MAYFLOWER ANCESTORS
![Picture](/uploads/3/0/2/9/30290167/5749257.jpg?241)
The Mayflower set out on September 6, 1620, with 102 passengers (and at least two dogs). Although the term “Pilgrims” now refers to all the Mayflower passengers, there were actually three different groups aboard the ship. The largest group, consisting of about half the passengers, was undertaking the voyage to the New World to escape religious persecution. These Pilgrims were English Dissenters, “Separatists”, with views very similar to the Puritans, with the main difference being that they wanted to be completely separate from the Anglican Church rather than try to reform (or “purify”) it from within. Most of this group had left England already, having been persecuted for their religious beliefs, and had spent more than 10 years in Amsterdam and later Leiden, Holland. But concern about the potential loss of their culture and language, among other issues, prompted them to decide to found a colony in the New World. The next largest group of Mayflower passengers were those recruited by the London investment company, most of them having skills necessary to found a successful colony. The third group consisted of indentured servants, some of whom were also Separatists and associated with the Leiden group. We have ancestors from all three groups, all from Edna Shethar Davis's side of the family.
During the two-month voyage, one crew member and one passenger died on the passage over the Atlantic, and one baby (named “Oceanus”) was born on the voyage. Another passenger, our ancestor John Howland, was washed overboard in a storm, but caught a rope and was rescued. The Mayflower landed in what is today Provincetown Harbor on November 11. The first winter was very hard, and almost half the colonists did not survive, including two of our ancestors, John Tilley, and his wife, Joan.
We are directly descended from five Mayflower passengers:
John Tilley
Joan Hurst (Rogers) Tilley
Elizabeth Tilley
John Howland
Peter Browne
The Tilley family originally came from Henlow in Bedfordshire, England. John Tilley married Joan Rogers (nee Hurst), a widow, in 1596. They were part of the English Dissenter group which moved to Holland about 1610 to escape religious persecution in England, and then later decided to settle in the New World. They had four children, of whom the only one to go to America was Elizabeth, who was 13 years old at the time of the Mayflower voyage. In addition to these three members of the Tilley family on the Mayflower, John’s brother, Edward, and his wife, Ann, were also passengers. Tragically, John, Joan, Edward, and Ann all died during that first harsh winter in the New World. The orphaned Elizabeth was then taken in by the Carver family (John Carver was the head of the Pilgrim expedition). Several years later, she married fellow passenger John Howland, and they had ten children.
John Howland was born about 1599 in Fenstanton, Huntingtonshire, England (nine miles northwest of Cambridge). He was a manservant to John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth, who recruited him to help move the Leiden community to America. As mentioned earlier, he fell overboard during the trip over the Atlantic; in William Bradford's accounting of the voyage, he mentions the near-death of John Howland when he was swept overboard during a severe storm and barely "caught hold" of the "topsail halyards", being dragged fathoms under water until he was dragged up by that same rope and by means of a boat hook managed to get into the ship again. William Bradford also referred to John Howland as a “lusty young man”.
Although they survived the first winter, John Carver and his wife died in the spring of 1621, and John Howland then became the head of the household with several orphaned children, including Elizabeth Tilley. John and Elizabeth married in 1623, and lived until their 80s; their ten children produced innumerable descendants (including Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, and the two Bushes, as well as Humphrey Bogart). They remained faithful members of the Separatist/Puritan church throughout their lives.
Our other Mayflower ancestor, Peter Browne, came from Dorking, in Surrey, England. He was part of the “London contingent”, men recruited to join the Mayflower expedition, and he was probably a carpenter. Around 1624 or so, he married Martha Ford, a widow with two children who had arrived as one of the few female passengers on the Fortune, the second ship to arrive in Plymouth, in 1621. He and Martha had two daughters, one of whom, Mary, who married Ephraim Tinkham, was our ancestor. (Mary Browne Tinkham was the sixth-great-grandmother of Edna Shethar, the line coming down through the Macombers). After Martha died, Peter married again, to a woman named Mary (maiden name unknown), and then he died in the summer or fall of 1633, at a time of “general sickness”, when several other Plymouth settlers died. Peter’s estate included 130 bushels of corn, six goats, one cow, eight sheep, and lots of pigs.
During the two-month voyage, one crew member and one passenger died on the passage over the Atlantic, and one baby (named “Oceanus”) was born on the voyage. Another passenger, our ancestor John Howland, was washed overboard in a storm, but caught a rope and was rescued. The Mayflower landed in what is today Provincetown Harbor on November 11. The first winter was very hard, and almost half the colonists did not survive, including two of our ancestors, John Tilley, and his wife, Joan.
We are directly descended from five Mayflower passengers:
John Tilley
Joan Hurst (Rogers) Tilley
Elizabeth Tilley
John Howland
Peter Browne
The Tilley family originally came from Henlow in Bedfordshire, England. John Tilley married Joan Rogers (nee Hurst), a widow, in 1596. They were part of the English Dissenter group which moved to Holland about 1610 to escape religious persecution in England, and then later decided to settle in the New World. They had four children, of whom the only one to go to America was Elizabeth, who was 13 years old at the time of the Mayflower voyage. In addition to these three members of the Tilley family on the Mayflower, John’s brother, Edward, and his wife, Ann, were also passengers. Tragically, John, Joan, Edward, and Ann all died during that first harsh winter in the New World. The orphaned Elizabeth was then taken in by the Carver family (John Carver was the head of the Pilgrim expedition). Several years later, she married fellow passenger John Howland, and they had ten children.
John Howland was born about 1599 in Fenstanton, Huntingtonshire, England (nine miles northwest of Cambridge). He was a manservant to John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth, who recruited him to help move the Leiden community to America. As mentioned earlier, he fell overboard during the trip over the Atlantic; in William Bradford's accounting of the voyage, he mentions the near-death of John Howland when he was swept overboard during a severe storm and barely "caught hold" of the "topsail halyards", being dragged fathoms under water until he was dragged up by that same rope and by means of a boat hook managed to get into the ship again. William Bradford also referred to John Howland as a “lusty young man”.
Although they survived the first winter, John Carver and his wife died in the spring of 1621, and John Howland then became the head of the household with several orphaned children, including Elizabeth Tilley. John and Elizabeth married in 1623, and lived until their 80s; their ten children produced innumerable descendants (including Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, and the two Bushes, as well as Humphrey Bogart). They remained faithful members of the Separatist/Puritan church throughout their lives.
Our other Mayflower ancestor, Peter Browne, came from Dorking, in Surrey, England. He was part of the “London contingent”, men recruited to join the Mayflower expedition, and he was probably a carpenter. Around 1624 or so, he married Martha Ford, a widow with two children who had arrived as one of the few female passengers on the Fortune, the second ship to arrive in Plymouth, in 1621. He and Martha had two daughters, one of whom, Mary, who married Ephraim Tinkham, was our ancestor. (Mary Browne Tinkham was the sixth-great-grandmother of Edna Shethar, the line coming down through the Macombers). After Martha died, Peter married again, to a woman named Mary (maiden name unknown), and then he died in the summer or fall of 1633, at a time of “general sickness”, when several other Plymouth settlers died. Peter’s estate included 130 bushels of corn, six goats, one cow, eight sheep, and lots of pigs.