Peter Browne was baptized 26 January 1595 at
Dorking, Surrey, son of William Browne. I
need to confirm, but I would think he was baptized at St. Martin's Church, an Anglican parish church in Dorking, Surrey. Surviving
parts of the structure date back to the Middle Ages. It is in the archdeaconry
of Dorking, in the Diocese of Guildford. His last name is also spelled Brown. He
is my 11th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Davis’
side of the family, although I have not submitted my line to the Mayflower
Society.
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| St. Martin's, Dorking, Surrey |
He was a
young man of 25, one of the “strangers,” when he boarded the Mayflower. He brought along his English Mastiff
dog.
The Browne family appears to have had several
associations with the Mullins family of Dorking, who also came on the Mayflower.
The Pilgrims were unsettled by the far off presence of Indians
when they first landed at Plymouth. They would see smoke from Indians' fires in
the distance. Work was interrupted for several days when Peter Browne and John
Goodman went missing one noontime while gathering thatch for the common house
roof. A party searched the woods until dark but didn't find them and they were
afraid the Indians had killed them. Peter and John were near a pond when their
dogs, a large Mastiff (Browne's) and a small Spaniel, raised a big buck which
went bounding into the woods. The men tried to follow but were soon winded and
lost. They wandered around in a cold drizzle that turned to snow. They lay on
the cold ground to sleep and were awoken by two lions roaring, so they dashed
for the nearest tree, intending to climb if attacked. The Mastiff kept trying
to go after the lions. The next day they climbed a hill and saw the bay, which
gave them their bearings. They stumbled into camp after dark. Goodman's shoes,
which were worth their weight in gold, had to be cut from his swollen, frost
-bitten feet. They soon learned the “lions” were actually wolves!
In a partial list of the house locations of the
Pilgrims made out in 1620, John Goodman and Peter Browne appear to have been
neighbors on the south side of the Street and the ocean side of the
Highway. Peter Browne was apparently
still living there during the 1623 Division of Land.
Abt. 1626 he
married the widow Martha Ford whose maiden name is unknown. She came in 1621 on the Fortune, giving birth soon after landing. Peter and Martha had two
children: Mary and Priscilla. The latter perhaps named after Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins
who was also from Dorking. Martha would die soon after giving birth, I descend from Mary.
Mary, born about
1626, married Ephraim Tinkham, had 8 children and remained in Plymouth. Priscilla,
born about 1628, married William Allen and moved to Sandwich.
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| Peter Browne's Tankard, at Pilgrim Hall Museum |
In
1623 Plymouth land division "Peter Browen" received one acre as a
passenger on the Mayflower (PCR
12:4). In 1627 Plymouth cattle division Peter Brown, Martha Brown and Mary
Brown were the fourth, fifth and sixth persons in the eighth company (PCR
12:11).
In the 1627 Division of Cattle he, Peter, his wife
Martha, his daughter Mary Browne, and his stepchildren John and Martha Ford
were included with the Samuel Fuller and Anthony Annable families. About a year later, Peter and Martha would
have daughter Priscilla but wife Martha would die shortly thereafter.
Peter
Brown was on the 1633 Plymouth list of freemen ahead of those made free on 1
Jan 1632/33 (PCR 1:4). He was assessed 18 s. in Plymouth tax list of 25 March
1633 (PCR 1:10); Widow Brown assessed 9 s. in list of 27 March 1634 (PCR 1:28).
Peter
married, second, Mary whose maiden name is also unknown and had two more
children: Rebecca born about 1631 and a child born about 1633. name unknown, who
did not live to adulthood.
Rebecca married
William Snow and lived in Bridgewater.
The evidence for the marriages of Peter Brown's three daughters
is largely from deeds in which his land was sold by his sons-in-law, with the
consent of his daughters.
Peter
Browne's brother John Browne came to America about 1632 and settled in Duxbury,
just to the north of Plymouth. John
Browne was baptized in Dorking on 29 June 1600.
Gov.
Bradford wrote that "Peter Browne married twice. By his first wife he had
two children who are living and both of them married, and the one of them hath
two children. By his second wife he had two more. He died about sixteen years
since."
Peter died
between 25 March and 10 October 1633 at Plymouth, likely in the fall when there
was a general sickness in town. He was just 38 years old. Mayflower passengers Samuel Fuller (Peter’s neighbor) and Francis
Eaton, both my ancestors, and several other Plymouth residents died at that
time.
His
estate inventory taken 10 October 1633 shows that he owned 130 bushels of corn,
six melch goats, one cow, eight sheep, and a number of pigs, and a Bible, among
other things. The Bible indicates he could read. His widow Mary Browne was
granted administration. He died without a will leaving “diverse children by
diverse wives,” his estate amount to 100 pounds.
In
his estate records, Peter’s daughter Mary is mentioned as having been placed
with John Doane of Plymouth for the past nine years and was to stay with him
until age 17. Widow was to pay down 15 pounds to Doane for “the use of Mary
Browne, daughter of said Peter.” She was also to pay down 15 pounds to Mr.
William Gilson for the use of Priscilla Browne, another daughter of Peter. It mentions the widow having two children by
the said Peter together with her own third, so she must have been married before
Peter. Sadly, I appears placed her step-daughters with other families when
Peter died.
Peter
Browne and his family bring home to me the danger of living in Plymouth in the
17th century—illness, lack of comforts of home and the cold winter
climate. He died as a young man in his 30s and he had already buried two wives
and possibly one of his children. I wonder though if he regretted coming to
Plymouth. He owned land, which likely wouldn’t have happened back in England
and experienced a lot more freedom in Plymouth. After his death his children by
his first wife were put out to other families, something I find very sad.
My
line from Peter Browne:
Peter
Browne and Mary (____) (Ford)
Mary
Browne and Ephraim Tinkham
Helkiah
Tinkham and Ruth (_____)
John Tinkham and Anne Gray
Ann
Tinkham and Samuel Fuller
Mary
Fuller and Jabez Nye
Desire
Nye and David Pierce
Lucy
Nye Pierce and Rowland Sturtevant Bumpus
Mary
Briggs Washburn and Seth Washburn
Charles
F. Washburn and Hattie Benson
Carrie
C. Washburn and George Brewster Smith (unmarried)
Arthur
Washburn Davis (changed his surname from Washburn to Davis)
My
parents
Me
Famous
descendants of Peter Browne: Dick Van Dyke, the Beach Boys (Brian, Dennis and
Carl Wilson).
Sources Not
Listed Above:
Caleb
Johnson, The Probable English Origin of
Mayflower Passenger Peter Browne, And His Association with Mayflower Passenger
William Mullins, The American Genealogist vol. 79 (July 2004)
Robert
Charles Anderson, The Great Migration
Begins, Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol, 1, 1995
Mrs.
John E. Barclay, The Widow Martha Ford,
The American Genealogist, vol. 42, 1965
William
Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation
Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations. Volume
Seven, Vol. 7: Peter Brown, 1992
George F. Willison, Saints
and Strangers, 1945
