Poor Britteridge Died
December 21, Three Weeks Earlier.
He signed the Compact, and hence
may be accounted of age at the landing at Cape Cod.
Richard Clarke appears only as one of the passengers and as dying before
the end of March. He signed the Compact, and hence was doubtless
twenty-one or over.
Richard Gardiner, we know from Bradford, "became a seaman and died in
England or at sea." He was evidently a young man, but of his age or
antecedents nothing appears. He signed the Compact, and hence was
at least twenty-one years old.
John Alderton (sometimes spelled Allerton), we are told by Bradford, - as
elsewhere noted, - "was hired, but was reputed one of the company,
but was to go back, being a seaman and so, presumably, unmindful of
the voyages, for the help of others." Whether Bradford intended by
the latter clause to indicate that he had left his family behind,
and came "to spy out the land," and, if satisfied, to return for
them, or was to return for the counsel and assistance of Robinson
and the rest, who were to follow, is not clear, but the latter view
has most to support it. We learn his occupation, but can only infer
that he was a young man over twenty-one from the above and the fact
that he signed the Compact. It has been suggested that he was a
relative of Isaac Allerton, but this is nowhere shown and is
improbable. He died before the MAY-FLOWER returned to England.
Thomas English (or Enlish), Bradford tells us ("Historie," Mass. ed.
p. 533), "was hired to goe Master of a [the] shallop here." He,
however, "died here before the ship returned." It is altogether
probable that he was the savior of the colony on that stormy night
when the shallop made Plymouth harbor the first time, and, narrowly
escaping destruction, took shelter under Clarke's Island. The first
three governors of the colony, its chief founders, - Carver,
Bradford, and Winslow, - with Standish, Warren, Hopkins, Howland,
Dotey, and others, were on board, and but for the heroism and prompt
action of "the lusty sea man which steered," who was - beyond
reasonable doubt - English, as Bradford's narrative ("Morton's
Memorial") shows, the lives of the entire party must, apparently,
have been lost. That English was, if on board - Bradford shows in
the "Memorial" that he was - as Master of the shallop, properly her
helmsman in so critical a time, goes without saying, especially as
the "rudder was broken" and an oar substituted; that the ship's
"mates," Clarke and Coppin, were not in charge (although on board)
fully appears by Bradford's account; and as it must have taken all
of the other (four) seamen on board to pull the shallop, bereft of
her sail, in the heavy breakers into which she had been run by
Coppin's blunder, there would be no seaman but English for the
steering-oar, which was his by right. Had these leaders been lost
at this critical time, - before a settlement had been made, - it is
certain that the colony must have been abandoned, and the Pilgrim
impress upon America must have been lost. English's name should, by
virtue of his great service, be ever held in high honor by all of
Pilgrim stock. His early death was a grave loss. Bradford spells
the name once Enlish, but presumably by error. He signed the
Compact as Thomas English.
William Trevore was, according to Bradford, one of "two seamen hired to
stay a year in the countrie." He went back when his time expired,
but later returned to New England. Cushman (Bradford, "Historie,"
p. 122) suggests that he was telling "sailors' yarns." He says:
"For William Trevore hath lavishly told but what he knew or imagined
of Capewock Martha's Vineyard, Monhiggon, and ye Narragansetts." In
1629 he was at Massachusetts Bay in command of the HANDMAID
(Goodwin, p. 320), and in February, 1633 (Winthrop, vol. i. p. 100),
he seems to have been in command of the ship WILLIAM at Plymouth,
with passengers for Massachusetts Bay. Captain Standish testified
in regard to Thompson's Island in Boston harbor, that about 1620 he
"was on that Island with Trevore," and called it "Island Trevore."
(Bradford, "Historie," Deane's ed. p. 209.) He did not sign the
Compact, perhaps because of the limitations of his contract (one
year).
- - Ely (not Ellis, as Arber miscalls him, "The Story of the Pilgrim
Fathers," p. 377) was the other of the "two seamen hired to stay a
year," etc. He also returned when his time expired. (Bradford,
Hist. Mass. ed. p. 534.) He did not sign the Compact, probably for
the reason operative in .Trevore's case. A digest of the foregoing
data gives the following interesting, if incomplete, data (errors
excepted): -
Adult males (hired seamen and servants of age included)... 44
Adult females (including Mrs. Carver's maid).............. 19
Youths, male children, and male servants, minors.......... 29
Maidens, female children.................................. 10
- - - -
102
Married males............................................. 26
Married females........................................... 18
Single (adult) males (and young men)...................... 25
Single (adult) females (Mrs. Carver's maid)............... 1
Vocations of adults so far as known (except wives, who are presumed
housekeepers for their husbands): -
Allowing for the addition of Wilder and the two sailors, Trevore and Ely,
who did not sign it, the number of those who signed the Compact tallies
exactly with the adult males. Besides these occupations, it is known
that several of the individuals representing them were skilled in other
callings, and were at some time teachers, accountants, linguists,
writers, etc., while some had formerly practised certain handicrafts;
Dr. Fuller, e.g. having formerly been a "silk-worker," Brad ford (on the
authority of Belknap), a "silk-dyer," and others "fustian-workers."
Hopkins had apparently sometime before dropped his character of
"lay-reader," and was a pretty efficient man of affairs, but his
vocation at the time of the exodus is not known.
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