John Hooke, Described By Bradford As A "Servant-Boy," Was Probably But A
Youth.
He did not sign the Compact.
Nothing further is known of him
except that he died early. It is quite possible that he may have
been of London and have been "indentured" by the municipality to
Allerton, but the presumption has been that he came, as body-servant
of Allerton, with him from Leyden.
Captain Standish's years in 1620 are conjectural (from fixed data), as is
his age at death. His early home was at Duxborough Hall, in
Lancashire. His commission as Captain, from Queen Elizabeth, would
make his birth about 1584. Rose Standish, his wife, is said by
tradition to have been from the Isle of Man, but nothing is known of
her age or antecedents, except that she was younger than the
Captain. She died during the "general sickness," early in 1621.
Master Christopher Martin, as previously noted, was from Billerica, in
Essex. From collateral data it appears that he must have been
"about forty" years old when he joined the Pilgrims. He appears to
have been a staunch "Independent" and to have drawn upon himself the
ire of the Archdeacon of Chelmsford, (probably) by his loud-mouthed
expression of his views, as only "a month before the MAY-FLOWER
sailed" he, with his son and Solomon Prower of his household
(probably a relative), were cited before the archdeacon to answer
for their shortcomings, especially in reverence for this church
dignitary. He seems to have been at all times a self-conceited,
arrogant, and unsatisfactory man. That he was elected treasurer
and ship's "governor" and permitted so much unbridled liberty as
appears, is incomprehensible. It was probably fortunate that he
died early, as he did, evidently in utter poverty. He had a son,
in 1620, apparently quite a grown youth, from which it is fair to
infer that the father was at that time "about forty." Of his wife
nothing is known. She also died early.
Solomon Prower, who is called by Bradford both "son" and "servant" of
Martin, seems from the fact of his "citation" before the Archdeacon
of Chelmsford, etc., to have been something more than a "servant,"
possibly a kinsman, or foster-son, and probably would more properly
have been termed an "employee." He was from Billerica, in Essex,
and was, from the fact that he did not sign the Compact, probably
under twenty-one or very ill at the time. He died early. Of John
Langemore, his fellow "servant," nothing is known, except that he is
spoken of by Young as one of two "children" brought over by Martin
(but on no apparent authority), and he did not sign the Compact,
though this might have been from extreme illness, as he too died
early.
William White was of the Leyden congregation. He is wrongly called by
Davis a son of Bishop John White, as the only English Bishop of that
name and time died a bachelor. At White's marriage, recorded at the
Stadthaus at Leyden, January 27/February 1, 1612, to Anna [Susanna]
Fuller, he is called "a young man of England." As he presumably was
of age at that time, he must have been at least some twenty-nine or
thirty years old at the embarkation, eight years later.
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