When you search old records in pursuit of genealogical data the first thing you discover is last names had no uniform spelling. you can look at documents from any one person and find that, depending on who was filling out the document the last name can be spelled many different ways and still pertain to the same person. People who could write in those early colonial days spelled phonetically. The Coates families can be found under Coates, Coats, Coatts, Coots,and Cote. This can make it a bit difficult to connect people but that is part of the fun. The information I will be putting here comes from records, documents and family histories found on the internet. There may be inaccuracies and there will definitely be omissions. In order to complete a good, well researched history you really need to visit the locations, look in the cemeteries, review original documents, etc. As I do not have the time and money to do that, and I am not paid for this site, I will do the best I can with the resources I have readily available.
The famous landing of the Mayflower in Plymouth Mass. that kicked off the colonial period happened in November 1620. There were no Coats listed on the passenger list of the Mayflower. The following is a complete list of Mayflower passengers, complements of wikipedia:
Passengers of the Leiden, Holland Congregation[edit]
Provincetown memorial to Pilgrims who died in Cape Cod Harbor.
Mayflower plaque in St. James Church in Shipton, Shropshire commemorating the More children baptism. Courtesy of Phil Revell
Passengers recruited by Thomas Weston, of London Merchant Adventurers[edit]
Ship crewmen hired to stay one year[edit]
Animals On Board[edit]At least two dogs are known to have participated in the settling of Plymouth. In Mourt's Relation Edward Winslow writes that a female mastiff and a small springer spaniel came ashore on the first explorations of what is now Provincetown.[52] The ship was believed to have small domestic animals such as goats and pigs on board as well as chickens. Larger domestic animals such as cows and sheep came later.' [53]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mayflower_passengers
It is interesting to realize the Pilgrims, as I am sure you learned in school, were a separatist religious group who came to America to establish the free practice of their religion. Sadly, they did not practice what they preached. For the Pilgrims, religion was the principle law and it was their way or the highway, the highway often meaning the gallows. The following is a little more history on the Plymouth plantation before we move on. I think it is helpful to try and understand the historic background as much as possible to give you a sense fo the setting that your ancestors moved into.
Migration to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633
A collaboration between Plimoth Plantation™ and the
New England Historic Genealogical Society®
supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services
www.PlymouthAncestors.org
Introduction
Plymouth Colony was begun in December 1620 by a small
company of English men, women and children. One hundred
and two passengers arrived at Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower
in November, and eventually chose the abandoned Native
town of Patuxet as the site of their new home. In the next few
months, half of them died due to scurvy and other diseases.
Those who lived went on to build homes, plant crops and
raise families. Other English settlers followed, and the colony
expanded As the English population increased, the colonists
pushed out to land in the east, north and west, establishing
additional towns. This brought them into increased contact,
and eventually conflict, with the Native Peoples living there.
Plymouth Beginnings
The core group of Mayflower passengers were members of a
reformed Christian church, referred to at the time as Separatists
or Brownists, who were living in Leiden, Holland. They had
originally emigrated from England to Holland in order to
worship as they believed right. In separating from the Church
of England, they had committed treason, and so faced prison
or worse if they stayed and were caught. Many of those who
went to Holland were from the Scrooby, Nottinghamshire
area of England. The Leiden records reveal, however, that there
were English men and women from a number of English
counties, including Essex, Kent and Somerset.
In 1620, the group emigrating from Leiden was joined by
about fifty others recruited by the colony’s investors. It is
probable that many of them were then living in the London
area. They may, however, have come from other parts of
England originally. In the next few years, three other ships
arrived bringing additional settlers for Plymouth Colony –
the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and Little James in 1623.
Most of the colonists for whom a place of origin has been
identified, came from the east and south of England. There
were a few, however, that came from places as far north as
Berwick-upon-Tweed close to the Scottish border, and as far
west as Bristol on the River Severn.
Plymouth 1624-1633
After 1623, there were few other large groups of passengers for
Plymouth. In the next five years, only a handful of colonists
arrived, generally aboard ships bringing supplies to the area.
In 1629 and 1630, numerous ships came to the Massachusetts
Bay bringing approximately 1000 settlers for that colony. In
these two years, Plymouth also got an additional influx, ten
or so aboard the Mayflower (not the 1620 ship) and 35 aboard
the Talbot in 1629, and about 60 in the Handmaid in 1630.
Many of them were Leiden Separatists. Some people moved
from Massachusetts Bay Colony to Plymouth and vice versa,
seeking a more congenial home. Small numbers of additional
Plymouth colonists trickled in during the next three years.
Plymouth Colony, 1633
By 1633, the population of Plymouth Colony was approximately
400 individuals. The colonists expanded beyond the bounds
of the town of Plymouth. A few moved across Plymouth Bay
to Mattakesett, which became Duxbury. Some men were
granted land at Conahasset, known as Green’s Harbor (and
later Marshfield), in 1632. While these early expansions were
peaceful, in later years the increased contact between the
Native Wampanoag and the English colonists led to friction,
ultimately resulting in King Philip’s War (1675-1676). http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/historical_migration.pdf
The following is a little more history concerning the Massachusetts Bay Colony and early governance in the colonies.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Territory claimed but never administered by the colonial government extended as far west as the Pacific Ocean.
The colony was founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company, which had in 1623 established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann. The second attempt, the Massachusetts Bay Colony begun in 1628, was successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s. The population was strongly Puritan, and its governance was dominated by a small group of leaders who were strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders. Although its governors were elected, the electorate were limited to freemen, who had been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to their church and also to their houses with self-control. As a consequence, the colonial leadership exhibited intolerance to other religious views, including Anglican, Quaker, and Baptist theologies.
Although the colonists initially had decent relationships with the local native populations, frictions arose over cultural differences, which were further exacerbated by Dutch colonial expansion. These led first to the Pequot War (1636–1638), and then to King Philip's War (1675–1678), after which most of the natives in southern New England had been pacified, killed, or driven away.
The colony was economically successful, engaging in trade with England and the West Indies. A shortage of hard currency in the colony prompted it to establish a mint in 1652. Political differences with England after the English Restoration led to the revocation of the colonial charter in 1684. King James II established the Dominion of New England in 1686 to bring all of the New England colonies under firmer crown control. The dominion collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James, and the colony reverted to rule under the revoked charter until 1692, when Sir William Phips arrived bearing the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which combined the Massachusetts Bay territories with those of the Plymouth Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The political and economic dominance of New England by the modern state ofMassachusetts was made possible in part by the early dominance in these spheres by the Massachusetts Bay colonists.
Early settlements[edit]
Map depicting tribal distribution in southern New England, circa 1600; the political boundaries shown are modern
Prior to the arrival of Europeans on the eastern shore of New England, the area around Massachusetts Bay was the territory of several Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Massachusett, Nauset, and Wampanoag. The Pennacooks occupied theMerrimack River valley to the north, and the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Mahican, occupied the western lands of present-dayMassachusetts, although some of those tribes were under tribute to the Mohawk, who were expanding aggressively from present-day upstate New York.[1] The total Indian population in 1620 has been estimated to be 7,000[2] with the population of New England at 15–18,000.[3] This number was significantly larger as late as 1616; in later years contemporary chroniclers interviewed Indians who described a major pestilence that killed between one and two thirds of the population. The land use patterns of the natives included plots cleared for agricultural purposes, and woodland territories for the hunting of game. Land divisions between the tribes were well understood.[2]
Early in the 17th century a variety of European explorers, including Samuel de Champlain and John Smith, charted the area.[4] Plans for the first permanent British settlements on the east coast of North America began in 1606. On April 10, 1606 King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) granted a charter forming two joint stock companies. Neither of these corporations was given a name by this charter, but the territories over which they were respectively authorized to settle, and if settled, to govern, were expressly named as the "first Colony" (fourth paragraph of charter) and "second Colony" (fifth paragraph of charter). Under this charter the "first Colony" and the "second Colony" each were to be ruled by a "Council" composed of 13 individuals. The charter provided for an additional council of 13 persons to have overarching responsibility for the combined enterprise. Although no name was given to either the company or council governing the respective colonies, the council governing the whole was named "Council of Virginia." (Notwithstanding that the 1606 charter did not assign names to the regional companies or councils, the April 4,1629 charter granted by King Charles I erroneously asserted that the 1606 charter had given the council governing the "second Colony" the name "Council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon.") The "first Colony" ranged from the 34th to 41st degree latitude north; the "second Colony" ranged from the 38th to 45th degree latitude. (Note that the "first Colony" and the "second Colony" overlapped. The 1629 charter of Charles I asserted that the second Colony ranged from 40th to 48th degrees north latitude, which reduces the overlap.) The investors appointed to govern over any settlements in the "first Colony" were from London; the investors appointed to govern over any settlements in the "second Colony" were from the "Town of Plimouth in the County of Devon."[citation needed] The London Company proceeded to establish Jamestown.[5] The Plymouth Company under the guidance of SirFerdinando Gorges covered the more northern area, including present-day New England, and established the Sagadahoc Colony in 1607 in present-day Maine.[6] The experience proved exceptionally difficult for the 120 settlers, however, and the surviving colonists abandoned the colony after only one year.[7] Gorges noted that "there was no more speech of settling plantations in those parts" for a number of years.[8] English ships continued to come to the New England area for fishing and trade with the Indians.[9]
Plymouth Colony[edit]In November 1620, a group of Pilgrims, seeking to preserve their cultural identity, established Plymouth Colony just to the south of Massachusetts Bay.[10] Their settlement was joined in 1622 and 1623 by short-lived settlements at nearby Wessagusset (present-day Weymouth), whose settlers either joined the Plymouth colony, returned to England, or settled in small outposts elsewhere on Massachusetts Bay.[11]
Plymouth's colonists faced great hardships and earned few profits for their investors, who sold their interests to the settlers in 1627.[12] Edward Winslow and William Bradford, two of its leaders, were likely authors of a work published in England in 1622 called Mourt's Relation. This book in some ways resembles a promotional tract intended to encourage further migration.[13] There were other short-lived colonial settlements in 1623 and 1624 at present-day Weymouth, Massachusetts: the Wessagusset Colony of Thomas Westonand an effort by Robert Gorges to establish an overarching colonial structure both failed.[14][15]
Cape Ann settlement[edit]In 1623, the Plymouth Council for New England (successor to the Plymouth Company) established a small fishing village at Cape Ann under the supervision of the Dorchester Company, with Thomas Gardner as its overseer. This company was originally organized through the efforts of the Puritan minister John White (1575–1648) of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. White has been called "the father of the Massachusetts Colony" because of his influence in establishing this settlement and despite the fact that he never emigrated.[16] The Cape Ann settlement was not profitable, and the financial backers of the Dorchester Company terminated their support by the end of 1625. Their settlement at present-day Gloucester was abandoned, but a few settlers, including Roger Conant, remained in the area, establishing a settlement a little further south, near the village of the Naumkeag tribe.[17]
Legal formation of the colony[edit]Archbishop William Laud, a favorite advisor of King Charles I and a dedicated Anglican, sought to suppress the religious practices of Puritans and other nonconforming beliefs in England. The persecution of many Puritans in the 1620s led them to believe religious reform would not be possible while Charles was king, and many decided to seek a new life in the New World.[18]
John White continued to seek funding for a colony. On 19 March 1627/8,[19] the Council for New England issued a land grant to a new group of investors that included a few holdovers from the Dorchester Company. The land grant was for territory between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers, including a three mile (4.8 km) buffer to the north of the Merrimack and to the south of the Charles, that extended from "the Atlantick and westerne sea and ocean on the east parte, to the South sea on the west parte."[20] The company that the grant was sold to was styled "The New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts Bay".[21] The company elected Matthew Cradock as its first governor, and immediately began organizing provisions and recruiting settlers. The company sent about 100 new settlers and provisions in 1628 to join Conant, led by Governor's Assistant John Endecott, one of the grantees.[22] The next year, Naumkeag was renamed Salem and fortified by another 300 settlers, led by Rev. Francis Higginson, one of the first ministers of the settlement.[23] The first winters were difficult, with colonists struggling against disease and starvation, resulting in a significant number of deaths.[24][25]
Concerned about the legality of conflicting land claims given to several companies including the New England Company to the still little-known territories of the New World, and because of the increasing number of Puritans that wanted to join the company, the company leaders sought a Royal Charter for the colony. Charles granted the new charter on 4 March 1628/9,[26] superseding the land grant and establishing a legal basis for the new English colony at Massachusetts. It was not apparent that Charles knew the Company was meant to support the Puritan emigration, and he was likely left to assume it was purely for business purposes, as was the custom. The charter omitted a significant clause – the location for the annual stockholders' meeting. After Charles dissolved Parliament in 1629, the company's directors met to consider the possibility of moving the company's seat of governance to the colony. This was followed the Cambridge Agreement later that year, in which a group of investors agreed to emigrate and work to buy out others who would not. The Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first English chartered colony whose board of governors did not reside in England. This independence helped the settlers to maintain their Puritan religious practices with very little oversight by the king, Archbishop Laud, and the Anglican Church. The charter remained in force for 55 years, when, as a result of colonial insubordination with trade, tariff and navigation laws, Charles II revoked it in 1684.[27]
Colonial history[edit]A flotilla of ships (sometimes known as the Winthrop Fleet) sailed from England beginning in April 1630. The fleet, which began arriving at Salem in June, carried more than 700 colonists, Governor John Winthrop, and the colonial charter.[28] Winthrop is reputed to have delivered his famous "City upon a Hill" sermon either before or during the voyage.[29]
Detail of sounding board, Old Ship Church, 1681, Hingham, Massachusetts, oldest Puritan meetinghouse in Massachusetts.
For the next ten years there was a steady exodus of Puritans from England, with about 10,000 people migrating to Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies, a phenomenon now called the Great Migration.[30] Many ministers reacting to the newly repressive religious policies of England made the trip with their flocks. John Cotton, Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and others became leaders of Puritan congregations in Massachusetts. Religious divisions and the need for additional land prompted a number of migrations that resulted in the establishment of the Connecticut Colony (by Hooker) and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (by Williams and Anne Hutchinson). John Wheelwright, a minister who was (like Anne Hutchinson) banished in the wake of the Antinomian Controversy, moved north to found Exeter, New Hampshire.
The advent of the English Civil War in the early 1640s brought a halt to major migration, and a significant number of men returned to England to fight in the war. Massachusetts authorities were sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause, and had generally positive relationships with the governments of the English Commonwealth and The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. The colony's economy began to diversify in the 1640s, as the fur trading, lumber, and fishing industries found markets in Europe and the West Indies, and the colony's shipbuilding industry developed. Combined with the growth of a generation of people who were born in the colony, the rise of a merchant class began to slowly change the political and cultural landscape of the colony, even though its governance continued to be dominated by relatively conservative Puritans.
Colonial support for the Commonwealth presented problems upon the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660. Charles sought to extend royal influence over the colonies, which Massachusetts, more than the other colonies, resisted. For example, the colonial government repeatedly refused requests by Charles and his agents to allow the Church of England to become established, and it resisted adherence to the Navigation Acts, laws that constrained colonial trade.
All of the New England colonies were ravaged by King Philip's War (1675–1676), when the Indians of southern New England rose up against the colonists and were decisively defeated, although at great cost in life to the colonies. The Massachusetts frontier was particularly hard hit, with several communities in the Connecticut and Swift Rivers valleys being abandoned. By the end of the war, most of the Indian population of southern New England had been pacified, killed, or driven away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony.
The famous landing of the Mayflower in Plymouth Mass. that kicked off the colonial period happened in November 1620. There were no Coats listed on the passenger list of the Mayflower. The following is a complete list of Mayflower passengers, complements of wikipedia:
Passengers of the Leiden, Holland Congregation[edit]
Provincetown memorial to Pilgrims who died in Cape Cod Harbor.
- Allerton, Isaac (possibly Suffolk).[3]
- Mary (Norris) Allerton*, wife (Newbury, Berkshire)[4]
- Bartholomew Allerton, 7, son (Leiden, Holland).
- Remember Allerton, 5, daughter (Leiden).
- Mary Allerton, 3, daughter (Leiden). In 1699 she was the last of the Mayflower company to die.[5]
- Bradford, William (Austerfield, Yorkshire).
- Dorothy (May) Bradford*, wife (Wisbech, Cambridgeshire).
- Brewster, William (possibly Nottingham).[6]
- Mary Brewster, wife.
- Love/Truelove Brewster, 9, son (Leiden).
- Wrestling Brewster, 6, son (Leiden).
- Carver, John (possibly Yorkshire).[7]
- Katherine (Leggett) (White) Carver, wife (probably Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire).
- Chilton, James* (Canterbury, Kent).[8][9]
- Susana Furner, wife (born 1564).
- Mary Chilton, 13, daughter (Sandwich, Kent).
- Cooke, Francis.
- John Cooke, 13, son (Leiden).
- Cooper, Humility, 1, (probably Leiden) baby daughter of Robert Cooper, in company of her aunt Ann Cooper Tilley, wife of Edward Tilley[10]
- Crackstone/Crackston, John* (possibly Colchester, Essex).[11]
- John Crackstone, son.
- Fletcher, Moses* (Sandwich, Kent).[12]
- Fuller, Edward* (Redenhall, Norfolk).[9]
- Fuller, Samuel (Redenhall, Norfolk), (brother to Edward).
- Goodman, John* (possibly Northampton).[15]
- Priest, Degory*
- Rogers, Thomas* (Watford, Northamptonshire).
- Joseph Rogers, 17, son (Watford, Northamptonshire).
- Samson, Henry, 16, (Henlow, Bedfordshire) child in company of his uncle and aunt Edward and Ann Tilley.[10]
- Tilley, Edward* (Henlow, Bedfordshire)
- Ann (Cooper) Tilley* (Henlow, Bedfordshire) wife of Edward and aunt of Humilty Cooper and Henry Samson.
- Tilley, John* (Henlow, Bedfordshire).
- Joan (Hurst) (Rogers) Tilley*, wife (Henlow, Bedfordshire).
- Elizabeth Tilley, 13, daughter (Henlow, Bedfordshire).
- Tinker, Thomas* (possibly Norfork).[16]
- Mrs. Thomas Tinker*, wife.
- boy Tinker*, son, died in the winter of 1620.
- Turner, John* (possibly Norfork).[17]
- boy Turner*, son, died in the winter of 1620.
- boy Turner*, younger son. died in the winter of 1620.
- Williams, Thomas[18]
- Winslow, Edward (Droitwich, Worcestershire).
- Elizabeth (Barker) Winslow, wife.
- Butten, William*, (possibly Nottingham) age: "a youth", indentured servant of Samuel Fuller, died during the voyage. He was the first passenger to die - on November 16, three days before Cape Cod was sighted. His burial place is unknown - he might have been buried at sea or after reaching Cape Cod, buried ashore there in an unmarked grave, as would soon after be the fate of Ellen More and her brother Jasper. Graves were unmarked to prevent Indians from knowing of their company's deaths and from disturbing the bodies.[19]
- --?--, Dorothy, teenager, maidservant of John Carver.
- Hooke, John*, (probably Norwich, Norfolk) age 13, apprenticed to Isaac Allerton, died during the first winter.
- Howland, John, (Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire), about 21, manservant and executive assistant for Governor John Carver.[20]
- Latham, William, (possibly Lancashire), age 11, servant/apprentice to the John Carver family.[21]
- Minter, Desire, (Norwich, Norfolk), a servant of John Carver whose parents died in Leiden.[22][23]
Mayflower plaque in St. James Church in Shipton, Shropshire commemorating the More children baptism. Courtesy of Phil Revell
- More, Ellen (Elinor)*, Shipton, Shropshire),[24] age 8, assigned as a servant of Edward Winslow. She died from illness sometime in November 1620 soon after the arrival of Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor and likely was buried ashore there in an unmarked grave.[25]
- More, Jasper*, (Shipton, Shropshire),[24] age 7, indentured to John Carver. He died from illness on board Mayflower on December 6, 1620 and likely was buried ashore on Cape Cod in an unmarked grave.[25]
- More, Richard, (Shipton, Shropshire),[24] age 6, indentured to William Brewster. Richard More is buried in what was known as the Charter Street Burial Ground but is now the Burying Point/Charter Street Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. He is the only Mayflower passenger to have his gravestone still where it was originally placed sometime in the mid-1690s. Also buried nearby in the same cemetery were his two wives, Christian Hunter More and Jane (Crumpton) More.[25][26]
- More, Mary*, (Shipton, Shropshire),[24] age 6, assigned as a servant of William Brewster. She died sometime in the winter of 1620/1621. Her burial place is unknown, but may been on Cole's Hill in Plymouth in an unmarked grave as with so many others buried there that winter. As with her sister Ellen, she is recognized on the Pilgrim Memorial Tomb in Plymouth, misidentified after her sister's name as "and a brother (children)" - the statement of calling her "a brother" mistakenly coming from William Bradford's failing memory years after the event of her death.[25]
- Soule, George, (possibly Bedforshire),[27] 21-25, servant or employee of Edward Winslow.
- Story, Elias*, age under 21, in the care of Edward Winslow.
- Wilder, Roger*, age under 21, servant in the John Carver family.
Passengers recruited by Thomas Weston, of London Merchant Adventurers[edit]
- Billington, John (possibly Lancashire).[28]
- Eleanor Billington, wife.
- John Billington, 16, son.
- Francis Billington, 14, son.
- Britteridge, Richard* (possibly Sussex).[29]
- Browne, Peter (Dorking, Surrey).
- Clarke, Richard*
- Eaton, Francis (Bristol, Gloucestershire/Somerset).[30]
- Sarah Eaton*, wife.
- Samuel Eaton, 1, son.
- Gardiner, Richard (Harwich, Essex).
- Hopkins, Stephen (Upper Clatford, Hampshire).
- Elizabeth (Fisher) Hopkins, wife.
- Giles Hopkins, 12, son by first marriage (Hursley, Hampshire).
- Guild, John, (Essex).
- Constance Hopkins, 14, daughter by first marriage (Hursley, Hampshire).
- Damaris Hopkins, 1-2, daughter.
- Oceanus Hopkins, born on board the Mayflower while en route to the New World.
- Margesson, Edmund* (possibly Norfolk).[31]
- Martin, Christopher* (Billericay, Essex).
- Mary (Prower) Martin*, wife.
- Mullins, William* (Dorking, Surrey).
- Alice Mullins*, wife.
- Priscilla Mullins, 18, daughter.
- Joseph Mullins*, 14, son.
- Prower, Solomon* (Billericay, Essex).
- Rigsdale, John* (possibly Lincolnshire).[32]
- Alice Rigsdale*, wife.
- Standish, Myles (probably Lancashire).
- Rose Standish, wife.
- Warren, Richard (Hertford, England).
- Winslow, Gilbert (Droitwich, Worcestershire), brother to Pilgrim Edward Winslow but not known to have lived in Leiden.
- White, William*[33]
- Susanna White, wife, widowed February 21, 1621. She subsequently married Pilgrim Edward Winslow.[33][34]
- Resolved White, 5, son, wife was Judith Vassal.[33]
- Peregrine White', son. Born on board the Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor in late November 1620. First European born to the Pilgrims in America.[33]
- Carter, Robert*, (possibly Surrey),[35] Teenager, servant or apprentice to William Mullins, shoemaker.
- Doty, Edward, (possibly Lincolnshire) age probably about 21, servant to Stephen Hopkins.
- Holbeck, William*, age likely under 21, servant to William White.
- Langmore, John*, age under 21, servant to the Christopher Martin.
- Leister, Edward also spelled Leitster. (possibly vicinity of London), aged over 21, servant to Stephen Hopkins.[36]
- Thompson/Thomson, Edward*, age under 21, in the care of the William White family, first passenger to die after the Mayflower reached Cape Cod.
Ship crewmen hired to stay one year[edit]
- John Alden - He was a 21 year-old from Harwich, Essex as was Capt. Jones. He was both a crewman and ships cooper with the very important task of maintaining the ships barrels. In these were stored the only source of Mayflower food and drink while at sea, and tending them required a crew members attention. He was given the choice of remaining in the colony or returning to England. He decided to remain.[42][43]
- John Allerton* - A Mayflower seaman hired as colony labor for one year. He was then to return to Leiden to assist church members with travel to America. He died sometime before the Mayflower departed for England on April 5, 1621.[44]
- ____ Ely - A Mayflower seaman contracted to stay for one year. He returned to England on the Fortune in December 1621 along with William Trevor. Dr. Jeremy Bangs believes his name was either John or Christopher Ely, or Ellis, who are documented in Leiden records.[45][46]
- Thomas English* - A Mayflower seaman hired to be master of the ship’s shallop. He died sometime before the departure of the Mayflower for England on April 5, 1621.[47][48]
- William Trevore - A Mayflower seaman with prior New World experience hired to work in the colony for one year. He returned to England on the Fortune in December 1621 along with Ely and others. By 1650 he had returned to New England.[49][50][51]
Animals On Board[edit]At least two dogs are known to have participated in the settling of Plymouth. In Mourt's Relation Edward Winslow writes that a female mastiff and a small springer spaniel came ashore on the first explorations of what is now Provincetown.[52] The ship was believed to have small domestic animals such as goats and pigs on board as well as chickens. Larger domestic animals such as cows and sheep came later.' [53]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mayflower_passengers
It is interesting to realize the Pilgrims, as I am sure you learned in school, were a separatist religious group who came to America to establish the free practice of their religion. Sadly, they did not practice what they preached. For the Pilgrims, religion was the principle law and it was their way or the highway, the highway often meaning the gallows. The following is a little more history on the Plymouth plantation before we move on. I think it is helpful to try and understand the historic background as much as possible to give you a sense fo the setting that your ancestors moved into.
Migration to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633
A collaboration between Plimoth Plantation™ and the
New England Historic Genealogical Society®
supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services
www.PlymouthAncestors.org
Introduction
Plymouth Colony was begun in December 1620 by a small
company of English men, women and children. One hundred
and two passengers arrived at Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower
in November, and eventually chose the abandoned Native
town of Patuxet as the site of their new home. In the next few
months, half of them died due to scurvy and other diseases.
Those who lived went on to build homes, plant crops and
raise families. Other English settlers followed, and the colony
expanded As the English population increased, the colonists
pushed out to land in the east, north and west, establishing
additional towns. This brought them into increased contact,
and eventually conflict, with the Native Peoples living there.
Plymouth Beginnings
The core group of Mayflower passengers were members of a
reformed Christian church, referred to at the time as Separatists
or Brownists, who were living in Leiden, Holland. They had
originally emigrated from England to Holland in order to
worship as they believed right. In separating from the Church
of England, they had committed treason, and so faced prison
or worse if they stayed and were caught. Many of those who
went to Holland were from the Scrooby, Nottinghamshire
area of England. The Leiden records reveal, however, that there
were English men and women from a number of English
counties, including Essex, Kent and Somerset.
In 1620, the group emigrating from Leiden was joined by
about fifty others recruited by the colony’s investors. It is
probable that many of them were then living in the London
area. They may, however, have come from other parts of
England originally. In the next few years, three other ships
arrived bringing additional settlers for Plymouth Colony –
the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and Little James in 1623.
Most of the colonists for whom a place of origin has been
identified, came from the east and south of England. There
were a few, however, that came from places as far north as
Berwick-upon-Tweed close to the Scottish border, and as far
west as Bristol on the River Severn.
Plymouth 1624-1633
After 1623, there were few other large groups of passengers for
Plymouth. In the next five years, only a handful of colonists
arrived, generally aboard ships bringing supplies to the area.
In 1629 and 1630, numerous ships came to the Massachusetts
Bay bringing approximately 1000 settlers for that colony. In
these two years, Plymouth also got an additional influx, ten
or so aboard the Mayflower (not the 1620 ship) and 35 aboard
the Talbot in 1629, and about 60 in the Handmaid in 1630.
Many of them were Leiden Separatists. Some people moved
from Massachusetts Bay Colony to Plymouth and vice versa,
seeking a more congenial home. Small numbers of additional
Plymouth colonists trickled in during the next three years.
Plymouth Colony, 1633
By 1633, the population of Plymouth Colony was approximately
400 individuals. The colonists expanded beyond the bounds
of the town of Plymouth. A few moved across Plymouth Bay
to Mattakesett, which became Duxbury. Some men were
granted land at Conahasset, known as Green’s Harbor (and
later Marshfield), in 1632. While these early expansions were
peaceful, in later years the increased contact between the
Native Wampanoag and the English colonists led to friction,
ultimately resulting in King Philip’s War (1675-1676). http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/historical_migration.pdf
The following is a little more history concerning the Massachusetts Bay Colony and early governance in the colonies.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Territory claimed but never administered by the colonial government extended as far west as the Pacific Ocean.
The colony was founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company, which had in 1623 established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann. The second attempt, the Massachusetts Bay Colony begun in 1628, was successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s. The population was strongly Puritan, and its governance was dominated by a small group of leaders who were strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders. Although its governors were elected, the electorate were limited to freemen, who had been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to their church and also to their houses with self-control. As a consequence, the colonial leadership exhibited intolerance to other religious views, including Anglican, Quaker, and Baptist theologies.
Although the colonists initially had decent relationships with the local native populations, frictions arose over cultural differences, which were further exacerbated by Dutch colonial expansion. These led first to the Pequot War (1636–1638), and then to King Philip's War (1675–1678), after which most of the natives in southern New England had been pacified, killed, or driven away.
The colony was economically successful, engaging in trade with England and the West Indies. A shortage of hard currency in the colony prompted it to establish a mint in 1652. Political differences with England after the English Restoration led to the revocation of the colonial charter in 1684. King James II established the Dominion of New England in 1686 to bring all of the New England colonies under firmer crown control. The dominion collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James, and the colony reverted to rule under the revoked charter until 1692, when Sir William Phips arrived bearing the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which combined the Massachusetts Bay territories with those of the Plymouth Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The political and economic dominance of New England by the modern state ofMassachusetts was made possible in part by the early dominance in these spheres by the Massachusetts Bay colonists.
Early settlements[edit]
Map depicting tribal distribution in southern New England, circa 1600; the political boundaries shown are modern
Prior to the arrival of Europeans on the eastern shore of New England, the area around Massachusetts Bay was the territory of several Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Massachusett, Nauset, and Wampanoag. The Pennacooks occupied theMerrimack River valley to the north, and the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Mahican, occupied the western lands of present-dayMassachusetts, although some of those tribes were under tribute to the Mohawk, who were expanding aggressively from present-day upstate New York.[1] The total Indian population in 1620 has been estimated to be 7,000[2] with the population of New England at 15–18,000.[3] This number was significantly larger as late as 1616; in later years contemporary chroniclers interviewed Indians who described a major pestilence that killed between one and two thirds of the population. The land use patterns of the natives included plots cleared for agricultural purposes, and woodland territories for the hunting of game. Land divisions between the tribes were well understood.[2]
Early in the 17th century a variety of European explorers, including Samuel de Champlain and John Smith, charted the area.[4] Plans for the first permanent British settlements on the east coast of North America began in 1606. On April 10, 1606 King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) granted a charter forming two joint stock companies. Neither of these corporations was given a name by this charter, but the territories over which they were respectively authorized to settle, and if settled, to govern, were expressly named as the "first Colony" (fourth paragraph of charter) and "second Colony" (fifth paragraph of charter). Under this charter the "first Colony" and the "second Colony" each were to be ruled by a "Council" composed of 13 individuals. The charter provided for an additional council of 13 persons to have overarching responsibility for the combined enterprise. Although no name was given to either the company or council governing the respective colonies, the council governing the whole was named "Council of Virginia." (Notwithstanding that the 1606 charter did not assign names to the regional companies or councils, the April 4,1629 charter granted by King Charles I erroneously asserted that the 1606 charter had given the council governing the "second Colony" the name "Council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon.") The "first Colony" ranged from the 34th to 41st degree latitude north; the "second Colony" ranged from the 38th to 45th degree latitude. (Note that the "first Colony" and the "second Colony" overlapped. The 1629 charter of Charles I asserted that the second Colony ranged from 40th to 48th degrees north latitude, which reduces the overlap.) The investors appointed to govern over any settlements in the "first Colony" were from London; the investors appointed to govern over any settlements in the "second Colony" were from the "Town of Plimouth in the County of Devon."[citation needed] The London Company proceeded to establish Jamestown.[5] The Plymouth Company under the guidance of SirFerdinando Gorges covered the more northern area, including present-day New England, and established the Sagadahoc Colony in 1607 in present-day Maine.[6] The experience proved exceptionally difficult for the 120 settlers, however, and the surviving colonists abandoned the colony after only one year.[7] Gorges noted that "there was no more speech of settling plantations in those parts" for a number of years.[8] English ships continued to come to the New England area for fishing and trade with the Indians.[9]
Plymouth Colony[edit]In November 1620, a group of Pilgrims, seeking to preserve their cultural identity, established Plymouth Colony just to the south of Massachusetts Bay.[10] Their settlement was joined in 1622 and 1623 by short-lived settlements at nearby Wessagusset (present-day Weymouth), whose settlers either joined the Plymouth colony, returned to England, or settled in small outposts elsewhere on Massachusetts Bay.[11]
Plymouth's colonists faced great hardships and earned few profits for their investors, who sold their interests to the settlers in 1627.[12] Edward Winslow and William Bradford, two of its leaders, were likely authors of a work published in England in 1622 called Mourt's Relation. This book in some ways resembles a promotional tract intended to encourage further migration.[13] There were other short-lived colonial settlements in 1623 and 1624 at present-day Weymouth, Massachusetts: the Wessagusset Colony of Thomas Westonand an effort by Robert Gorges to establish an overarching colonial structure both failed.[14][15]
Cape Ann settlement[edit]In 1623, the Plymouth Council for New England (successor to the Plymouth Company) established a small fishing village at Cape Ann under the supervision of the Dorchester Company, with Thomas Gardner as its overseer. This company was originally organized through the efforts of the Puritan minister John White (1575–1648) of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. White has been called "the father of the Massachusetts Colony" because of his influence in establishing this settlement and despite the fact that he never emigrated.[16] The Cape Ann settlement was not profitable, and the financial backers of the Dorchester Company terminated their support by the end of 1625. Their settlement at present-day Gloucester was abandoned, but a few settlers, including Roger Conant, remained in the area, establishing a settlement a little further south, near the village of the Naumkeag tribe.[17]
Legal formation of the colony[edit]Archbishop William Laud, a favorite advisor of King Charles I and a dedicated Anglican, sought to suppress the religious practices of Puritans and other nonconforming beliefs in England. The persecution of many Puritans in the 1620s led them to believe religious reform would not be possible while Charles was king, and many decided to seek a new life in the New World.[18]
John White continued to seek funding for a colony. On 19 March 1627/8,[19] the Council for New England issued a land grant to a new group of investors that included a few holdovers from the Dorchester Company. The land grant was for territory between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers, including a three mile (4.8 km) buffer to the north of the Merrimack and to the south of the Charles, that extended from "the Atlantick and westerne sea and ocean on the east parte, to the South sea on the west parte."[20] The company that the grant was sold to was styled "The New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts Bay".[21] The company elected Matthew Cradock as its first governor, and immediately began organizing provisions and recruiting settlers. The company sent about 100 new settlers and provisions in 1628 to join Conant, led by Governor's Assistant John Endecott, one of the grantees.[22] The next year, Naumkeag was renamed Salem and fortified by another 300 settlers, led by Rev. Francis Higginson, one of the first ministers of the settlement.[23] The first winters were difficult, with colonists struggling against disease and starvation, resulting in a significant number of deaths.[24][25]
Concerned about the legality of conflicting land claims given to several companies including the New England Company to the still little-known territories of the New World, and because of the increasing number of Puritans that wanted to join the company, the company leaders sought a Royal Charter for the colony. Charles granted the new charter on 4 March 1628/9,[26] superseding the land grant and establishing a legal basis for the new English colony at Massachusetts. It was not apparent that Charles knew the Company was meant to support the Puritan emigration, and he was likely left to assume it was purely for business purposes, as was the custom. The charter omitted a significant clause – the location for the annual stockholders' meeting. After Charles dissolved Parliament in 1629, the company's directors met to consider the possibility of moving the company's seat of governance to the colony. This was followed the Cambridge Agreement later that year, in which a group of investors agreed to emigrate and work to buy out others who would not. The Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first English chartered colony whose board of governors did not reside in England. This independence helped the settlers to maintain their Puritan religious practices with very little oversight by the king, Archbishop Laud, and the Anglican Church. The charter remained in force for 55 years, when, as a result of colonial insubordination with trade, tariff and navigation laws, Charles II revoked it in 1684.[27]
Colonial history[edit]A flotilla of ships (sometimes known as the Winthrop Fleet) sailed from England beginning in April 1630. The fleet, which began arriving at Salem in June, carried more than 700 colonists, Governor John Winthrop, and the colonial charter.[28] Winthrop is reputed to have delivered his famous "City upon a Hill" sermon either before or during the voyage.[29]
Detail of sounding board, Old Ship Church, 1681, Hingham, Massachusetts, oldest Puritan meetinghouse in Massachusetts.
For the next ten years there was a steady exodus of Puritans from England, with about 10,000 people migrating to Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies, a phenomenon now called the Great Migration.[30] Many ministers reacting to the newly repressive religious policies of England made the trip with their flocks. John Cotton, Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and others became leaders of Puritan congregations in Massachusetts. Religious divisions and the need for additional land prompted a number of migrations that resulted in the establishment of the Connecticut Colony (by Hooker) and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (by Williams and Anne Hutchinson). John Wheelwright, a minister who was (like Anne Hutchinson) banished in the wake of the Antinomian Controversy, moved north to found Exeter, New Hampshire.
The advent of the English Civil War in the early 1640s brought a halt to major migration, and a significant number of men returned to England to fight in the war. Massachusetts authorities were sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause, and had generally positive relationships with the governments of the English Commonwealth and The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. The colony's economy began to diversify in the 1640s, as the fur trading, lumber, and fishing industries found markets in Europe and the West Indies, and the colony's shipbuilding industry developed. Combined with the growth of a generation of people who were born in the colony, the rise of a merchant class began to slowly change the political and cultural landscape of the colony, even though its governance continued to be dominated by relatively conservative Puritans.
Colonial support for the Commonwealth presented problems upon the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660. Charles sought to extend royal influence over the colonies, which Massachusetts, more than the other colonies, resisted. For example, the colonial government repeatedly refused requests by Charles and his agents to allow the Church of England to become established, and it resisted adherence to the Navigation Acts, laws that constrained colonial trade.
All of the New England colonies were ravaged by King Philip's War (1675–1676), when the Indians of southern New England rose up against the colonists and were decisively defeated, although at great cost in life to the colonies. The Massachusetts frontier was particularly hard hit, with several communities in the Connecticut and Swift Rivers valleys being abandoned. By the end of the war, most of the Indian population of southern New England had been pacified, killed, or driven away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony.
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