Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants

Becket Soule: Tuesday, 19 January [1620]/21 At anchor in harbour A remarkable fair day. Sent burying-party ashore with the body of Christopher Martin. A summary of the past few weeks is contained in Mourt’s Relation: We went to labour that day in the building of our town, in two rows of houses for more safety. We divided by lot the plot of ground whereon to build our town. After the proportion formerly allotted, we agreed that every man should build his own house, thinking b...y that course men would make more haste than working in common. The common house, in which for the first we made our rendezvous, being near finished wanted only covering, it being about twenty feet square. Some should make mortar, and some gather thatch, so that in four days half of it was thatched. Frost and foul weather hindered us much, this time of the year seldom could we work half the week. See more

We have many folks asking about how to become a Member of the Canadian Mayflower Society and receive the certificate and formal acknowledgment of Mayflower ancestry. The Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants has a very detailed description on our webpage that will explain the process, and the contact for our Historian team - the first step in becoming a Member is on that page. Many people have a family tradition that they are Mayflower descendants, but to prove it takes ...a bit more effort. It's a bit of a process, but fun if you are up for a genealogical project. We welcome new members! https://csmd.org/application-process/#overview

Becket Soule: Monday, 18 January [1620]/21 At anchor in Plymouth harbour A very fair day. The working-party went on land early. The Master sent the shallop for fish. They had a great storm at sea and were in some danger, which seemed to happen almost every time the shallop set out. They returned to the ship at night, with three great seals they had shot, and an excellent great cod. Christopher Martin died today, as Bradford wrote, in the first infection.... Today Francis Billington, the same tyke who almost blew up the Mayflower by setting off a musket next to a powder keg in a small cabin last month, having the week before seen from the top of a tree on a high hill a great sea as he thought, went with one of the master's mates to see it. They went three miles and then came to, not the Pacific Ocean, but a great water, divided into two great lakes. The larger of them was five or six miles in circuit (originally called Fresh Lake and now known as Billington Sea), the source of Town Brook that flowed past the tiny settlement, and in it an isle of a cable length square; the other [was] three miles in compass and is now known as Little Pond. In their estimation, they are the source of fine fresh water, full of fish, and fowl; it will be an excellent help for us in time. They found seven or eight Indian houses, but not lately inhabited. When they saw the houses, they were scared, since they were only two people with but one musket, and one shot. They found the same eerie, unexplained situation as had been found in each other discovery -- numerous Indian habitations, but no Indians or inhabitants of any sort in evidence anywhere. See more

Becket Soule: Sunday, 17 January [1620]/21 At anchor in harbour Fourth Sunday here. Governor Carver came aboard to talk with Christopher Martin, who was very sick, and, to our judgement, [with] no hope of life. We have met Christopher Martin back in September, when he was making himself disagreeable to the Leiden congregation. We have also seen him a week or so ago as the step father of Solomon Prower, when he was cited by the Archdeaconry Court of the Diocese of Chelmsford... for suffering his son to answer that his father gave him his name (NEHGR 21:77), and in 1612 he was accused of refusing to kneel for Holy Communion. In 1982, R. J. Carpenter published a twelve-page pamphlet that thoroughly traces what is known of Christopher Martin in English court and ecclesiastical records (Christopher Martin, Great Burstead and The Mayflower [Chelmsford, Essex: Barstable Book, 1982]). Martin was living on board ship at this point because the women, children, and ill (those unable to do heavy lifting in the construction of the settlement) were all confined to the Mayflower: this was about three quarters of the surviving passengers. See more

Becket Soule: Saturday, 16 January [1620]/21 At anchor in harbour Fetched wood and water. In the judgment of Brewster, Bradford, and others, Christopher Martin, the colonists’ first governor and current treasurer, was so hopelessly ill that Governor Carver, who had taken up his quarters on land, was sent for to come aboard to speak with him. The colonists had to quiz the dying businessman about their accounts with the Merchant Adventurers and about the bills for their provisions before he died.

Becket Soule: Friday, 15 January [1620]/21 At anchor in Plymouth harbour Working-party went on shore early. One of the sailors found alive upon the shore a herring, which the master had to his supper, which put us in hope of fish, but as yet we had got but one cod; we wanted [i.e., lacked] small hooks. A recent article in the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, the quarterly journal of the Virginia Historical Society, has suggested that one of the main hopes of the Vi...rginia Company investors for the Pilgrim settlement was that they could provide large quantities of fish for the Jamestown settlement, which was starving, as well as for other parts of the Virginia colony, in addition to commerce with England. If they were able to catch only two fish (one of which was simply found lying on the shore) in the space of as many months, that did not bode well for their fishing opportunities. The fact that they had absolutely no equipment to catch the fish, much less keep or process them, didn’t help. See more