By Donna D. Curtin & Michelle Coughlin

There were thirty women and girls on the Mayflower.

It is generally reckoned that there were 18 adult women – or more accurately, adult married women – and 12 girls aboard the ship.

GIRLS:

1  Mary Allerton (Cushman)
2  Remember Allerton
3  Dorothy (Carver maidservant)
4  Mary Chilton (Winslow)
5  Humility Cooper
6  Constance Hopkins (Snow)
7  Damaris Hopkins
8  Desire Minter
9  Ellen Moore
10  Mary Moore
11  Priscilla Mullins (Alden)
12  Elizabeth Tilley (Howland)

Some of the girls on the Mayflower were teenagers, and a couple were of, or close to, marriageable age. Dorothy, the servant of John and Katherine Carver, and Priscilla Mullins were both older teenagers who were left without parent or guardian in 1621 after the death of family or household members. Both young women were married within the next few years. Though not yet managing their own households – which would affect their status in the 17th century – they would likely be considered adult women today.

Thirty Brief Bios:  Mayflower Women & Girls

Note: biographical information from Caleb Johnson’s MayflowerHistory.com

NAME: Marry (Norris) Allerton
BORN: Circa 1590/possibly Newbury, Berkshire, England
DIED: February 1620 – 21/Plymouth

Mary (Norris) Allerton was around 30 when she made the Mayflower voyage from Leiden with her husband Isaac and three children under the age of eight: Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary. She gave birth to a stillborn son in Plymouth Harbor in December. She died in February; her husband and three children survived.

NAME: Mary Allerton (Cushman)
BORN: Circa 1616/Leiden, Holland
DIED: 1699/Plymouth

Mary Allerton was about four when she made the Mayflower journey with her parents and two older siblings, losing her mother the first winter. When in her early twenties, she married Thomas Cushman about 1636 and lived the rest of her life in Plymouth. Mary Allerton Cushman was the last surviving Mayflower passenger. She is interred on Plymouth’s Burial Hill with an early carved gravestone marking her presumed burial area.

NAME: Remember Allerton (Maverick)
BORN: Circa 1615/Leiden, Holland
DIED: Between 1652 and 1656/ Massachusetts Bay

Five-year-old Remember Allerton traveled on the Mayflower with her parents, older brother, and younger sister. Her mother died the first winter. By 1635 Remember had married Moses Maverick and moved to Essex County in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

NAME: Elinor Billington (Armstrong)
BORN: Circa 1585/England
DIED: Between 1643 and 1650/Plymouth

Elinor Billington tried to make the best of a challenging life. She and her husband John and their teenage sons, John junior and Francis, likely came to America to escape poverty in England. They were unacquainted with the other passengers and soon acquired a reputation as troublemakers.

Francis accidentally caused a fire on the Mayflower; John senior spoke out against the authorities. In 1630, John was convicted of murder and became the first in the colony to be executed.

Elinor became the head of her household and likely faced a degree of community censure from her family’s scandal. In 1636, she was accused of slander by a high-ranking male neighbor and given the harsh and humiliating sentence of a public whipping. Yet less than two years later, she received a marriage proposal. Prior to marrying her second husband Gregory Armstrong in 1638, Elinor ensured her son Francis would receive his inheritance by deeding him most of her lands. She safeguarded her remaining property in a prenuptial agreement.

NAME: Dorothy (May) Bradford
BORN: Circa 1597/Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
DIED: December 1620/Provincetown Harbor

Dorothy (May) Bradford, who emigrated from Leiden with her husband William when she was in her early twenties, was the first female Mayflower passenger to perish. She drowned after accidentally falling overboard. Her young son John, left behind in Leiden, later joined his father in Plymouth.

NAME: Mary Brewster
BORN: Circa 1569/probably Yorkshire
or Nottinghamshire, England
DIED: 1627/Plymouth

We know nothing of Mary Brewster’s origins, not even her family name. Yet as the oldest and highest-ranking surviving female Mayflower passenger, she would have been a respected matriarch. Married to church leader William Brewster, she, like other ministers’ wives, played an important role in the community as a source of moral authority and public charity.

Mary and William brought their two youngest children, sons Love and Wrestling, on the voyage. Older son Jonathan followed in 1621 and daughters Patience and Fear in 1623.

The Brewsters were educated and cosmopolitan; William had served in Queen Elizabeth’s court. In Leiden, he published religious tracts and taught university-level English. The inventory after his 1644 death includes hundreds of books. This library would have been valuable to Mary as she continued her own religious education. A founding member of the Plymouth congregation, she would have been deeply committed to the Separatist enterprise.

NAME: Katherine (White) Carver
BORN: Circa 1570s/likely at Sturton-le-Steeple,
Nottinghamshire, England
DIED: May – June 1621/Plymouth

Katherine Carver traveled with her husband John, Plymouth’s first governor, and several young servants. She had no known surviving children of her own, but with her husband served as guardian of teenager Desire Minter and eight-year-old Jasper More. She may have taken in Priscilla Mullins and Elizabeth Tilley after their parents’ deaths. Katherine died a few weeks following her husband’s passing in the spring of 1621.

NAME: Mrs. James Chilton
BORN: Circa 1560s/England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

The identity of the wife of Mayflower passenger James Chilton and mother to passenger Mary Chilton is unknown. Her excommunication from the Church of England in 1609 for attending an un-sanctioned burial likely led the family to join the Leiden Separatist community. Mrs. Chilton had about ten children, only three of whom appear to have survived to adulthood. She died a few weeks following her husband of the general sickness during the first winter.

NAME: Mary Chilton (Winslow)
BORN: 1607/Sandwich, Kent, England
DIED: Between 1676 and 1679/Boston

Thirteen-year-old Mary Chilton made the Mayflower voyage with her father James, at 64 the oldest passenger, and her mother, whose name is unknown. The Chiltons joined the Leiden Separatist community after Mary’s mother was excommunicated. Perhaps contributing to their decision to emigrate was the 1619 attack on Mary’s father and sister by an anti-Arminian mob.

Mary’s parents both died the first winter; it’s not known who took her in. By 1626 she had married John Winslow.

Mary and John had ten children together. They ultimately moved to Boston, where in 1671 they bought a “mansion house.”

By the time John died in 1674, he had become one of Boston’s wealthiest inhabitants through the West Indies trade. His will mentions a “Negro Girle Jane,” an enslaved child or young woman.

In 1676, when Mary was “weake of Body but of Sound and perfect memory,” she made her own will. She signed with her mark, indicating she likely could read but not write.

NAME: Humility Cooper
BORN: About 1619/probably in Leiden, Holland DIED: Between 1639 and 1651/England

One-year-old Humility Cooper’s mother likely died in childbirth. The baby accompanied her aunt and uncle, Edward and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley, on the Mayflower, along with an extended family group that included teenage cousin Henry Samson and John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley and their teenage daughter Elizabeth Tilley. After the senior Tilleys died the first winter, Humility may have been cared for by Elizabeth.

Humility returned to England or Holland sometime after 1627 and was baptized in London in 1639. She died young.

NAME: Sarah Eaton
BORN: Date unknown/England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

Sarah Eaton was likely in her early twenties when she emigrated with her husband Francis, a carpenter, and infant son Samuel, who was described by William Bradford as a “sucking child.” The family may have been part of the Leiden congregation. Sarah Eaton died the first winter, but her husband and son survived.

NAME: Dorothy ____ (Eaton)
BORN: Circa 1590s/England
DIED: Before 1626/Plymouth

Dorothy Eaton, whose birth surname is unknown, came on the Mayflower as servant to Governor John Carver and his wife Katherine. The Carvers died in 1621, and within a year or two, Dorothy became the second wife of Francis Eaton, whose wife Sarah died the first winter. Dorothy herself died within a few years; it is believed she did not leave behind any surviving children.

NAME: Mrs. Edward Fuller
BORN: Date unknown/England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

The wife of Edward Fuller, whose name is unknown, was likely in her late thirties or early forties when she voyaged on the Mayflower with her husband and 12-year-old son Samuel. She left behind in England an older son, Matthew, who would arrive later. The Fullers both died the first winter, leaving their son Samuel to be raised by his uncle Samuel Fuller, the colony’s doctor.

NAME: Elizabeth (Fisher) Hopkins
BORN: Circa 1585/England
DIED: Between 1638 and 1644/Plymouth

In her mid-thirties when she made the Mayflower voyage, Elizabeth Hopkins was in the prime of life. She was also pregnant and gave birth to her son Oceanus at sea. Accompanied by her husband Stephen, who had earlier been to the New World, their two-year-old daughter Damaris, and two stepchildren, Giles and Constance, Elizabeth went on to have five more children in Plymouth.

The Hopkins family were not Separatists and were one of the few who survived the first winter intact.

Back in England, Elizabeth may have inherited a brewing business from her husband’s first wife. In Plymouth, she and Stephen began operating an alehouse. (Court records tell us they occasionally over-served their patrons.) Running the business would have allowed Elizabeth to tend to her household while earning extra income. As a community hub and stopping place for travelers, the tavern would have exposed her to a variety of people and ideas.

NAME: Constance Hopkins (Snow)
BORN: 1606/Hursley, Hampshire, England
DIED: 1677/Eastham, Plymouth Colony

When Constance Hopkins was seven, she lost her mother while her father Stephen was in Jamestown, Virginia. At 14, her life was further altered when she made the Mayflower voyage along with her father, stepmother Elizabeth, 12-year-old brother Giles, and two-year-old half-sister Damaris. A brother, Oceanus, was born at sea.

By 1627 Constance had married Nicholas Snow. According to William Bradford, Constance and Nicholas eventually had 12 children, although genealogists have only been able to document nine. (Their oldest daughter was named Mary, perhaps in honor of Constance’s mother.) In 1644 Constance and her family were among the first to settle Eastham on Cape Cod; her brother Giles later followed.

A probate inventory taken following Nicholas’s 1676 death includes a “spining wheele” and yards of “hom[e]made” fabric, perhaps attesting to Constance’s skill as a cloth producer. She herself died the following year, at the age of 71.

NAME: Damaris Hopkins
BORN: Circa 1618/England
DIED: Before 1627/Plymouth

Two-year-old Damaris Hopkins came on the Mayflower with her parents, Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins, and teenage half-siblings Constance and Giles. She died within a few years in Plymouth.

NAME: Mary (Prower) Martin
BORN: Circa 1570s/England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

Mary (Prower) Martin may have been in her forties when she made the Mayflower voyage with her husband Christopher Martin and adult son Solomon Prower from her first marriage. Not much is known about the family, but they appear to have had Separatist sympathies. They all died the first winter.

NAME: Desire Minter
BORN: Circa early 1600s/Norwich, Norfolk, England
DIED: Unknown/England

Desire Minter was born to William and Sarah (Willet) Minter, a midwife, who joined the Separatist community in Leiden.

By 1618, after her father had died and her mother remarried, Desire was placed under the care of Thomas Brewer, an associate of printer William Brewster’s. When Brewer was arrested in 1619 for distributing illegal religious tracts back in England, Desire was sent to live with John and Katherine Carver.

The Carvers both died in the spring of 1621, leaving behind not only Desire but a young female servant named Dorothy; a male servant, John Howland (who would marry Elizabeth Tilley); and a servant boy, William Latham. Desire is believed to have returned to England by 1623, since she is not listed in that year’s Division of Land. In his Mayflower passenger list, William Bradford noted that she “returned to her freind [sic; probably a relative] & proved not very well & dyed in England.”

NAME: Ellen More
BORN: 1612/Shipton, Shropshire, England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

Ellen and Mary More, and their brothers, Richard and Jasper, had sad beginnings in the New World. The siblings, aged four to eight, had been placed with the Brewster, Carver, and Winslow families by their father, who had divorced their mother for infidelity and believed the children were not his. Richard was the only one to survive into adulthood; Ellen, Mary, and Jasper all died the first winter.

NAME: Mary More
BORN: 1616/Shipton, Shropshire, England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

Ellen and Mary More, and their brothers, Richard and Jasper, had been placed with the Brewster, Carver, and Winslow families by their father, who had divorced their mother for infidelity and believed the children were not his. Richard was the only one to survive into adulthood; Ellen, Mary, and Jasper all died the first winter.

NAME: Alice Mullins
BORN: Circa early 1570s/England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

Alice Mullins, who was perhaps in her mid- forties, traveled on the Mayflower with her husband William, a well-to-do shoemaker; daughter Priscilla; and son Joseph. She, William, and Joseph all died the first winter.

NAME: Priscilla Mullins
BORN: Circa 1603/likely at Dorking or Guildford, Surrey, England
DIED: Between 1651 and 1687/Duxbury, Plymouth Colony

Priscilla Mullins arrived on the Mayflower with her father William, a prosperous shoemaker; her mother Alice; and her younger brother Joseph. All but Priscilla perished the first winter. Afterwards she may have lived with the Carvers, as her father had asked John Carver to “have an eye over my wife and children.”

Given Priscilla’s well-to-do background, she may have had more education than her teenage peers. She also likely had her choice of suitors.

By 1623 she had married fellow non-Separatist and ship’s cooper John Alden. The couple eventually settled in the new town of Duxbury and raised ten children. While John traveled often on colony business, Priscilla oversaw family and farm affairs.

Priscilla’s family home in England still stands, and recent attention paid to artifacts found at her Duxbury homesite sheds light on aspects of her daily life.

NAME: Alice Rigsdale
BORN: Date unknown/England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

Very little is known about Alice Rigsdale and husband John, who sailed on the Mayflower from England. They may have been among the oldest passengers. Both died the first winter.

NAME: Rose Standish
BORN: Circa 1590s/England
Died: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

Rose Standish traveled on the Mayflower with her husband Myles; the couple had no children. Rose died the first winter. Myles, who remarried about 1623/24, served as military leader of the colony until his death in 1656.

NAME: Agnes (Cooper) Tilley
BORN: 1585/Henlow, Bedfordshire, England
DIED: Winter of 1620 –1621/Plymouth

Agnes (Cooper) Tilley was thirty-five when she made the Mayflower voyage from Leiden, where he had lived since 1618. Accompanying her were her husband Edward; her infant niece Humility Cooper; and her teenage nephew Henry Samson. She also traveled with her brother- and sister-in-law, John and Joan (Hurst) Tillley, and their teenage daughter Elizabeth. Alice and the other senior Tilleys died the first winter.

NAME: Joan (Hurst) (Rogers) Tilley
BORN: 1568/Henlow, Bedfordshire, England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

Joan (Hurst) Tilley was, at 52, one of the older female Mayflower passengers. Accompanying her were her (second) husband John, her 13-year-old daughter Elizabeth, and her brother and sister-in-law Edward and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley and their extended family. Joan, her husband, and her Tilley in-laws passed away the first winter.

NAME: Elizabeth Tilley (Howland)
BORN: 1607/Henlow, Bedfordshire, England
DIED: 1687/Swansea, Plymouth Colony

Elizabeth Tilley traveled on the Mayflower in a group that included her parents, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley, and aunt and uncle, Edward and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley, who had lived in Leiden. It is not known whether Elizabeth’s family ever resided there.

After the senior Tilleys all died soon after their arrival, it is believed Elizabeth was taken into John and Katherine Carver’s home. The Carvers died in spring 1621.

By 1623, when Elizabeth was 16, she married the Carvers’ former servant John Howland. They had ten children together.

John achieved prominence in Plymouth; however, he and Elizabeth ultimately moved to nearby Duxbury. By 1640 they had relocated again, to Kingston.

John died in 1673, leaving Elizabeth the sole executrix of his estate. In her own will, made a year before her death in 1687, Elizabeth expressed her wish that her children would “walke in ye Feare of ye Lord, and in Love and peace towards each other.”

NAME: Mrs. Thomas Tinker
BORN: Date unknown/England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

The identity of the wife of Thomas Tinker, a wood sawyer, is unknown. The couple traveled together with their son, whose name is also unrecorded, from Leiden. All three died the first winter.

NAME: Elizabeth (Barker) Winslow
BORN: Circa 1593/Chattisham, Suffolk, England
DIED: Winter of 1620–1621/Plymouth

Elizabeth Barker was a nonconformist Protestant from the time she was in her early teens. By 1618 she had moved to Leiden, where she married printer Edward Winslow. A will she made in 1619 after inheriting property was recently discovered, providing more information about her background.

Although she did not have any children of her own, on the Mayflower voyage she oversaw the care of eight-year-old Ellen More. She was the last person to die the first winter at Plymouth, in late March 1621.

NAME: Susanna (Jackson) White (Winslow)
BORN: Circa 1592/Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England
DIED: Between 1656 and 1675/Marshfield, Plymouth Colony

Susanna (Jackson) White (Winslow)’s origins were recently uncovered by genealogists, reflecting how discoveries about Mayflower women continue to be made. Susanna was a native of Nottinghamshire, England, who belonged to the Amsterdam congregation with her first husband, William White. They made the Mayflower journey with their young son, Resolved. Off the coast of Cape Cod, Susanna gave birth to the first Pilgrim child born in Plymouth Colony, a son named Peregrine (Latin for “pilgrim”). A cradle Susanna is supposed to have brought from Holland survives at Pilgrim Hall Museum.

After William died the first winter, Susanna married newly widowed Edward Winslow in Plymouth’s first wedding. When Edward was elected Plymouth’s governor (in 1633, 1636, and 1644), Susanna served as the colony’s First Lady. In 1646 Edward returned to England on diplomatic business, never to return. Susanna was left to oversee their large Marshfield estate. A surviving document from 1648 indicates that, serving as Edward’s agent, Susanna sold the indenture of an Indigenous servant named Hope to a Barbadian merchant.

After Edward’s 1655 death, Susanna petitioned the British government for the balance of his salary, to satisfy debts and provide her with a “subsistence.” She may have returned to England to present this petition in person.

A 1651 portrait of Edward depicts him holding a letter signed “From yr loving wife Susanna,” an indication of Susanna’s literacy. No letters written in her hand have been found.

For information on the discovery of Dorothy Eaton’s identity as the maidservant of John and Katherine Carver:

Caleb Johnson, “Dorothy, John Carver’s Maid Servant” on Passenger Lists Mayflower 1620, accessed at http://mayflowerhistory.com/dorothy/

For information on the discovery of Susannah (Jackson) White (Winslow)’s family origins:

Sue Allan, Caleb Johnson and Simon Neal, “The Origin of Mayflower Passenger Susanna (Jackson)(White) Winslow,” The American Genealogist 89-4 (October 2017): 241-264.