Survivor

I wrote previously about John Howland, who may be an ancestor of mine (see Hanging by a thread, er, rope, June 24, 2022). For those who don't remember -- and who would? -- Howland survived falling overboard on the Mayflower, surviving only because in the storm that caused his misfortune, some lines had come loose and were hanging over the side. He managed to grab one of those and hang on until he was rescued.  He would later marry a woman named Elizabeth Tilley, who also turns out to be one of my ancestors not just because of her marriage, but because her parents were on board and show to be in my direct lineage.

John and Joan Tilley left England on the Mayflower with their youngest daughter to come to the new land for the same reason most of the other passengers did -- they belonged to the dissenting group known to us as Pilgrims and sought freedom to practice their version of Christianity outside of the constraints of the Church of England. The other children had reached majority age and, though I've not looked into their histories, presumably had established their own lives in England

I've discussed the rigors of the journey previously and noted the difficulties of the first year, but I thought perhaps a fuller discussion of that year might be in order, especially in light of the fact that John and Joan died within six months of reaching the New World, leaving their 13-year-old daughter an orphan. 

Their fate was not unusual. In fact, by the time the settlers reached the Plymouth area, many were already sick or weakened. Remember, the Mayflower was no cruise ship. Conditions on board would appall most modern Americans. The trip had been hard, the passengers had lived on fetid water, hard tack, salt beef and whatever fish could be caught. 

Then when they first landed, in November, they discovered the site was unsuitable for habitation and to explore further along the coast to find a suitable spot -- probably an abandoned indigenous site. They then faced the task of building homes and finding food in the depth of a New England coastal winter. This forced them to remain on board the ship in the cramped quarters they'd just spent a bit more than two months in. 

I couldn't find an exact number for how many passengers succumbed during the crossing, but of the 102 members of the colony, almost half of them were dead by the end of the first winter. Of the 19 adult women on board in the beginning, only five survived. Of the single men, crew members and servants, 10 of the 29 survived. The children fared better. None of the girls died, and only three of 13 boys succumbed. 

What killed them is a matter of speculation. Pneumonia is a likely suspect, and scurvy comes in a close second. Scurvy, you probably know, results from a lack of Vitamin C, and a hundred or so years after the Mayflower, a British surgeon discovered that giving scurvy victims fruits high in Vitamin C -- lemons, limes, that sort of thing -- could cure the problem. 

How bad was scurvy? Well, here's a description from an 1820 naval textbook:

"The gums become soft, livid and swollen, are apt to bleed from the slightest cause, and separate from the teeth, leaving them loose. About the same time the legs swell, are glossy, and soon exhibit foul ulcers. The same appearances follow, on other depending parts of the body. At first the ulcers resemble black blisters which spread and discharge a dark colored matter. These ulcers increase.
Emaciation ensues. Bleeding occurs at the nose and mouth. All the evacuations from the body become intolerably fetid. Death closes the scene."

Not pleasant, eh?

As you've guessed, Elizabeth was one of the survivors, in fact the only survivor of her family members on the ship, her father's brother and his wife having also mad the trip. She would be taken into the household of the first governor of the colony, John Carver, along with other children orphaned. Sadly, no longer after he died as well. His servant was John Howland, who became close to Elizabeth, and when she turned 16, they married. 

I have not done the count myself, but the blog of another of Elizabeth's descendants says she had 88 grandchildren. You can guess that after 400 years, many of us may be related to her. One site I looked at says that Joseph Smith of the LDS church is among her descendants. Makes me think that her genealogy on Family Search is likely to be pretty solid. 

Oh, and another bit of data. the Family Search website quoted the General Society of Mayflower Descendants as estimating that upwards of 10 million people in the U.S. have ancestors who came here on the Mayflower. Who knows, you may be one of them. 

Image: The Pilgrim Maiden, a statue in Plymouth, MA. By Henry Hudson Kitson. The statue does not represent a particular individual from the Plymouth colony.