William Bradford - The Mayflower Voyage - Premium Edition - 4 Book Collection

Richard Clarke.

John Goodman.

Edward Margeson.

Richard Britteridge.

Mrs. Katherine Carver and her family, it is altogether probable, came

over in charge of Howland, who was probably a kinsman, both he and

Deacon Carver coming from Essex in England,—as they could hardly

have been in England with Carver during the time of his exacting

work of preparation. He, it is quite certain, was not a passenger

on the Speedwell, for Pastor Robinson would hardly have sent him

such a letter as that received by him at Southampton, previously

mentioned (Bradford’s “Historie,” Deane’s ed. p. 63), if he had been

with him at Delfshaven at the “departure,” a few days before. Nor

if he had handed it to him at Delfshaven, would he have told him in

it, “I have written a large letter to the whole company.”

John Howland was clearly a “secretary” or “steward,” rather than a

“servant,” and a man of standing and influence from the outset.

That he was in Leyden and hence a SPEEDWELL passenger appears

altogether probable, but is not absolutely certain.

Desire Minter (or Minther) was undoubtedly the daughter of Sarah, who,

the “Troth Book” (or “marriage-in-tention” records) for 1616, at the

Stadtbuis of Leyden, shows, was probably wife or widow of one

William Minther—evidently of Pastor Robinson’s congregation—when

she appeared on May 13 as a “voucher” for Elizabeth Claes, who then

pledged herself to Heraut Wilson, a pump-maker, John Carver being

one of Wilson’s “vouchers.” In 1618 Sarah Minther (then recorded as

the widow of William) reappeared, to plight her troth to Roger

Simons, brick-maker, from Amsterdam. These two records and the

rarity of the name warrant an inference that Desire Minter (or

Minther) was the daughter of William and Sarah (Willet) Minter (or

Minther), of Robinson’s flock; that her father had died prior to

1618 (perhaps before 1616); that the Carvers were near friends,

perhaps kinsfolk; that her father being dead, her mother, a poor

widow (there were clearly no rich ones in the Leyden congregation),

placed this daughter with the Carvers, and, marrying herself, and

removing to Amsterdam the year before the exodus, was glad to leave

her daughter in so good a home and such hands as Deacon and Mistress

Carver’s. The record shows that the father and mother of Mrs. Sarah

Minther, Thomas and Alice Willet, the probable grandparents of

Desire Minter, appear as “vouchers” for their daughter at her Leyden

betrothal. Of them we know nothing further, but it is a reasonable

conjecture that they may have returned to England after the

remarriage of their daughter and her removal to Amsterdam, and the

removal of the Carvers and their granddaughter to America, and that

it was to them that Desire went, when, as Bradford records, “she

returned to her friends in England, and proved not very well and

died there.”

“Mrs. Carver’s maid” we know but little about, but the presumption is

naturally strong that she came from; Leyden with her mistress. Her

early marriage and; death are duly recorded.

Roger Wilder, Carver’s “servant;” was apparently in his service at Leyden

and accompanied the family from thence. Bradford calls him “his

[Carver’s] man Roger,” as if an old, familiar household servant,

which (as Wilder died soon after the arrival at Plymouth) Bradford

would not have been as likely to do—writing in 1650, thirty years

after—if he had been only a short-time English addition to Carver’s

household, known to Bradford only during the voyage. The fact that

he speaks of him as a “man” also indicates something as to his age,

and renders it certain that he was not an “indentured” lad. It is

fair to presume he was a passenger on the SPEEDWELL to Southampton.

(It is probable that Carver’s “servant-boy,” William Latham, and

Jasper More, his “bound-boy,” were obtained in England, as more

fully appears.)

Master William Bradford and his wife were certainly of the party in the

SPEEDWELL, as shown by his own recorded account of the embarkation.

(Bradford’s “Historie,” etc.)

Master Edward Winslow’s very full (published) account of the embarkation

(“Hypocrisie Unmasked,” pp. 10-13, etc.) makes it certain that

himself and family were SPEEDWELL passengers.

George Soule, who seems to have been a sort of “upper servant” or

“steward,” it is not certain was with Winslow in Holland, though it

is probable.

Elias Story, his “under-servant,” was probably also with him in Holland,

though not surely so. Both servants might possibly have been

procured from London or at Southampton, but probably sailed from

Delfshaven with Winslow in the SPEEDWELL.

Elder William Brewster and his family, his wife and two boys, were

passengers on the SPEEDWELL, beyond reasonable doubt. He was, in

fact, the ranking man of the Leyden brethren till they reached

Southampton and the respective ships’ “governors” were chosen. The

Church to that point was dominant. (The Elder’s two “bound-boys,”

being from London, do not appear as SPEEDWELL passengers.) There is,

on careful study, no warrant to be found for the remarkable

statements of Goodwin (“Pilgrim Republic,” p. 33), that, during the

hunt for Brewster in Holland in 1619, by the emissaries of James I.

of England (in the endeavor to apprehend and punish him for printing

and publishing certain religious works alleged to be seditious),

“William Brewster was in London . . . and there he remained until

the sailing of the MAYFLOWER, which he helped to fit out;” and that

during that time “he visited Scrooby.” That he had no hand whatever

in fitting out the MAYFLOWER is certain, and the Scrooby statement

equally lacks foundation. Professor Arber, who is certainly a

better authority upon the “hidden press” of the Separatists in

Holland, and the official correspondence relating to its proprietors

and their movements, says (“The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers,”

p.196): “The Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Church was, for more than a

year before he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL, on the 22 July-

1 August, 1620, a hunted man.” Again (p. 334), he says: “Here let

us consider the excellent management and strategy of this Exodus.

If the Pilgrims had gone to London to embark for America, many, if

not most of them, would have been put in prison [and this is the

opinion of a British historian, knowing the temper of those times,

especially William Brewster.] So only those embarked in London

against whom the Bishops could take no action.” We can understand,

in light, why Carver—a more objectionable person than Cushman to

the prelates, because of his office in the Separatist Church—was

chiefly employed out of their sight, at Southampton, etc., while the

diplomatic and urbane Cushman did effective work at London, under

the Bishops’ eyes. It is not improbable that the personal

friendship of Sir Robert Naunton (Principal Secretary of State to

King James) for Sir Edward Sandys and the Leyden brethren (though

officially seemingly active under his masters’ orders in pushing Sir

Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, to an

unrelenting search for Brewster) may have been of material aid to

the Pilgrims in gaining their departure unmolested. The only basis