone was added between 1901-1919 and is incorrect.

Richard More married 1) at Plymouth, 20 October 1636, Christian Hunt. He married 2) prob. at Salem, before 23 May 1678, Jane ( ) Crumton. It should be noted that Richard had another wife in England while he was still married to his first wife. The marriage of “Richard Moore of Salem in New England Maryner” and Elizabeth Woolno, is recorded at St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, Middlesex, 23 October 1645.

16/05/2024

A splendid song about the Westgate from where the Mayflower sailed for North America.

Southampton's old seaward gate is the setting for this song about an absent lover.

16/05/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZsROO1rDS8

The Mayflower's journey to Plymouth Rock was filled with suffering and death. Over half the passengers died that first brutal winter from disease, malnutriti...

26/03/2024

01/03/2024

June 7, 1957: HMS Ark Royal R-09 rendezvousing with the Mayflower replica in the mid-Atlantic. The original Mayflower and the Speedwell left Southampton in August 1620.

08/02/2024

London Bridge in 1616 and nearby Aldgate which would have been around the time when and where Robert Cushman and John Carver were meeting with Thomas Weston the Merchant Adventurer to agree the finances and to plan the voyage to Virginia. The Mayflower actually began her journey from Rotherhithe in London which is close by London Bridge on the south side of the Thames and was the home of Christopher Jones who was part owner and master of the Mayflower.

05/02/2024

https://martin-davey.pixels.com/featured/voyage-of-the-mayflower-in-rough-seas-martin-davey.html

Voyage of the Mayflower in rough seas by Martin Davey

30/01/2024

The village of Upper Clatford in Hampshire where Stephen Hopkins was born.

25/01/2024

Hi all! I am Lynda Hylander, the newly appointed public relations chair for the Arizona Mayflower Society. I hope you like our new cover photo... it is the back of our beautiful Mayflower Society House and Gardens in Plymouth, Massachusetts. If you find yourself in Boston do take a trip down to Plymouth and visit our house along with so many other Pilgrim-centric sites in the town. In the coming weeks I will be adding photos of these historic places, so stay tuned! Photo by ljh.

26/12/2023

Early images of Dartmouth where the Mayflower called for repairs to the Speedwell.

25/12/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aplGzvfVhME

Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650 by William BRADFORD (1590 - 1657) and Harold PAGET (1876 - )Genre(s): History , Early ModernRead by...

05/12/2023

https://www.losangelescountybeekeepers.com/history-of-honey-bees-in-ameri/

The creation of the United States can be found in the footsteps of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Brought to the east coast of North America in 1622 it would be 231 years before the honey bee reached the west coast. Disease, hostile competitors, harsh climates, and geographical barriers blo...

05/12/2023

From today's (5th December) Times of London:

On this day in 1621 a letter sent from London confirmed the importation of honey bees to North America. The native species did not produce honey, unlike the European honeybee.

This article is an interesting read:

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/are-honey-bees-native-north-america

28/11/2023

I think these guys must have read my book!

The Mayflower's Forgotten Voyage: Unveiling the Pilgrims' Hidden StoryYou Won't Believe Where The Mayflower Really Sailed From!Join us as we delve into the f...

25/11/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfVYRSFscws

A spoiler free introduction to this text.The content is intended for the students of my high school class. Though if you've stumbled across this video and ha...

20/11/2023

Southampton's Mayflower Memorial with a model of the iconic ship on the top.

19/11/2023

I have been told without any provenance that this is a model of the Speedwell.

16/11/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRJ-PHYBUdM

History classes leave out a lot of information about the Pilgrims. I hope you enjoy learning some facts that might be new!I’m currently working on two other...

06/11/2023

A print of the Fortune the ship that arrived at the Plymouth Colony a year later in November 1621. On board were Robert Cushman and his son plus mostly male passengers. Surprisingly no supplies much to the concern of the settlers who were struggling to feed them selves without all of these extra people to feed. Having given an important sermon whilst there Robert Cushman returned with the ship plus lots of cargo to help pay the debt to the Merchant Adventurers. The ship was captured by the French and all of its cargo stolen.A print of the Fortune the ship that arrived at the Plymouth Colony a year later in November 1621. On board were Robert Cushman and his son plus mostly male passengers. Surprisingly no supplies much to the concern of the settlers who were struggling to feed them selves without all of these extra people to feed. Having given an important sermon whilst there Robert Cushman returned with the ship plus lots of cargo to help pay the debt to the Merchant Adventurers. The ship was captured by the French and all of its cargo stolen.

04/11/2023

Part of a map of what was then known as Virginia just after the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. I am yet to identify the cartographer.

01/11/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LnUhFKr9YU

"Out of small beginnings great things have been produced, by His hand that made all things out of nothing; and as one small candle will light a thousand, so ...

31/10/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG5NA6wh8AI

Watch a preview of THE PILGRIMS.The converging forces, circumstances, personalities and events that propelled a group of English men and women west across th...

31/10/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_COd42HMoo

Join the Captivating History Book Club: https://bit.ly/3Dkh91w Get a FREE mythology bundle ebook covering Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology here: http://w...

27/10/2023

The Mayflower Exhibition in the Westgate has had to be dismantled and protected while the roof is refurbished. We hope to re-open once the work is completed.

21/10/2023

The Manuscript “Of Plimouth Plantation”