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

passengers. Humility Cooper returned to England after the death of

Tilley and his wife. That Mrs. Tilley’s “given name” was Ann is not

positively established, but rests on Bradford’s evidence.

John Tilley (who is also sometimes called Master) is reputed a brother of

Edward, and is known to have been—as also his wife—of the Leyden

church (Bradford, Deane’s ed. p. 83.) His second wife Bridget Van

der Velde, was evidently of Holland blood, and their marriage is

recorded in Leyden. Elizabeth Tilley was clearly a daughter by an

earlier wife. He is said by Goodwin (“Pilgrim Republic,” p. 32) to

have been a “silk worker” Leyden, but earlier authority for this

occupation is not found.

John Crackstone is of record as of the Leyden congregation. His daughter

remained there, and came later to America.

John Crackstone, Jr., son of above. Both were SPEEDWELL passengers.

Francis Cooke has been supposed a very early member of Robinson’s flock

in England, who escaped with them to Holland, in 1608. He and his

son perhaps embarked at Delfshaven, leaving his wife and three other

children to follow later. (See Robinson’s letter to Governor

Bradford, “Mass. Hist. Coll.,” vol. iii. p. 45, also Appendix for

account of Cooke’s marriage.)

John Cooke, the son, was supposed to have lived to be the last male

survivor of the MAY-FLOWER, but Richard More proves to have survived

him. He was a prominent man in the colony, like his father, and the

founder of Dartmouth (Mass.).

John Turner and his sons are also known to have been of the Leyden party,

as he was undoubtedly the messenger sent to London with the letter

(of May 31) of the leaders to Carver and Cushman, arriving there

June 10, 1620. They were beyond doubt of the SPEEDWELL’S list.

Degory Priest—or “Digerie,” as Bradford calls him—was a prominent

member of the Leyden body. His marriage is recorded there, and he

left his family in the care of his pastor and friends, to follow him

later. He died early.

Thomas Rogers and his son are reputed of the Leyden company. He left

(according to Bradford) some of his family there—as did Cooke and

Priest—to follow later. It has been suggested that Rogers might

have been of the Essex (England) lineage, but no evidence of this

appears. The Rogers family of Essex were distinctively Puritans,

both in England and in the Massachusetts colony.

Moses Fletcher was a “smith” at Leyden, and of Robinson’s church. He was

married there, in 1613, to his second wife. He was perhaps of the

English Amsterdam family of Separatists, of that name. As the only

blacksmith of the colonists, his early death was a great loss.

Thomas Williams, there seems no good reason to doubt, was the Thomas

Williams known to have been of Leyden congregation. Hon. H. C.

Murphy and Arber include him—apparently through oversight alone

—in the list of those of Leyden who did not go, unless there were

two of the name, one of whom remained in Holland.

Thomas Tinker, wife, and son are not certainly known to have been of the

Leyden company, or to have embarked at Delfshaven, but their

constant association in close relation with others who were and who

so embarked warrants the inference that they were of the SPEEDWELL’S

passengers. It is, however, remotely possible, that they were of

the English contingent.

Edward Fuller and his wife and little son were of the Leyden company, and

on the SPEEDWELL. He is reputed to have been a brother of Dr.

Fuller, and is occasionally so claimed by early writers, but by what

warrant is not clear.

John Rigdale and his wife have always been placed by tradition and

association with the Leyden emigrants but there is a possibility

that they were of the English party. Probability assigns them to

the SPEEDWELL, and they are needed to make her accredited number.

Francis Eaton, wife, and babe were doubtless of the Leyden list. He is

said to have been a carpenter there (Goodwin, “Pilgrim Republic,” p.

32), and was married there, as the record attests.

Peter Browne has always been classed with the Leyden party. There is no

established authority for this except tradition, and he might

possibly have been of the English emigrants, though probably a

SPEEDWELL passenger; he is needed to make good her putative number.

William Ring is in the same category as are Eaton and Browne. Cushman

speaks of him, in his Dartmouth letter to Edward Southworth (of

August 17), in terms of intimacy, though this, while suggestive, of

course proves nothing, and he gave up the voyage and returned from

Plymouth to London with Cushman. He was certainly from Leyden.

Richard Clarke is on the doubtful list, as are also John Goodman, Edward

Margeson, and Richard Britteridge. They have always been

traditionally classed with the Leyden colonists, yet some of them

were possibly among the English emigrants. They are all needed,

however, to make up the number usually assigned to Leyden, as are

all the above “doubtfuls,” which is of itself somewhat confirmatory

of the substantial correctness of the list.

Thomas English, Bradford records, “was hired to goe master of a [the]

shallopp” of the colonists, in New England waters. He was probably

hired in Holland and was almost certainly of the SPEEDWELL.

John Alderton (sometimes written Allerton) was, Bradford states, “a hired

man, reputed [reckoned] one of the company, but was to go back

(being a seaman) and so making no account of the voyages for the

help of others behind” [probably at Leyden]. It is probable that he

was hired in Holland, and came to Southampton on the SPEEDWELL.

Both English and Alderton seem to have stood on a different footing

from Trevore and Ely, the other two seamen in the employ of the

colonists.

William Trevore was, we are told by Bradford, “a seaman hired to stay a

year in the countrie,” but whether or not as part of the SPEEDWELL’S

Crew (who, he tells us, were all hired for a year) does not appear.

As the Master (Reynolds) and others of her crew undoubtedly returned

to London in her from Plymouth, and her voyage was cancelled, the

presumption is that Trevore and Ely were either hired anew or—more

probably—retained under their former agreement, to proceed by the

MAY-FLOWER to America, apparently (practically) as passengers.

Whether of the consort’s crew or not, there can be little doubt that

he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL.

—- Ely, the other seaman in the Planters’ employ, also hired to “remain

a year in the countrie,” appears to have been drafted, like Trevore,

from the SPEEDWELL before she returned to London, having, no doubt,

made passage from Holland in her. Both Trevore and Ely survived

“the general sickness” at New Plimoth, and at the expiration of the

time for which they were employed returned on the FORTUNE to England

Of course the initial embarkation, on Friday, July 21/31 1620, was at Leyden, doubtless upon the Dutch canal-boats which undoubtedly brought them from a point closely adjacent to Pastor Robinson’s house in the Klock-Steeg (Bell, Belfry, Alley), in the garden of which were the houses of many, to Delfshaven.

Rev. John Brown, D.D., says: “The barges needed for the journey were most likely moored near the Nuns’ Bridge which spans the Rapenburg immediately opposite the Klok-Steeg, where Robinsons house was. This, being their usual meeting-place, would naturally be the place of rendezvous on the morning of departure. From thence it was but a stone’s throw to the boats, and quickly after starting they would enter the Vliet, as the section of the canal between Leyden and Delft is named, and which for a little distance runs within the city bounds, its quays forming the streets. In those days the point where the canal leaves the city was guarded by a water-gate, which has long since been removed, as have also the town walls, the only remaining portions of which are the Morsch-gate and the Zylgate. So, gliding along the quiet waters of the Vliet, past the Water-gate, and looking up at the frowning turrets of the Cow-gate, ‘they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting-place near twelve years.’ . . . Nine miles from Leyden a branch canal connects the Vliet with the Hague, and immediately beyond their junction a sharp turn is made to the left, as the canal passes beneath the Hoom-bridge; from this point, for the remaining five miles, the high road from the Hague to Delft, lined with noble trees, runs side by side with the canal. In our time the canal-boats make a circuit of the town to the right, but in those days the traffic went by canal through the heart of the city . . . . Passing out of the gates of Delft and leaving the town behind, they had still a good ten miles of canal journey before them ere they reached their vessel and came to the final parting, for, as Mr. Van Pelt has clearly shown, it is a mistake to confound Delft with Delfshaven, as the point of embarkation in the SPEEDWELL. Below Delft the canal, which from Leyden thither is the Vliet, then becomes the Schie, and at the village of Overschie the travellers entered the Delfshaven Canal, which between perfectly straight dykes flows at a considerable height above the surrounding pastures. Then finally passing through one set of sluice gates after another, the Pilgrims were lifted from the canal into a broad receptacle for vessels, then into the outer haven, and so to the side of the SPEEDWELL as she lay at the quay awaiting their arrival.”