“We have in this ship sent shuch women, as were willing, and ready to goe to their husbands and freinds, with their children, etc…..Ther are also come unto you, some honest men to plant on their perticulers besides you.”
-Letter subscribed by 13 of the Merchant Adventurers, in William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

The Anne and her companion vessel, the Little James, arrived in Plymouth in the summer of 1623.

The Anne was a ship of about 140 tun hired to bring about 60 passengers as well as goods and supplies to Plymouth Colony. The Master of the Anne was the experienced English mariner William Peirce who made several early voyages to Plymouth, and later to Massachusetts Bay, and eventually settled in Boston in 1632.

The Anne was accompanied by a smaller vessel, a “pinnace,” known as The Little James or James and described as “a fine vessel of about 44 tun, which the company had built to stay in the Country.” The master of the pinnace, responsible for navigation and managing the crew, was John Bridges. Captain Emmanuel Altham, a wealthy young gentleman of Essex and investor in the Company of Adventurers, served in the capacity of a mercantile officer. The Little James carried an unspecified number of new arrivals to Plymouth.

The two ships left England together but were separated at sea during rough weather. The larger ship, the Anne, arrived first, in early July 1623. About 10 days later, the Little James sailed into Plymouth harbor. Together, the two ships brought about 90 people to the early colony.

“….this ship, called the Anne, whereof Mr. William Peirce was master….brought about 60 persons for the general, some of them being very useful persons, and became good members to the body, and some were the wives and children of such as were already here. And some were so bad; as they were fain to be at charge to send them home again the next year. Also besides these there came a company, that did not belong to the general body; but came on their particular, and were to have lands assigned them, and be for themselves, yet to be subject to the general Government…”
– William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

This large group of new colonists arrived during a time of strained food resources in the colony following a drought. William Bradford described the passengers’ varied reactions “…when they saw their low, and poor condition ashore”: “some wished themselves in England again; others fell a-weeping, fancying their own misery, in what they saw now in others; other some pitying the distress they saw their friends had been long in, and still were under; in a word all were full of sadness.” With food so scarce, Bradford relates, “The best dish they could present their friends with was a lobster, or a piece of fish, without bread or anything else, but a cup of fair spring water.”

There are no 17th-century passenger lists for these two vessels.

The basis for identifying passengers on early ships to Plymouth Colony, including the Anne and Little James is the 1623 Division of Land (Plymouth Colony Records 12:5) which granted acreage to each settler. An indispensable scholarly resource on these early immigrants is Robert Charles Anderson’s Great Migration Study Project with the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, a comprehensive examination of historical and genealogical sources with the goal of identifying all European settlers of Plymouth Colony who arrived before the end of 1633.  This ongoing research informs the following list of known – as well as likely or possible* – Anne and Little James passengers.

Passengers on the Anne and the Little James

Anthony Annable
Jane Annable – wife of Anthony Annable
Sarah Annable – daughter
Hannah Annable* – daughter, likely born in colony in 1623 and included in Land Grant
Edward Bangs
Robert Bartlett
Mary Becket (or Bucket)
Fear Brewster
Patience Brewster
William Bridges -stepson of John Oldham
Edward Burcher
Mrs. Burcher – wife of Edward Burcher
Thomas Clark
Christopher Conant
Hester Cooke – wife of Francis Cooke who came on the Mayflower
Hester Cooke* – daughter, possibly born later in colony
Jacob Cooke – son
Jane Cooke – daughter
Anthony Dix [Dike]
John Faunce
Goodwife Flavell – wife of Thomas Flavell who came on the Fortune
Edmund Flood
Bridget Fuller, wife of Samuel Fuller who came on the Mayflower
Godbert Godbertson (or Cuthbert Cuthbertson)
Sarah Godbertson – wife of Godbert Godbertson
Samuel Godbertson – son
Timothy Hatherley
William Heard
Lydia Hicks -daughter
Margaret Hicks, wife of Robert Hicks who came on the Fortune
Phoebe Hicks – daughter
Samuel Hicks – son
Mary Hilton – daughter
Mrs. Hilton – wife of William Hilton who came on the Fortune
William Hilton- son
Edward Holman
Abigail Jenney – daughter
John Jenney
Sarah Jenney – wife of John Jenney
Sarah Jenney – daughter ??
Samuel Jenney – son
Manassah Kempton
Robert Long
Experience Mitchell
Ephraim Morton* -son, possibly born in colony
George Morton
John Morton – son of George Morton
Juliana Morton – wife of George Morton
Nathaniel Morton – son of George Morton
Patience Morton – daughter of George Morton
Sarah Morton – daughter of George Morton
Thomas Morton-son of Thomas Morton who came on Fortune
Ellen Newton
John Oldham
Mrs. Oldham – wife of John Oldham
Lucretia Oldham – sister
Frances Palmer – wife of William Palmer who came on the Fortune
Christian Penn
Abraham Pierce – servant of John Pierce
Mr. [John] Pierce
Joshua Pratt
Mary Priest – daughter of Sarah Godbertson & Degory Priest
Sarah Priest – daughter of Sarah Godbertson & Degory Priest
James Rande
Robert Ratliffe
Mrs. Ratcliffe* – wife of Robert Ratliffe
Nicolas Snow
Alice Southworth – widow of Edward Southworth
Anna Sprague – wife of Francis Sprague
Francis Sprague
Mercy Sprague – daughter
Hugh Stacy
Barbara (Standish) – became wife of Myles Standish after arrival
Thomas Tilden
Mrs. Tilden – wife of Thomas Tilden
Tilden [child]
Sarah Tracy – daughter
Stephen Tracy
Tryphosa Tracy – wife of Stephen Tracy
Joyce Wallen* – wife of Ralph Wallen
Ralph Wallen
Abigail Warren- daughter
Ann Warren – daughter
Elizabeth Warren – wife of Richard Warren who came on the Mayflower
Elizabeth Warren – daughter
Mary Warren – daughter
Sarah Warren- daughter