“Those intrepid English women whose courage, fortitude, and devotion brought a new nation into being.” So reads the inscription on the Pilgrim Maiden Statue in Brewster Garden in Plymouth, MA. Those Sturdy Surviving Pilgrim Women are immortalized in the work of Henry Hudson Kitson’s sculpture, dedicated to their endurance, courage, and devotion in 1924.
”The Mayflower set sail for the New World from England in September 1620 with nineteen women among the 102 passengers. The passengers consisted of two groups. The smaller group were Separatists, English subjects who’d been living in Holland as religious refugees since 1608. The others were English residents added to the passenger list by the Merchant Adventurers. This group financed the trip and insisted the additional passengers be included to increase the chances the new settlement would survive and make them a good return on their investment.
An Increase in the Passenger List
All nineteen women survived the trans-Atlantic journey, including three women who were pregnant. The first woman to deliver her baby was Elizabeth Hopkins. She and her husband Stephen named their new son Oceanus since he was born somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. They traveled with three other children, two born to Stephen’s late wife Mary and one previously born to Elizabeth. Once they established themselves in Plimoth Plantation, they had five more children.
Mary Allerton delivered her stillborn baby while living on the anchored ship off the coast of Provincetown. She died a few days later, leaving behind three young children and her husband, Isaac.
Susanna White also delivered her son while still living on the anchored ship. She and her husband William named their baby Peregrine. They also had a five-year-old son, Resolved. William was among the many who died the first winter, leaving her a widow in a strange new place with a newborn and a young child.
Loss and Resolve
Her marriage to Edward Winslow on May 12, 1621, was the first marriage in the Plimoth Colony. Edward’s young wife Elizabeth had died in March, another victim of deprivations and the harsh first winter. An extended period of time to grieve was a luxury these desperate people could ill afford. Both the Whites and the Winslows were among the Separatists emigrating from Leiden. The couple had four children: Edward, John, Josiah, and Elizabeth, in addition to an unnamed child who died young.
Katherine Carver, another of the Separatists, was one of five women still alive when winter finally gave way to spring. She and her husband John married while living among other Separatists in Leiden. John Carver served as the group’s first governor until his death in April, from what was presumed to a heat stroke. Katherine died a few weeks later, perhaps from a broken heart at the prospect of going on without her husband and without any children needing her attention or offering her comfort.
Four Surviving Pilgrim Women
After Katherine died, only Susanna White, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Eleanor Billington still lived. Mary was married to Elder William Brewster, the designated spiritual leader of the emigrated Leiden community. They sailed with their young sons, Love and Wrestling. Their older children, Jonathan, Patience, and Fear, arrived at the settlement on later ships. Mary, being one of the older passengers on the Mayflower, often provided a home for orphaned children and young adults on their own. She was also one of a handful of pilgrims well enough to tend to the sick, nursing future Governor William Bradford back to health.
Eleanor Billington and her husband John Billington traveled with their young sons, John and Francis. They were part of the English residents foisted on the Leiden community by the Merchant Adventurers. The family caused much trouble in the colony from time to time. John was executed for murder in 1630. Six years later Eleanor was sentenced to sit in the stocks. However, during that first winter, she pitched in to care for the many sick among both the Strangers and Separatists.
Read More in a New Historical Fiction Biography
More of the stories of those sturdy surviving Pilgrim Women are told through the historical fiction biography Mary Brewster’s Love Life: The Matriarch of the Mayflower. It will soon be available in print and eBooks wherever books are sold.
Parts of this article are based on information found in Mayflower History, Pilgrim Hall, and Women History Blog.
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Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available
wherever books are sold.
Bookshop.org (Support local Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website.
The companion story told from the perspective of one of the four women to survive the first winter will be available soon in print and eBook.