The Women Who Came in the MayflowerMarble, Annie Russell
History
The Women Who Came in the Mayflower
Marble, Annie Russell
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Mayflower (Ship); Women -- Massachusetts
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.”[23] 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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