A Copy Of The Inscription, Which Mr. Bowman
Declares Well Attested (The Book Not Being Within Reach), Reads As
Follows:
-
"To Giles Heale Chirurgeon,
from Isaac Allerton
in Virginia.
Feb.
10, 1620."
Giles Heale's name will be recognized as that of one of the
witnesses to John Carver's copy of William Mullens's nuncupative
will, and, if he was the ship's-surgeon, might very naturally appear
in that relation. If book and inscription exist and the latter is
genuine, it would be indubitable proof that Heale (who was surely
not a MAY-FLOWER passenger) was one of the ship's company, and if a
"chirurgeon," the surgeon of the ship, for no other Englishmen,
except those of the colonists and the ship's company, could have
been at New Plymouth, at the date given, and New England was then
included in the term "Virginia." It is much to be hoped that Mr.
Bowman's belief may be established, and that in Giles Heale we shall
have another known officer, the surgeon, of the MAY-FLOWER.]
That she had no chaplain goes without saying. The Pilgrims had their
spiritual adviser with them in the person of Elder Brewster, and were not
likely to tolerate a priest of either the English or the Romish church on
a vessel carrying them. The officer referred to was the representative
of the business interests of the owner or chartering-party, on whose
account the ship made the voyage; and in that day was known as the
"ship's-merchant," later as the "purser," and in some relations as the
"supercargo." No mention of an officer thus designated, belonging to the
MAY-FLOWER, has ever been made by any writer, so far as known, and it
devolves upon the author to indicate his existence and to establish, so
far as possible, both this and his identity.
A certain "Master Williamson," whose name and presence, though but once
mentioned by Governor Bradford, have greatly puzzled Pilgrim historians,
seems to have filled this berth on board the MAY-FLOWER. Bradford tells
us that on Thursday, March 22, 1620/21, "Master Williamson" was
designated to accompany Captain Standish - practically as an officer
of the guard - to receive and escort the Pokanoket chief, Massasoit,
to Governor Carver, on the occasion of the former's first visit of state.
Prior to the recent discovery in London, by an American genealogist, of a
copy of the nuncupative will of Master William Mullens, one of the
MAY-FLOWER Pilgrims, clearly dictated to Governor John Carver on board
the ship, in the harbor of New Plymouth (probably) Wednesday, February
21, 1620 (though not written out by Carver till April 2, 1620), on which
day (as we learn from Bradford), Master Mullens died, no other mention
of "Master Williamson" than that above quoted was known, and his very
existence was seriously questioned. In this will, as elsewhere noted,
"Master Williamson" is named as one of the "Overseers." By most early
writers it was held that Bradford had unwittingly substituted the name
"Williamson" for that of Allerton, and this view - apparently for no
better reasons than that both names had two terminal letters in common,
and that Allerton was associated next day with Standish on some military
duty - came to be generally accepted, and Allerton's name to be even
frequently substituted without question.
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