Pilgrim Mothers

Pilgrim Mothers

By Heather Horton, Francis Cooke descendant

A great deal of attention is paid to the signatories of the Mayflower Compact and the impact the new colony had on America including, a new 400th anniversary publication of their biographical information. Less attention is paid to the women of the Mayflower, who were just as important to the success of the colony. Making the voyage was a difficult decision.  Previous colonization efforts had been fraught with peril. Of the original Mayflower colonists, 18 brought their wives. Four Mayflower Pilgrims (Francis Cooke, Thomas Rogers, Samuel Fuller and Richard Warren) decided it was safer to have their wives (Hester, Alice, Bridget and Elizabeth) stay behind, and come over later. Three of the women, Mary Norris Alleron, Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins and Susannah Jackson White, were pregnant when the Mayflower sailed. Interestingly, all four of the wives that remained behind survived.

The first year was very hard on the women of the Mayflower. Susanna Jackson White Winslow was the only widow who survived the difficult first winter in America and one of only five women to do so - the others being Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, Eleanor Billington and Katherine Carver. Katherine Carver died in May 1621 shortly after her husband died of sunstroke, so only four adult women Pilgrims survived to the first Thanksgiving. Seventy-eight percent died, a greater percentage than the number of men or children who died. While the men were off the ship working to build the settlement, the women remained aboard the damp, disease ridden Mayflower for several additional months.

If we look at the survivors, we find Mary Brewster, the wife of Pilgrim Elder William Brewster, Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins, the wife of Stephen Hopkins, with the largest party of Mayflower passengers, and Katherine Carver, the wife of the Governor. Might they have had living
accommodations above deck, where there was more space and fresh air, increasing their chance of survival? 

For the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower in 1920, the Daughters of the American Revolution commissioned the lovely Pilgrim Mothers statue which stands in Plymouth. The names of the females on the Mayflower-as known in 1920- are on the back of the statue.

Originally membership in the Society of Mayflower Descendants could only be claimed through descent from a male Mayflower passenger. The GSMD now permits membership through descent from a female passenger as well. This can generally be done as a supplemental application. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the first year of the Plymouth colony, why not honor your female Pilgrim ancestor by doing a supplemental application?

Descent can be claimed through Mary (Norris) Allerton, Mary Allerton, Remember Allerton, Elinor Billington, Mary (unknown) Brewster, Mrs. James Chilton, Mary Chilton, Sarah (unknown)Eaton, Mrs. Edward Fuller, Constance Hopkins, Elizabeth (Fisher) Hopkins, Priscilla Mullins, Elizabeth Tilley, Joan (Hurst) Tilley, and Susanna (Jackson) White.

They sacrificed so much, even their lives, and for several, we don't even know their names. From the time I found I was a Mayflower descendant, I was determined that the contributions of these ordinary yet remarkable women be acknowledged, so I have done supplemental applications for Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins, Elizabeth Tilley and Joan Hurst Tilley. Was the inclusion of women one of the reasons Plymouth succeeded where Jamestown failed?