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The Mayflower Families of Tomah,
Monroe County, Wisconsin
The Pilgrims were a group of English people who broke away from the Church of
England and sought
religious freedom during the reign of King James I. After two attempts to leave
England and move to Holland, the “Separatist” group finally relocated to
Amsterdam in 1608, where they stayed for about one year. From there, the group moved to
the town of Leiden, Holland, where they remained for about ten years--able to
worship as they wished under lenient Dutch law.
Fearing
that their children were losing their English heritage and religious beliefs, as
well as wanting to escape the worsening economic conditions in Holland, a small
group from the Leiden churches made plans to settle in Northern Virginia—as New
England was known at the time. Although King James refused to grant them a
Charter to settle in the New World, he promised that he would not try to stop
them from settling abroad.
In August
1620 the group sailed for Southampton, England, where they met other English
colonists who hoped to make a new life in America. They planned to make the
crossing to America in two ships--the Speedwell and the Mayflower. However,
primarily because it was leaking, the Speedwell was forced to return to England
where the group was reorganized and the voyage was limited to 100 passengers and
crew to sail on the Mayflower. The new group consisted of the Pilgrims as well
as some non-Separatists that were added to fill out the passenger list. The
latter group was known as the “Strangers.”
In its
second attempt to cross the Atlantic, the Mayflower and its passengers departed
on 6 September 1620 from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World. After a
stormy voyage of two months, they arrived at Cape Cod on 11 November. They
spent about a month contemplating their future in their new land, performing
isolated explorations of the area to find a suitable settlement location, and writing The Mayflower
Compact.
The purpose
of The Mayflower Compact was to bind the Pilgrims and the Strangers to submit to
“such a government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make
and choose.” Many of the 100 passengers realized that differences of opinion
were bound to occur and dissensions were bound to arise. So they wrote a
document that had four main purposes:
· It expressed the deep faith and
belief in God and his divine guidance, which was held so dear to the Pilgrim
Fathers;
·
It expressed the deep loyalty to
their native England and to the King, even though they had been persecuted and
exiled by his actions;
·
It expressed their mutual regard
for one another as equals in the sight of God; and
·
It expressed their intent
to establish just and equal laws upon which would be built a truly democratic
form of government—the first such document in recorded history.
The Compact
stated that they would choose their own leaders and make their own laws. It
also stated there was to be equal justice for all. This Compact became the
constitution of the Plymouth Colony, and was the first document of American
democracy to establish "government of the people, by the people, for the
people."
On 11
December 1620, as winter was settling in, the passengers went ashore and endured
significant hardships as they struggled to establish a successful colony at
Plymouth. During that first winter, nearly half of the Pilgrims, Strangers and
crew members died because of the severe conditions. But, in time their colony
flourished and led the way to establish religious freedom and create the
foundations of the democracy that Americans enjoy today.
The
Mayflower Compact was signed by all 41 male passengers on board—Pilgrims as well as
Strangers and the indentured servants. Surprisingly, of the 41 signers, at least
nine have descendants that eventually settled in and around Tomah, in
Monroe County, Wisconsin. Those signers were: William White (the 11th
signer), Richard Warren (12th), John Howland (13th),
Stephen Hopkins (14th), John Tilley (16th), Francis Cooke
(17th), Peter Browne (33rd), George Soule (35th), and Edward Doty (41st).
There may be more than these nine, and research continues.
Many
residents of the Tomah area descend from more than one of the signers, because
of the inter-marriage of many of the early descendants of the Mayflower
passengers. For example:
·
Members of the Griggs family
descend from William White, Richard Warren, John Howland, John Tilley, and Peter
Browne.
·
Members of the Wadephul family
descend from Stephen Hopkins, Francis Cooke, George Soule, and Edward Doty.
·
Members of the Sowle family
descend from George Soule and Richard Warren.
·
Some members of the Vandervort,
Clay and Koopman families (thru the marriage of Roll Vandervort and Mattie
Griggs) descend from William White, Richard Warren, John Howland, John Tilley
and Peter Browne.
One family,
the Purdy’s, descends from Richard Warren thru the marriage of Daniel Crane
Purdy to Susan Savage, whose mother was a descendant of the Warren line.
There are
many more Tomah-area families who, thru marriages in the 1800's and 1900's,
descend from the Mayflower families. To determine which of the passengers
that you may descend from, go to the “Surname Index” in each of the “Descendant”
reports, below, and look for your family surname. Then, look for the
descendants that have a tilde (“~”) after their name, and follow the ancestral
line from the Mayflower families to their descendants in Tomah.
(Note: These trees do not contain all of the descendants of the Pilgrims
and the Strangers--just those that are known to link to Tomah families.)
About twelve
generations have passed since the Mayflower landed in 1620, and there are now
millions of descendants of its passengers. However, it must be truly
unique for a community the size
of the Tomah--more than 1,200 miles from Cape Cod--to be linked to such a large
number of Mayflower Families.
I hope that
you are able to find your ancestry link. If you have a known connection to a
Mayflower passenger that is not listed below, please contact me and I will be
glad to research and include your information.
Descendants of William White
Descendants of Richard Warren
Descendants of John Howland, Sr.
Descendants of Stephen Hopkins
Descendants of John Tilley, Sr.
Descendants of Francis Cooke
Descendants of Peter Browne, Sr.
Descendants of George Soule, Sr.
Descendants of Edward Doty
Links to Mayflower and Pilgrim websites:
Links to our other Monroe County genealogy websites:
Gary Griggs
117-3 Whitetail Way
Pawleys Plantation
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
garygriggs@sc.rr.com
Prepared with:
RootsMagic
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