The following are direct ancestors who either came to America on the Mayflower or came a few years later. The chart shows how they are related. The ship they immigrated on and the date of immigration are shown in blue. Details about my pilgrim ancestors follows the chart.
Jonathan Washburn (Husband of Rebecca Perry) Ancestors
Rebecca Perry Washburn (wife of Jonathan Washburn) Ancestors
John Washburn and his wife, Margery Moore Washburn, Elizabeth and Anne, 1635
John was born the son of John and Martha (Timbrell) Washborne. Martha was the widow of Mr. (__) Stevens.
John was baptized at Bengeworth, Worcestershire, England, on 2 July 1597.
John married Margery Moore about 23 November 1618 in Bengeworth, Worcestershire, England. They had children:
Mary Washborne @1619-
John Washborne 1620-
Philip Washborne 1622-1622
Philip Washborne 1624-
John moved to Plymouth Colony in 1632. He traveled alone, and was joined by his wife Margery and their sons John and Philip in April 1635.
John lived in Duxbury and, towards the end of his life, in Bridgewater.
John died early in 1671 (living on 17 March 1670/71 and 22 May 1671 when his son was called Jr, but died soon after, as the will was altered to call the son Sr.) and is presumed to have died in Bridgewater. Where and when exactly is unknown, along with the location of his burial place.
John Washburn was Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay from SE England. He was in Duxbury, Massachusets in 1631, where he was made a freeman. He purchased land from the Massasoit Indians and founded Bridgewater, where he lived in 1645. He served in the fight against the Narragansets in 1645. John Washburn married Margery Moore (born about 1588) in 1618 in England. She was the daughter of Robert Moore
John Washburn, Elizabeth and Anne, 1635
John Washburn was baptized (November 28, 1620 in Bengeworth, Worchester, England. He was the son of John Washburn and Margery Moore.
He came to Plymouth Colony in 1635. The ship was the “Elizabeth and Ann”. He is recorded as 14 years of age. He came with his mother Margery (Moore) Washborne and his brother Philip Washborne, and they were recorded as 49 and 11 years of age.
John married Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of Experience and Jane Cooke Mitchell, on 6 Dec 1645. They had 11 children.
John and Elizabeth were among the original settlers of what is referred to today as “Old Bridgewater”. They settled in the area that is today the central portion of the town of Bridgewater. “Old Bridgewater’ was officially incorporated in 1656.
Elizabeth died between 1681 and 1684. She died before her father, and thus not mentioned in his will.
John married again, another woman named Elizabeth. Her maiden name is not known. She was the widow of Samuel Packard (D: 7 Nov 1684). The marriage took place about 1685.
John made his will on 30 Oct 1686. He died on 12 Nov 1686, in what is now Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
The place of his burial is not known.
Experience Mitchell, Anne or Little James, 1623
Experience Mitchell was born about 1603 (based on his estimated date of marriage). He died in Bridgewater by May 14, 1689, the date his inventory was taken.
He came to America aboard the Anne or Little James in1623 from Holland. Experience is believed to be the son of Thomas Mitchell who lived first in Amsterdam as a member of Francis Johnson’s congregation, and then moved to Leiden. He married Maria Tromdin and after her death, Margaret (Williams) Stocking, widow of Christopher Stochin/Stocking after April 15, 1606, in Amsterdam. Experience had a nephew, Thomas, who lived in Amsterdam, with whom he corresponded in later life.
Experience came to Plymouth as a single man. He was on the 1633 list of Plymouth freemen. He served on a number of juries and in 1658 was Duxbury’s surveyor of highways. He moved to Duxbury by 1639 and to Bridgewater between 1684 and 1689.
Experience married (1) Jane Cooke after May 22, 1627.She died sometime before 1641 and he married (2) Mary _____.
Elizabeth Mitchell, daughter of Experience and Jane Cooke Mitchell, was born 27 August 1627 in what is now Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts to Experience Mitchell (1603-1689) and Jane Cooke (c1609-c1641) and died 5 December 1684 in what is now Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts of unspecified causes. She married John Washburn (1620-1686) 6 December 1645 in what is now Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Elizabeth and her husband, John Washburn, were among the original settlers of what is referred to today as “Old Bridgewater”. They settled in the area that is today the central portion of the town of Bridgewater. “Old Bridgewater” was officially incorporated in 1656.
Francis Cooke, Mayflower, 1620
Francis Cooke was betrothed to Hester Mahieu at the French Walloon Church (Vrouwekerk) in Leiden, Holland on June 30, 1603, with her joining the church one month prior to her betrothal. Her family were Protestant (Walloon) refugees from Lille, France to England. She was probably born in the late 1580s with her family coming to Leiden about 1590. Frances and Hester were the parents of Jane Cooke who married Experience Mitchell.
In the Leiden church Betrothal Book he was recorded as “Franchois Couck” and his bride being Hester Mahieu with the witnesses to the marriage being two Walloons. [1] They were identified as “from England” (Francis) and as “from Canterbury” (Hester).
Cooke and his wife departed Leiden in August 1606 for Norwich in county Norfolk in England. The Leiden congregation had some Separatist members who had fled Norwich, and the Cookes may have contacted the Separatists there. The Cookes did not remain in Norwich long as their son John was baptized at the Walloon Church in Leiden between January and March 1607 with the couple receiving communion in Leiden on January 1, 1608. Francis and his wife Hester were identified as “Franchoys Cooke et Esther sa femme” in Leiden after their return from Norwich, taking communion in Leiden’s Walloon church on New Year’s Day, 1608.
In February 1609, members of Pastor John Robinson’s English Separatist church came to Leiden. The Cookes did not then become members of the Walloon church, but did join the Leiden congregation sometime later, after their daughter Elizabeth was baptized on December 26, 1611.
When the English Separatist church in Leiden decided to go to America in 1620, Cooke decided that from his family only he and his thirteen year-old son John would go over. His wife Hester and younger children would remain in Leiden until the colony was more established.
The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England in September 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship’s timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. This combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children. On the way there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.
In November 1620, after about 5 months at sea, including 3 months of delays in England, they spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. And after several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored and the Mayflower Compact was signed.
Cooke was not involved in government or politics in Plymouth, and in his life kept a low profile, but his work on behalf of the people of Plymouth colony has been well-recognized by history. Cooke was recorded “Francis Cooke and his son John. But his wife and children came afterwards.”
After the Pilgrim arrival at Cape Cod, Cooke was one of those who signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. Cooke’s house plot in New Plymouth that was assigned late in 1620 was located between the plots of Isaac Allerton and Edward Winslow. Cooke’s wife and children came over on the ship Anne in July 1623.
Hester Mahieu Cooke and daughter, Jane Cooke, Anne, 1623
Hester, the wife of Francis Cooke came to America on the ship Anne in 1623. She was of Walloon (French Protestant) stock but came to Leyden, Holland from Canterbury, England where there was a Walloon church, in the records of which the name of Mahieu was common.
The marriage intentions state Hester Mahieu was from Canterbury, England and she was accompanied by her mother, Jennie Mahieu and her sister Jennie Mahieu. In his book “Hypocrisie Unmasked”, Edward Winslow stated she was a “Walloone” and came from the French “Mayflower Descendant” 27:145 shows she was admitted to the French Reformed Church in Leiden in 1603.
“Take notice of our practie at Leyden, viz. that one Samuel Terry was received from the French Church there, into communion with us; also the wife of Francis Cooke being a Walloone, holds communion with the Church at Plymouth , as she came from the French, to this day, by virtue of communion of churches.” [Winslow’s “Hypocrisie Unmasked” in “Mayflower Descendant” 27:64]
Daughter of Jacques and Jenne/Jeanne (___) Mahieu, Walloon refugees from the area around Lille (now in France). If 19 at marriage and 42 at the birth of her last known child about late 1626, then Hester was born about 1584 and thus was about two years younger than her husband. As Hester was about 82 in 1666, it seems likely she died closer to 1666 than to 1675. Hester Mahie was admitted to communion in the Walloon church by confession of faith on June 1, 1603, about a month and a half before her marriage.
John Winslow – Fortune, 1621
John Winslow (1597-1674), the grandfather of Hannah Latham who married Joseph Washburn, was one of several Winslow brothers who came to the Plymouth Colony in its earliest years. His brothers Edward and Gilbert were passengers on the Mayflower in 1620. John Winslow was a passenger on the Fortune in 1621, and two other brothers, Kenelm and Josiah, also settled in New England, arriving before 1632. The Winslow family was involved in all aspects of the Plymouth Colony, producing in the 17th century several governors and making their mark in New England history in both government and business.
John Winslow was born April 16, 1597 in Droitwich, Worcestershire, England. He grew up in Droitwich, Worcestershire, residing there with his parents, Edward Winslow and Magdalene Oliver/Ollyver, one step-brother, four brothers and two sisters. His father was a salt extractor.
John Winslow was a brother of Pilgrim leader Edward Winslow and came to Plymouth in 1621 on the ship Fortune. He was unmarried upon his arrival.
John Winslow married Mary Chilton between 1623 and May 22, 1627, in Plymouth and had ten children. She had been baptized in St. Peter’s Parish, Sandwich, Kent, England on May 31, 1607, and she died between July 31, 1676 and May 1, 1679 in Boston. In 1620 Mary and her parents had come to Plymouth as passengers on the Mayflower. Her parents died the first winter, with her father, James Chilton, named on several memorials in Provincetown in honor of those who were the earliest to die on board the Mayflower in November and December 1620. Tradition has it that Mary Chilton was the first Mayflower passenger to step ashore on Plymouth Rock.
The will of John Winslow, Senior of Boston, merchant, was dated March 12, 1673/74, and proved May 31, 1674. In the will he named his wife Mary, sons John, Isaac, Benjamin, Edward and Joseph; William Payne, the son of his daughter Sarah Middlecott; Parnell Winslow, daughter of his son Isaac; granddaughter Susanna Latham; son Edward’s children; son Joseph Winslow’s two children; granddaughter Mercy Harris’s two children; kinsman Josiah Winslow “now governor of New Plimouth”; brother Josiah Winslow; kinswoman Eleanor Baker, the daughter of his brother Kenelm Winslow; “my seven children”; Mr. Paddy’s widow; and his Negro girl Jane. He left personal property valued at £3,000, a good part of it in money, and this was a substantial sum for the time.
He died between March 12, 1673/4 and May 21, 1674 in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony. At the time of his death he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston. Both he and his wife were buried in King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. They both left wills that survive today.
His widow Mary survived him, but died before May 1678, and she dated her will, equally as detailed as her husband’s, July 31, 1676, proved July 11, 1679.
Mary Chilton Winslow – Mayflower, 1620
Mary Chilton, the grandmother of Hannah Latham who married Joseph Washburn, was born in 1607 in Sandwich, Kent, England, and was the daughter of James Chilton and his wife (whose name has not been discovered). When Mary was just two years old, excommunication proceedings began against her mother, who had attended the secret burial of a child of Andrew Sharpe. The child was buried in secret because they opposed the “popish” burial ceremonies required by the Church of England.
Mary and family then came to Leiden, Holland, and joined with the Pilgrims’ church there. In 1619, when she was twelve, her father and oldest sister were caught in an anti-Arminian riot and her father was hit in the head with a stone–an injury for which he would have to seek out a surgeon.
In 1620, at the age of 13, Mary came with her parents on the Mayflower. Her father was one of the first who died after the ship had anchored off Provincetown Harbor. He died on December 8. Mary is traditionally given the honor of being the first female to step ashore at Plymouth Rock, but there is no historical documentation for this tradition. Her mother died sometime later the first winter, orphaning her in the New World. Which family it was that raised her has not been determined, but in 1623, at the age of 16, Mary received her share in the Division of Land, and her property was located between that of Myles Standish and John Alden, and was not too far from the Winslows. Edward Winslow’s brother John had come to Plymouth on the ship Fortune in 1621. Sometime between 1623 and 1627, John Winslow married Mary Chilton. In the 1627 Division of Cattle they received a share in the “lesser” black cow that had come in the ship Anne in 1623, along with two female goats. As they had not yet had any children by the Division of Cattle, it is likely their marriage occurred in 1626.
Their first child John was born about 1627, and nine more children would follow. The family resided in Plymouth for many years, but eventually ended up in Boston, where her husband John died in 1674. Mary made out her will in 1676 and died about 1679.
James Chilton and his wife, Susannah – Mayflower, 1620
James Chilton, father of Mary Chilton who married John Winslow, was born about 1556, probably at Canterbury, Kent, England, the son of Lyonell and Edith Chilton. James married about 1583, and had his first child (Joel) baptized at St. Paul’s, Canterbury, Kent, England in August 1584. The name of James Chilton’s wife is not found in any records. The long-published claim that she was named Susanna Furner was disposed of by Michael Paulick’s research published in 1999 and 2007.
James Chilton and wife had eight children born in Canterbury, Kent, before moving about 1600 to Sandwich, Kent, where he had his last three children baptized. In 1609, his wife (unfortunately called simply “___ Chilton wife of James Chilton,” was charged by the Archdeaconry Court with attending the secret burial of a child (they opposed the “popish” burial ceremonies of the Church of England). It was presumably not long before the family left for Holland. In 1619, James Chilton (aged 63) and his oldest daughter Isabella were caught in the middle of an anti-Arminian riot in Leiden, and he was hit in the head with a stone, requiring the services of the town surgeon Jacob Hey.
James, his wife, and his youngest daughter Mary, all came on the Mayflower in 1620. James, at the age of 64, was the oldest person known to have made the Mayflower’s voyage. James died on 8 December 1620 onboard the Mayflower, which was then anchored off Provincetown Harbor–one of six passengers to die in the month of December. His wife also died sometime the first winter, but daughter Mary survived.
Thomas Pence – Fortune, 1621
Thomas, the husband fo Patience Brewser Pence, was born about 1600 (based on his age at the time of his death), and was the son of Thomas Prence, carriage-maker, of Lechdale, County Gloucestershire, England. He came to America on the ship “Fortune” in 1621, and he served as the fourth Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1634 to 1635, then from 1638 to 1639, and again from 1657 until his death in 1673. Thomas was the father of Rebecca Prence who married Edmund Freeman and the grandfather of Rebecca Perry who married Jonathan Washburn.
Patience Brewster Pence – Anne, 1623
Patience, the wife of Thomas Prence, arrived in Plymouth aboard the “Anne” in 1623 along with her sister, Fear. Her parents and brothers, Love and Wrestling, arrived during 1620 on the Mayflower. Her other brother, Jonathan, arrived with her future husband, Thomas Prence, on the ship Fortune. Patience was the mother of Rebecca Prence who married Edmund Freeman and the grandmother of Rebecca Perry who married Jonathan Washburn.
William and Mary Brewster – Mayflower, 1620
William Brewster (1568 – 10 April 1644) was an English official and Mayflower passenger in 1620. In Plymouth Colony, by virtue of his education and existing stature with those immigrating from the Netherlands, Brewster, A Brownist (or Puritan Separatist), became senior elder and the leader of the community. About 1590 or 1592, William Brewster married a woman named Mary, whose surname is unknown. William Brewster died on 18 April 1644, at Duxbury, Plymouth Colony. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Brewster, who died in April 1627, age about sixty. Brewster’s body was buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth. A memorial stone exists there for him, which states that it is in honor of “Elder William Brewster, Patriarch of the Pilgrims and their Ruling Elder 1609–1644”. The burial place of his wife Mary is unknown. The memorial provides that Mary’s maiden name was Wentworth. This, however, is probably not correct.
