William Nickerson (1701-1763) and His Wife Sarah Covell of Chatham, Massachusetts

William Nickerson was born Chatham 15 May 1701 to William Nickerson and Deliverance Lombard. His great-grandfather William 1 Nickerson was the founder of Chatham. [Birth date from genealogy by Nickerson Family Association hereafter NFA; I have not found his birth record or other source for this date.]  I wrote about William and Deliverance Nickerson here.

About 1723 (first child born 1724) William married Sarah Covell at Chatham, the daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Bassett) Covell. [Smith] I have not found Sarah’s birth record but I believe she was born say 1705 as her parent’s married in March 1703/04 and she married about 1723. The Covell and Nickerson families were quite intertwined—Sarah’s grandfather Nathaniel Covell was married to Sarah Nickerson the daughter of William 1 Nickerson. William and Sarah are my 8th great-grandparents on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

The births of 11 children of William and Sarah Nickerson were recorded Chatham [Chatham Vital Records in MD 9:182 & 221; all births recorded by Town Clerk James Covel on 19 March 1749] :

1. Absalom born 12 Nov 1724; married Sarah —?—; was a master mariner
2. Stephen born 11 Oct 1726; married Dorcas Nickerson, 2nd Martha Hallett; removed to Nova Scotia
3. Deliverance born 11 Jun 1728; married Ebenezer Eldredge; removed to Harwich
4. James born 24 April 1730; married Mehitable Covell and removed to Connecticut
5. Mercy born 07 May 1732; married 1st Heman Kenney and 2nd Joshua Atwood
6. Elizabeth born 15 May 1735; married Archelous Smith; removed to Nova Scotia
7. William born 24 Feb 1736; married 1st Martha Ellis and 2nd Roxanne Hopkins; removed to Maine
8. Lumbert born 14 April 1739; married Eunice Ryder; died Chatham in 1804
9. Susannah born 1 June 1741; married Isaac Howes
10. Joshua born 7 August 1743; married Deborah Ryder; removed to Harwich
11. Gideon born 14 March 1745; married Sarah Bearse; removed to Nova Scotia 

I descend from Deliverance; I wrote about her and husband here.

William was considered a religious fanatic. He joined the Separate or New-Light Church in Harwich where he and Richard Chase (also my ancestor) served as the first deacons. This religion broke from the established Congregational Church, eventually becoming the Baptist Church. They believed true preachers did not need formal education and that the mode of baptismal rite was a matter of personal choice. They objected to the ministerial tax and submitted fruitless petitions to be exempt. Some highly respectable men were jailed for refusing to pay the tax. [NFA]

As he was referred to as “yeoman” in records and his inventory included livestock and farming tools, it seems William was primarily a farmer. He was literate as his inventory included books and he did woodwork as it also included carpentry tools.

William was known as William "Red Stockings,” although it is not known why. Perhaps he simply had a penchant for red socks and it helped differentiate himself from other men of the same name. In Chatham records, 18 April 1739 Widow Mary Bassit obliged herself “to you William Nickerson red stocking of said town if I can’t find or make more by any means by your wife or find it my self I do forfit two coverleds of like sort.”  Witnessed by Nathan Bassit and Nathaniel Bassit. This may be Sarah’s grandmother. [NFA]

He is mentioned in his father William Nickerson of Chatham’s 13 September 1739 will but not in his codicil dated 19 Oct 1742. At first glance, his inclusion in the will but not in the codicil seems to indicate he had died between those two dates but that was not the case. He is also the only son not to receive land, but in William the younger’s probate records it states his homestead was at Monomessett Neck, now Nickerson’s Neck, which was where his father lived. Seems likely that William the elder deeded that land to him. 

Map indicating Monomessett Neck (source: Nickerson Family Association)

William was age 61 when he died in February 1763 when he "drowned in a creek out of a canoe last week and is not found yet." [NFA] I found it rather chilling that his inventory included a canoe; perhaps it was recovered after his drowning. Fred Crowell in New Englanders in Nova Scotia wrote William was drowned off Nauset Beach, which is in Eastham and it seems strange he’d go that far in a canoe.

Nauset Beach in distance

William died intestate. His estate was proved 3 May 1763 when Sarah Nickerson, widow, was appointed administratrix of the estate of her late husband William Nickerson, yeoman of Chatham.  [Barnstable Probate Records 10:123] 

His inventory was taken 2 June 1763 and included books, a looking glass, guns, a sword, spinning wheels and yarn, carpenter’s tools, a mare, oxen, heifers, 11 sheep, 10 lambs, 4 swine, tobacco, farming tools including a plough, and a canoe.  Real estate was a land an meadow valued at over £53 and land and all buildings at Monomessett Neck valued at more than £466, a very high value for land at that time. The inventory totaled £612 9 shillings 8 pence. Sarah swore to the inventory on 7 June 1763. [BCPR 12:352-3]

 

It seems William was land rich but cash poor as he died insolvent, leaving Sarah quite a mess to clean up. A 19 June 1764 court document lists the creditors to William Nickerson’s estate and declares the estate insolvent. The total amount due creditors, including court officials, was £169 7 shillings 3 pence. [BCPR 13:49-50]

Sarah Nickerson’s accounting of the estate was presented 5 September 1764. Some of William’s personal estate had been sold for a sum of more than £10. She had paid for threshing of corn and measuring corn and rye and for pork to be salted. Expenses totaled £76 8 shillings 4 pence. She signed with her mark. When charges of administration and debts due to the crown were subtracted there was £43 plus change remaining. The court ordered that the creditors would therefore be paid no more than 5 shillings and 2 pence on the pound for their respective debts. [BCPR 13:49-50]

A partition and division of William’s real estate occurred 1 April 1772. Sarah was to receive one-third part. Parcels mentioned: a small wood lot in Harwich near Great Long Pond purchased of the Quasons [Native Americans]; Monomesset Neck with buildings thereon at the Bay [Pleasant Bay] and Salt Pond. It mentions “the owners or occupiers of the other two thirds” without naming them.  [BCPR 12:526-7]

On 11 August 1772 Sarah Nickerson presented a further accounting of the estate. She had sold, per order of the Superior Court, woodland and meadows for £16 16 shillings. The accounting included costs of selling the land and further administering of the estate and notes she had been paying creditors. [BCPR 12:526-7]

Sarah died before 22 November 1790, probably at Chatham, when she is noted in Chatham records as deceased. [NFA]

Sources:

Nickerson Family Association. The Descendants of William Nickerson 1604-1689, First Settler of Chatham, Mass., vol 1, 1973

William C. Smith, A History of Chatham Massachusetts, 1909

Simeon L. Deyo, editor, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1890

John D. Austin, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Stephen Hopkins, GSMD, 6:132 (2001)

William C. Smith, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy,  "Early Chatham Settlers,” Pamphlet No. 36, 1915

Thomas Tarte born ca 1592 of England, Scituate Massachusetts, and the Barbados

Thomas Tarte / Tart was born England say about 1592, perhaps at Tenterden, Kent. He migrated to Plymouth Colony before 1641 when he is named to a jury, a duty that would not be given to someone brand new to the area. He may have also lived briefly at Boston. I have found minimal information on Thomas, so this profile is evolving. He is my 12th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

I haven’t found anything definitive on whether Thomas had one wife or two but I feel this is plausible:

Thomas married, likely in Kent, England, by about 1617, a woman whose name is unknown. They had at least one child:

1. Elizabeth who was born, possibly Tenterden, Kent, about 1618. She married Thomas Williams 30 Nov 1638.

That Elizabeth is Thomas Tarte’s daughter is shown in a 3 May 1641 court order: To enquire of Willm Brackenberry of Charles Town or elsewhere, for any goods that are sent out of England for Mr. Thomas Tart of Scituate, and that Thom Williams may have them for the payment of his wife’s portion, because he gave an aquittance for yt upon promise that the said Mr Tart would pcure her portion to be paid; the sum is xxiiij or there abouts. [PCR 2:14-15] I descend from Elizabeth whom I wrote about here.

Thomas married, second, by about 1640 a woman named Elizabeth. They are named as the parents of:

2. Jonathan born about 1641

3. Eunice born about 1641

Both of these children were baptized at the First Church Boston, 11 April 1641. Thomas and Elizabeth are noted as members of Church of Scituate in the record. [Boston Town and Church Records, 1641, p. 11] I haven’t found anything further on Eunice and Jonathan in records.

There was an Edward Tart/Tarte, a servant  who came to Plymouth Colony with Nathaniel Tilden, his family and six other servants on the Hercules in 1635. He was on the 1643 Scituate list of men able to bear arms. There are theories that Edward was Thomas’ son and that they originated from Tenterden, where Tilden was from, and that Thomas was on the Hercules as well. It does seem likely they are related as Tart is not a very common surname and Scituate was a small town.

Savage gives Thomas just one wife, Elizabeth, but it seems unlikely she would be the mother of children some 22 years apart. 

Thomas Tart is on the 1643 list of Plymouth Colony men, in the Scituate section, who had taken the oath of fidelity; he is not on the next list of 1644. [PCR 8:183] On 1 June 1641 Thomas Tart was sworn to a jury at Plymouth court [PCR 7:20]

In 1627 the Undertakers or Merchant Adventurers Richard Andrews, John Beauchamp, James Sherley, and Timothy Hatherly were promised the whole tract of land called Conihasset (westerly Scituate). In a 1647 deed Hatherly noted he had control of Andrew’s and Beauchamp’s shares and divided his three-quarters of the tract into 30 shares. He kept three for himself and sold the remaining ones for £108 each. Thomas Tart was one of the 27 men to purchase a share. [Stratton p. 172; PCR 159/recorded 6 February 1648]

In attempting to find where Thomas’ homestead was located in Scituate, I found a few notes of interest:

12 May 1645 deed of Scituate land, John Whetherden to Thomas Rawlins mentions land of Christofer Winter purchased of Thomas Tart purchased of Anthony Annable. [PCR 12:174] On its website, the Scituate Historical Society mentions this land being on the north side of Second Cliff. 

Location of Thomas' homestead; from ScituateHistoricalSociety.org

A 1655 deed of Scituate land from Timothy Hatherley to Thomas Ensign mentions bounding “land that was the land of Mr Thomas Tart to the south to a great Creeke.” [MD 9:165]

Among the persons to whom small lots of land at Scituate were due by order of a 5 April 1683 town council decision was “Rodulphus Elmes as successor to Mr. Tarte, 10 acres.” [SciTR 1:397] In April 1692, as successor to Thomas Tart, Rodulphus Elmes received ten acres of land and, as successor to William Holmes, Rodulphus Elmes received land near the new sawmill. [SciTR 1:401]  In Court of Common Pleas June 1726, Nathaniel Tilden and John Tilden of Scituate vs. John Elmes of Scituate, trespass ejectment of land in Scituate. Plaintiff claimed land as successor to Thomas Tart’s grant as shown in town records. Defendant pleaded that he holds the land “under his father Mr. Jonathan Elmes.” [MD 51:16] 

He is referred to as a planter, a merchant and shopkeeper. He is also mentioned with the honorific “Mr.”  

Mr. Tarte of Scituate was presented and fined at the June 1640 Plymouth court for selling wine, contrary to order.. [PCR 1:156] He was again presented and fined for drawing wine at the September 1640 court. [PCR 1:162] Mr. Tart of Scituate acknowledged he owed the court £10 in June 1649. [PCR 2:141] Perhaps Thomas ran a tavern.

On 12 May 1645 Thomas Tart witnessed a date from John Whetherden, miller of Scituate, and Thomas Rawlins of Scituate. The land was formerly the free simple of Christofer Winter purchased of Thomas Tart, purchased of Anthony Annable. It s 20 acres or more on the north side of the Second Cliff. [PCR 12:189]

On 20 Nov 1647 Thomas Tart witnessed the acknowledgment of Christopher and Elizabeth Lawson, she his wife and the daughter of John James, that they had received £10 from the estate of Thomas James of Gloucester. 

When he sold his Scituate land to Timothy Hatherly in 1646, Thomas is called of Barbados. There doesn’t seem to be any further mention of Thomas in Massachusetts records, so perhaps he lived out his days at Barbados. [Savage, Torrey, Smith]

On 20 July 1649 “Samuel Howse of Scituat shipwright” made a letter of attorney to “Tho[mas] Tarte of the same merchant…to ask &c. of the executor &c. of the last will & testament of Thomas House late of Lond[on] watchmaker, all such legacies as due unto the children of the said appearer by virtue of the said last will.” [Anderson] It seems like he was already in Barbados by 1649, so interesting this document calls him of Scituate. Perhaps he was not in Barbados full-time.

I haven’t found any records of Thomas at Barbados. There was a John Tart of St. Philip Parish, Barbados, who had sons John and Robert baptized in 1665 and 1668 respectively. [“English Settlers in Barbados 1637-1800,” on Ancestry] Could this be Thomas’ son Jonathan or another son? More questions than answers when it comes to researching Thomas Tarte. 

Sources:

Henry Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts

Eugene Stratton, Plymouth Colony Its History and People, 1986

Samuel Deane, History of Scituate, Massachusetts, 1831

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

James Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 4:257-8 (1862)

Tenney Smith, Charles Smith and Rachel Amy Bryant, Their Ancestors and Descendants (Brattleboro, Vt.: Vermont Printing, 1938)

Harvey H. Pratt, Early Planters of Scituate, 1929 

Francis Eaton 1596-1633 of Bristol, England and Plymouth & Duxbury, Massachusetts, and His Three Wives

Francis Eaton was baptized 11 September 1596 at St. Thomas, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, the son of John and Dorothy (Smith) Eaton. He is my 11th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Davis’ side of the family. 

St. Thomas the Martyr, Bristol

About 1618/1619 he married, first, a woman named Sarah whose maiden name is not known. Sarah and Francis had one child:

1. Samuel, born about 1620; was a “sucking child” when the young family boarded the Mayflower in 1620 to start a new life in New England; he was apprenticed as a teenager to John Cooke for a period of seven years [PCR 1:43]; married first Elizabeth whose maiden name isn’t recorded, and second his step-sister Martha Billington. I wrote about Samuel here.

It’s unclear if Francis was a Separatist or a “stranger.” He doesn’t appear in Leiden records, but he’s grouped with Leiden Church members in Governor William Bradford’s list of passengers. He was a house carpenter, which would have been a valuable skill at Plymouth. If he was at Leiden, that would explain why neither his marriage to Sarah or the baptism of their son Samuel appear in Bristol records. 

Francis experienced much heartache in his life. All of his siblings died in 1603-1604, which was the time that the plague raged in the Bristol area. [Thompson] Being a port city made Bristol particularly vulnerable to the disease and at least 3,000 people died. [Civic Annals of Bristol] As an adult Francis experienced the deaths of half the Pilgrim contingent in the first winter at Plymouth, including his young wife Sarah. His carpentry skills would have helped speed up the building of shelters, sparing more lives from being lost. Within a few years he lost his second wife. One of his children was referred to as an idiot, which must have been heart breaking. 

Francis married, second, by 1623 Dorothy whose maiden name is also unknown. She was a maid servant to John Carver and his wife who both died in the spring of 1621. [Stratton] Dorothy died by 1626; it doesn’t appear that they had children.

In the 1623 Land Division, Francis received four shares on the north side of town—presumably one for himself, one for his deceased wife Sarah, one for his son Samuel, and one for his current wife Dorothy as they were all Mayflower passengers. 

By the 1627 Cattle Division he had married, third, Christian/Christiana Penn at Plymouth. Christian had arrived in 1623 on the Anne. In that division his company received a heifer and two she goats. [PCR 12:12]

Christian and Francis had three children: 

2. Rachel born Plymouth about 1625; m. Joseph Ramsden/Ramsdell [PCR 2:94; MD 26:187-9]

3. Benjamin born Plymouth about 1628; apprenticed 11 Feb 1635/6 to Bridget Fuller for 14 years [PCR 1:36-37]; m Plymouth 4 Dec 1660 Sarah Hoskins [PCR 8:22]

4. Child born Plymouth about 1630 whose name is unknown; referred to as an idiot; still living in 1651.[Bradford 447] I can’t imagine how they coped with raising a child with a severe disability given how difficult life already was for them. 

There are sources that have Francis’ origins and second wife’s name as unknown but a 4 December 1626 English document (written in Latin) states John Morgan of Bristol was apprenticed to Francis Eaton, Bristol, carpenter, and Dorothy his wife for seven years. In the margin is written in English: The Master at New England. [Thompson]  It is possible that Isaac Allerton obtained the apprentice on Francis’ behalf while on business in England. [Greene] He may have already been married to Christian by this time, but Allerton or another agent may not have known of Dorothy’s passing.

Francis had at least some education as he signed the Mayflower Compact as well as a deed.

In 1630 Francis received a grant of 80 acres at Duxbury where he was one of the first settlers. He may not have been cut out to be a farmer as he sold off much of his land to William Brewster and others. [Healy] His grant was on the shore off what is now Massasoit Road. [Fish] He recorded three land sales in 1631 to 1633. On 25 June 1631 he sold four acres in the North Field to Edward Winslow for a "cow calf.” This was the land he was granted in 1623. [PCR 12:16]  On 30 December 1631 he sold twenty acres to William Brewster "at the place comonly called Nothingelse," for £21 12s and an 12 additional acres in the same lot to Brewster. [PCR 12:16] The signature of Francis appears in the record book on the second deed. On 8 Jan 1632/3 Francis Eaton sold his dwelling house to Kenelm and Josias Winslow for £26.  [PCR 1:8]

Francis Eaton is included in the 1628 list of Purchasers. [PCR 2:177] Plymouth Colony was quite unlucky in financial matters and struggled with debt. The group of Purchasers were 53 Plymouth freemen who bought out the interests of the Merchant Adventurers’ (the original English investors who funded the Mayflower voyage). 

Francis Eaton of Duxbury was taxed the minimum amount of 9 shillings on 25 March 1633. [Winsor] This was the last record of Francis until the November 1633 inventory taken after his death. 

Governor William Bradford wrote "Francis Eaton, and Sarah his wife, and Samuell, their sone, a young child" were Mayflower passengers. In his 1651 Increasings and Decreasings he wrote of Francis that "his first wife dyed in the generall sicknes; and he maried againe, and his 2 wife dyed, and he married the 3 and had by her 3 children. One of them is maried and hath a child; the other are living, but one of them is an ideote. He dyed about 16 years ago. His son Samuell, who came over a sucking child, is allso maried, and hath a child.” [Bradford/Ford, 2:400, 410]

He might be the unnamed person referred to by Bradford as an ingenious man, a house carpenter who was so helpful since they didn't have a ship’s carpenter. [Johnson]

Francis died, apparently from an infectious fever that killed more than 20 people at Plymouth, before 8 November 1633—likely between 25 March and 1 July 1633. He was last mentioned as living in the 25 March 1633 tax list. He was not allocated mowing ground on 1 July 1633 but a location was granted to “Mr Williams that which Fr Eaton cut last year.” [PCR 1:15] He was just 37 years old and left behind a wife and four children. 

Francis died intestate. His estate inventory was taken 8 November 1633 and included one cow and a calf, two hogs, 50 bushels of corn, a black suit, a white hat, a black hat, boots, a gun & powder horn, four pewter platters, a pewter salt, fishing lead, over £19 worth of boards, and many carpentry tools including hammers, adze, bevel square, augers, planes, chisel, lathe, and saws. His inventory, which did not include real estate, totaled £64 8s 7d. [Wills 1633-1686, vol 1-4, State Archives/Boston, pages 17-18]

Added to the inventory was a long list of debts owed by Francis Eaton at the time of his death which exceeded the value of his personal estate. He owed money to Mrs. Fuller for physick [medical care], which interests me because Bridget Lee Fuller is my 11th great-grandmother. Her husband Samuel Fuller, the Colony’s doctor, had died in August or September of that year and Bridget herself was a healer and midwife. 

He also owed his maidservant £1 1s, someone named Webb for 12 days work while he (Francis) was ill and £1 10s for work done by Francis Billington, the man who would marry his widow. He owed Isaac Allerton a whopping £105 and more than £21 to Mr. Bradford and partners, perhaps related to them all being Purchasers. He owed £4 to Mr. Hatherley, who was one of the London Purchasers. Was Francis a poor manager of money? Or was he dreaming big and going into debt to potentially make a good deal of money? Why was he selling off his land? Whatever the reason for his debt, his early death gave cut short his chance to rectify the situation.

The inventory was presented at court on 25 Nov 1633, when it was declared that Francis Eaton died insolvent and Mr. Thomas Prence and Mr. John Doane should administer the estate and pay the creditors as far as the estate will make good and the widow be freed from any claim. [Van Antwerp & Wakefield]

Creditors got two thirds of the 40 to 45 remaining acres of his Duxbury land and his widow received her one third dower. [Healy] 

In July 1634, Christian married, second, Mayflower passenger Francis Billington [PCR 1:31], whose father John was hanged for murder in 1630. She and Francis had nine children together. She died circa 1684, probably at Middleborough. Francis and Christian are my 9th great-grandparents; I descend from their son Isaac.

In 1639 Christian Billington made a deed to Jonathan and Love Brewster, sons of William, for her “one third” dower from Francis Eaton’s estate. This deed was more than likely invalid since the land would automatically pass to Francis’ son Samuel upon Christian’s second marriage. This theory is supported when, in June 1647, Samuel Eaton deeded his mother Christian’s one third to Love Brewster, son of William. [Healy]

Sources:

Lee Van Antwerp and Robert Wakefield, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol. 9, Family of Francis Eaton, GSMD, 1996

Eugene Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Its History and People, 1986

Neil D. Thompson, The American Genealogist, ”The Origin and Parentage of Francis Eaton of the Mayflower," 72(1997):301-309

David L. Greene, The American Genealogist, “Notes on Eaton,” vol 72

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 2006, edited by Caleb H. Johnson

Lamont “Monty” Healy, Duxbury Clipper, “Elder William Brewster and the Nook,” 3-part series, June 26, July 24 and August 28, 2013

Henry A. Fish, Duxbury Ancient & Modern, 2012, Duxbury 375th Anniversary Revised Edition, based on 1925 edition

Justin Winsor, History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers, Crosby & Nichols, 1849

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

James Chilton Mayflower Passenger (ca 1556-1620) Part 2

James Chilton was a Mayflower passenger who sadly did not survive to see Plymouth—he died on board the ship as it was anchored in Provincetown Harbor. He is my 12th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family. I have learned more about James since I wrote an earlier post, primarily from Sue Allan’s book In Search Of Mayflower Pilgrim James Chilton of Canterbury and a series of articles by Michael Paulick.

James Chilton was born about 1556 likely in St. Paul Without Walls, Canterbury, Kent, England, where he was raised. His parents were Lionel and Edith Chilton; Edith’s maiden name is not known. [Anderson] He had siblings John, Alice, Ann, and Margaret.  The church register of baptisms does not cover the period of James’ birth, but he is shown to be Lionel’s son in a variety of records including Lionel’s will. James’ grandfather Richard Chilton was also from St. Paul’s so the family had been in the parish for at least three generations.

St. Paul's Church outside the Canterbury walls

Lionel appears to have been a prosperous man but not of the gentry class. He was a bricklayer, a respectable profession at the time, and owned multiple properties and many acres of land. He owned The Swan and The Wool Sack, presumably ale houses. He grew grain, owned a mill house to process it, and brewed ale. He was a churchwarden which was an elected, unpaid position filled by trustworthy men of good pubic standing. His inventory shows he lived in a large home that included a good deal of furniture, decorative painted cloths, silver, books, helmets, and guns. Buildings on his property included a brew house, well house, mill house, milk house, bake house, and corn lofts. A stable was mentioned later in arbitration between his sons. [Allan]

James became a Merchant Tailor and Freeman by Gift of Canterbury in 1583. The mayor was allowed to nominate one freeman by gift within a year of taking office and James was his choice. James purchased a place in the company of Woolen Drapers and Tailors. As a freeman, he could operate his business without restraint within the walls of Canterbury and could employ apprentices. [NEHGR 153:408-412]

James married by 1584 a woman whose name is not recorded.

Children of James and his wife had ten children [baptisms from Sherman]:

1. Joel baptized St. Paul’s Canterbury 16 August 1584 (no father’s name given); buried 2 Nov 1593 as son of James Chilton
2. Isabella bp St. Paul’s 15 January 1586/7; m. Leiden 21 July 1615 Roger Chandler [MD 11:129]
3. Jane bp St. Paul’s 8 June 1589; no further record
4. Mary buried St. Martin’s 23 Nov 1593 
5. Elizabeth bp St Martin’s, 14 July 1594; no further record
6. James bp St. Martin’s, 22 August 1596; died by September 1603 
7. Ingle bp St. Paul’s, Canterbury, 29 April 1599; believed to be Engeltgen Gilten who m. Robert Nelson at Leiden 27 August 1622; no further record 
8. Christian, daughter bp St. Peter’s, Sandwich, Kent, 26 July 1601; no further record
9. James bp St. Peter’s Sandwich, 11 Sept 1603 [MF 2:5]; no further record
10. Mary bp St. Peter’s Sandwich, 30 May 1607 [MF 2:5]; m. Plymouth John Winslow by 22 May 1627

I descend from their youngest child, Mary. I wrote about her here.

James lived in tumultuous times: [Allan]

• Under the reign of Catholic Queen Mary over 300 Protestants deemed heretics were executed by burning. 
• When Queen Elizabeth came to power, the country returned to the Protestant faith, and in 1588 three Catholic priests were executed in a nearby town. 
• James lived through a major earthquake in April 1580. A resulting tsunami caused 165 ships to capsize and a number of people drowned. It occurred during Easter week and many viewed it as a sign from God. 
• The war between England and Spain was also backdrop to James’ life. 
• There were droughts, floods, and a plague that caused food shortages. The lack of grain to make ale and disposable income for new clothing would have greatly impacted James’ livelihood. 

James appeared in court multiple times, often acting as bondsman for marriages. In 1584 he was ordered to appear in court and "to keep the peace;” no details given. Later that year he and another man posted bail of ten pounds each for Alexander Stonnard. In April 1586 he was presented for "chiding and brawling” [did not refer to physically fighting at the time] in the chancel floor of Church. In 1593 he and two other men, including his brother-in-law, were "bound over" for the large sum of more than £66; crime was not specified. In 1594 he was in trouble for beating a man with a stick. In 1598 he and another person guaranteed to the court the good behavior of Richard Allen, who kept an alehouse. In 1600 he was fined six shillings and eight pence for "victualling" (selling food and/or drink) without a license. The fine was canceled when he agreed to cease after Christmas. [New England Ancestors, Spring 2007] It could be James was a hothead or perhaps he was a man who stood up for his beliefs. In the case of the “brawling” at church, he came to the defense of a blacksmith who was arguing with a wealthy alderman. [Allan]

Interior of St. Paul's

By July 1601 James moved his family to the port town of Sandwich, about 12 miles from Canterbury. It was a big deal to relocate, especially with James’ deep roots at Canterbury, his business connections, and his freeman status. Exactly why James moved is not known—perhaps he was in debt due to all of the conditions  previously mentioned or his religious beliefs meant he could no longer honor his freeman’s oath. The parish of St. Peter’s in Sandwich was home to many non-conformists, so that could have been a factor. Some of these non-conformists would later go to Leiden including Roger Wilson, Thomas and Mary Shingleton, Richard and John Masterson, and Moyses Fletcher. [Allan] 

St. Peter's, Sandwich

Lionel Chilton died in January 1582 and wording in his will indicates that he anticipated discord amongst his heirs. James was bequeathed his father’s property called The Wool Sack, which included a house, land, and presumably a tavern. His father also directed for James to take care of his step-mother Isabel (Wilson) (Furner) Chilton who married, 3rd, Nicholas Graunt, but perhaps after his death returned to live with James at Sandwich as she died there in 1607. This leads to conjecture that Isabel was James’ mother-in-law. [Allan]

Sue Allan believes the location of James’ property, The Wool Sack in St. Paul’s, was Barton Court, a farm property which was originally the mansion house or court of the Abbot of St. Augustine’s. Her book includes a photograph of a surviving building on the property.

In October 1584 James and his brother John sought arbitration in a dispute about building a drain in the ground between their properties and a few other issues, so it appears their father was correct in thinking there would be disharmony with his estate. [Allan]

James seems to have had some education, perhaps at Kings Grammar School. To dress the gentry as a tailor, James would have been well dressed, neat and clean in appearance. [Allan]

James and his wife were religious dissenters, eventually becoming Separatists. Canterbury and East Kent had a strong Puritan presence and a number of Protestant refugees from Europe, including displaced Walloons. In May 1593 two Separatist leaders were executed at London; it must have been shocking to hear of Protestant vs. Protestant violence. In April 1598 “the wife of James Chilton” was part of a group that secretly buried a child to avoid the Church of England burial services, and excommunication proceedings against her began.  [NEHGR 153:408] 

Likely because England was becoming increasingly unsafe for dissenters, in about 1609 James and his wife and children left their homeland to live at Leiden, Holland. They joined John Robinson’s group of Separatists, then called the Christian Reformed Religion, many of whom became the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth, Massachusetts. The city was thriving mostly due to the cloth trade, which would have been a fit for James. Pay however was meager, which made it a challenge to survive. The Chiltons lived on Vollersgracht [voller meaning fuller/wool workers and gracht meaning canal) which is now called Langebrug. Their house was in a little gated courtyard at corner of Diefsteeg and Langebrug. [Allan] That James acted as a bondsman for marriages suggests he may have been more financially secure than many other Pilgrims and that he gave up much for his religious beliefs. [NEHGR Vol 174]

The year 1619 was a time of great unrest in the city with clashes between the established Dutch Church and Remonstrants, followers of Arminianism which placed emphasis on man’s responsibility and his own free will. There were armed military and cannons stationed across the city. Soon after James returned from church on 28 April 1619, he was accused by 20 youths of allowing Remonstrants to gather at his home, an untruth. The young men threw rocks and bricks at him and his injuries were life threatening. He and his daughter Ingle gave statements to the police in presence of surgeon Jacob Hey. James stated he was about 63 years of age. [Bangs] It is noteworthy that Ingle was literate, not typical for English-born females.

James was about 64, considered quite elderly as the average life expectancy in the Tudor era was 35, when he boarded the Mayflower for the dangerous crossing with his wife and their youngest child Mary. They left behind their two adult daughters in Leiden; it seems they had no surviving sons by this time. What was their motivation to take such a voyage? Was Leiden no longer tolerable to them after the attack on James? They bought no servants with them to do hard labor, so perhaps they agreed with one or more of the men traveling alone to be help mates to each other. 

After a long and difficult crossing, the Mayflower was anchored in Provincetown Harbor at Cape Cod on 11 November 1620 when James was one of the men who signed the historic Mayflower Compact. He died less than a month later, on 8 December, a bitterly cold day with wind driven rain and snow and a growing sea swell. [Anderson] His likely cause of death was scurvy.

James Chilton's signature

Memorial at Provincetown honoring the passengers who died there

Mrs. Chilton died during the first winter. Her remains would likely be buried on what is now Cole’s Hill in Plymouth. Their daughter Mary was now an orphan at just 13 years of age. She may have been raised in the household of Captain Myles Standish. She did, however, see her sister Isabella again as she came to New England with her husband Roger Chandler. What a happy reunion that must have been.

Sarcophagus on Cole's Hill containing unidentified Pilgrim remains

It’s sad to me when women’s identifies are unknown, especially when there are multiple opportunities to at least identify her Christian name in records instead of just “wife of.” Being a dissenter she was clearly a brave and strong woman. She gave birth to at least ten children and likely buried seven of them. She left a comfortable life in Kent to move to Leiden, Holland, where she would not have spoken the language initially. And then as an older woman, she crossed the ocean to Plymouth to help build a community from scratch, arriving at the onset of winter. Some people believe her name was Mary, others Susannah Furner (this is not possible as Susannah would have been 10 years old at her marriage!). Sue Allan wrote that perhaps she was Mildred Furner, James step-sister, but states this is speculation. 

Sources:

Sue Allan, In Search Of Mayflower Pilgrim James Chilton of Canterbury, 2024

Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, Strangers and Pilgrims, Travelers and Sojourners, Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation, GSMD, 2009

Robert M. Sherman, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol 15: James Chilton and Richard More, 1997

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

Michael R. Paulick, NEHGS Register, ”The 1609-1610 Excommunications of Mayflower Pilgrims Mrs. Chilton and Moses Fletcher," vol 153:408-412, October 1999

Michael R. Paulick, New England Ancestors, "The Mayflower Chiltons in Canterbury, 1556-1600, ” Spring 2007

Michael R. Paulick, NEHGS Register, “Mayflower and Other Pilgrims from Kent in Leiden in the Early 1600s,” Volume 174, Spring 2020

Michael R. Paulick, The Mayflower Quarterly, “From Dissenters to Pilgrims, 1608-1613 St. Peter’s, Sandwich, Kent,”   Vol. 87, No. 3, Fall 2021