Mary Chilton

Here's another...interesting organizational choice in Anderson's The Great Migration Begins. Our ancestor, Mary Chilton, is not given her own entry. Neither is her mother, whose name may or may not have been Susanne. Instead, both are listed under Mary's father, James Chilton. OK, again, maybe there's some justification in Anderson always listing the head of the household, who will usually be a man. But here's the thing: James Chilton never made it to Plymouth. The Chilton family were passengers on the Mayflower. James died before the Mayflower reached the colony, in December of 1620, while it was still anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. He may have never set foot on the land. His wife died soon after, in January of 1621. Only Mary survived.

But of course she doesn't have her own entry.

James Chilton was a tailor. He was born around 1556, probably at Canterbury, Kent, the son of Lionel Chilton. He married by 1586, but his wife's name is not known for certain. Together they had ten known children. Mary was the youngest, burn in 1607. The family moved to Leiden, part of the Puritan community there, where at least one of their older daughters married. Anderson cites a notarial record from Leiden describing an assault on James and his daughter in April 1619. Some historians believe this assault was one of the events that encouraged the Puritans to find a new, safer, home for their religious beliefs.

The Chiltons took only their youngest child with them on the Mayflower. Mary was about 13 at the time. Her eldest sister, Isabella, migrated in 1632 with her husband, Roger Chandler. There is no further record of the other children. James and his wife died in the first major infection that swept through the Mayflower passengers. He did sign the Mayflower Compact before his death. Tradition claims that their daughter, Mary, was the first Mayflower passenger to step onto Plymouth Rock. She married John Winslow by May of 1627.

Notably, this is one of the few cases where our descent from the early Puritans is not through the Kinney line, but rather through my paternal grandmother's Manary line.

Mary Chilton -- John Winslow
  - Susanna Winslow -- Robert Latham
     - James Latham -- Deliverance Alger
        - Anne Latham -- Nicholas Wade
           - John Wade -- Sarah Arbuckle
              - Hannah Wade -- James McGregor
                 - John McGregor -- Susan Baker
                    - Ellen McGregor -- William Manary
                       - Joseph Manary -- Rebecca Wilson




References:

Anderson, Robert Charles 1995 The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. New England Historic Genealogical Society.