Of the 102 passengers, including 31 children, there were 11 girls on the Mayflower and one woman was pregnant with the son who became the first child born in the new colony.
Few young females were aboard the Mayflower on her voyage to America in the 1600s. Travelers commonly held that girls were more fragile and would be unable to endure the long and difficult 66-day voyage and the hardships of establishing a colony in the new land. These long held beliefs were proved invalid when no girls died during the arduous ocean voyage, though two boys did.
Who were these tough and resilient girls?
1) Humility Cooper traveled with her aunt and uncle (Edward and Ann Cooper Tilley). Edward and Ann died the first winter. Humility returned to England eventually. Some list Humility as an infant, others as at least 8 years old.
2) Joan Tilley and daughter Elizabeth Tilley (age 13) accompanied Edward Tilley’s brother John. John and Joan died the first winter. Elizabeth at age 16 married passenger John Howland, age 31. During the crossing, John Howland had been swept off the Mayflower and into the ocean! John luckily was able to grip a ship’s line and he was pulled back onboard. John and Elizabeth had ten children: Desire, John, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, Joseph, Jabez, Ruth and Isaac.
3) and 4) Damaris Hopkins (2 years old), was accompanied by her parents Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins, step-brother Giles and step-sister Constance Hopkins (born 1606, age 14). Note that Stephen Hopkins made a journey to Jamestown prior to the Mayflower voyage . Also, Elizabeth was pregnant and gave birth on the Mayflower to a son they named “Oceanus.” This is the one family with a young girl that survived the first harsh winter in the colony. Demaris died as a young girl several years after the landing. Oceanus died by the age of 3. Constance married Nicholas Snow who arrived on the Ship Anne, the same ship that more of my ancestor Alice Southworth sailed on to America.
5) and 6) Mary More (born 1612, age 8) and Ellen More (born 1616, age 4) both died during the first winter.
7) and 8) Mary Allerton (born 1616, 4 years old) and Remember Allerton (born 1614, 6 years old) traveled with their parents Isaac and Mary Norris Allerton. Remember married Moses Maverick and had 7 children. Remember died in the 1650s. Mary married Thomas Cushman who arrived in the Ship Fortune. They had 8 children. Mary lived to be the last survivor of those who crossed in the Mayflower; she died 28 Nov 1699.
9) Desire Minter traveled with John and Katherine Carver, both of whom died shortly after the Mayflower returned to England. Desire returned to Holland in 1625 knowing that at the age of 21 she would inherit the endowment set up for her by her mother and step-father. John and Elizabeth Howland named their first child Desire in her honor.
10) James Chilton and his wife Susanna brought along Mary Chilton at age 13, born 1607. Mary’s parents died the first winter. Mary married John Winslow and they had 10 children.
11) Priscilla Mullins , was the oldest girl to make the journey (she is my ancestor) at the age of 17 years. Her father William Mullins, mother Alice and brother Joseph were with her. They all died the first winter. She married John Alden, the Mayflower’s cooper. John and Priscilla’s love inspired the poem The Courtship of Myles Standish, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow .
Note: A son, Peregrine White , was born to pregnant passenger Susanna White, after the ship arrived in New England.