William WHITE

- 1621

• Name	William WHITE  [1]
  Birth	Prob. England   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Between 21 Feb 1620 and 1621	Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA   [1, 2]
  Notes	William and his two servants died soon after their landing at Plymouth. Excerpts from "Mayflower Families Through 5 Generations Vol 13 - William White": William and Susanna White left England with son Resolved. At Cape Cod, on November 11, 1620 according to the old calendar, William was on of the 41 signers of the Mayflower compact. Two to three weeks later son Peregrine was born, the first English birth in Plymouth Colony. Susanna was widowed in February. She became the first colony bride in May, marrying Edward Winslow, a "Mayflower" passenger who had lost his wife a few weeks before. Excerpts from Mayflower Increasings:" William was possibly connected with the Whites of Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire. He died during the General Sickness of the first winter. His wife was Susanna( ), origins and maiden name Unknown. Despite the oft repeated claim that she was the Anna, sister of Dr. Samuel & Edward Fuller, the known facts do not support this assumption. Sister Anna was born in 1577; Susann's first child was born c1615, her last child was born and she would have been 18 years older than her 2nd husband!!" Excerpts from "Certain Comeoverers": In Governor William Bradford's list of "the names of those which came over first in ye year 1620, and were, by the blessing of God, the first beginners and (in a sort) the foundation of all the Plantations and Colonies in New England" is the following: "Mr. William White and Sussanna his wife and one sone called Resolved, and one borne on ship board caled Peregrine, and 2 servants William Holbeck and Edward Thomson." William White is said to have been the son of a Bishop of the Church of England. If this be so, which I regard as extremely doubtful, it may have been Francis White born at St. Noets, Huntingdonshire, educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and after many perferments made Bishop of Carlisle, and Lord Almoner to the King (Charles I), then translated to Norwich, and in 1631 to Ely. In February, 1637-1638, he died in his palace at Holborn and was buried in Saint Paul's London. If your ancestor, William White was indeed the son of so distinguished a Church of England divine, he must have felt the difficulties of domestic revolt before he came into conflict with the established order of society and was forced into exile in Holland. He may well have deserved the description which some pious descendant gives us, to the effect that he "was one of that little handful of God's own wheat flailed by adversity, tossed and winnowed until earthly selfishness had been beaten from them and left them pure seed fit for the planting of a new world." William White was one of the original band who left England in 1608 and settled in Leyden, Holland, in 1609. Of these pilgrims Bradford writes: "Being thus constrained to leave their native soil and countrie, their lands and livings and all their friends and familiar acquaintance, it was much, and thought marvelous by many. But to go into a countrie they knew not (but by hearsay) where they must learn a new language and get their livings they knew not how, it being a dear place, and subject to the miseries of war, it was by many thought an adventure almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a misery worse than death. Especially seeing they were not acquainted with trades nor traffic (by which that countrie doth subsist) but had only been used to a plain countrie life and the innocent trade of husbandry. But these things did not dismay them (though they did sometimes trouble them) for their desires were set on the ways of God and to enjoy his ordinances." William White solved his problem by learning the trade of a "wool comber" as appears by the following entry on the town records of Leyden, translated from the Dutch: "William White, wool comber, unmarried man, from England accompanied by William Jepson and Samuel Fuller, his acquaintances, with Ann Fuller, single woman, also from England, accompanied by Rosamond Jepson and Sarah Priest her acquaintances. They were married before Jasper van Bauchern and William Cornelison Tybault, sheriffs, this eleventh day of February 1612." The religious ceremony was performed by their beloved minister John Robinson. Although the bride's name is given in this records as "Ann," and she is named in her father's will as "Anna," she was always called Susanna in later years in Plymouth. Susanna Fuller was the daughter of Robert Fuller of Redenhall in the County of Norfolk. He was a butcher and as appears by his will which was probated May 31, 1614, he was very well off as to landed estates and worldly goods. It is evident from the provisions of the will that his son Samuel and his daughter "Anna," as he calls her, were in Holland, and that his wife Frances and several children, including a son Edward, were living with him in Redenhall. Three of his children crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower: "Mr. Samuel Fuller and a servant----(his wife was behind and a child which came afterwards); Edward Fuller and his wife and Samuel their son;" (Bradford) and Susanna the wife of William White. William White had a "Breeches Bible" (printed in 1586-1588) given to him in Amsterdam where the Pilgrims tarried awhile, in 1608, and by memoranda on the fly leaves, still well preserved, it appears that he went to Leyden in 1609, and sailed from Delft Haven for Southampton in 1619, and "from Plymouth in ye ship Mayflower ye 6th day of September, Anno Domini 1620," "Nov. ye 9th came to the harbour called Cape Cod Harbour in ye dauntless ship." Under date of November 19, 1620, is this entry: "Sonne born to Susanna White yt six o-clock in the morning." The date of Peregrine White's birth as given by Bradford was December 10, "new style." And again "Landed yt Plymouth Dec. ye 11th 1620.: The date, "new style," was December 21, since known as "Forefathers' Day." This was the first landing at Plymouth by the explorers who left the Mayflower at Provincetown Harbor and came up along the shore in the shallop. The fly leaves of this old Bible are covered with memoranda, and it is evident that the children of the family took a hand in illustrating it. Perhaps it was your ancestor Resolved who drew a crude likeness of an Indian and put under it the name of his brother Peregrine. The Bible crossed the ocean again to England on the ship Lyon, as appears by notations, and then came back to Plymouth into the possession of Elder Brewster. During that first tragic winter when more than half of the Mayflower's company perished, William White and his two servants died "soon after landing." The exact date of his death was March 12, 1621. His widow, Susanna, on May 12, 1621, married Mr. Edward Winslow, Jr. of Droitwich, England, whose wife also had died after landing. So it was that your ancestor Resolved and his baby brother, Peregrine, went to live with their stepfather, Edward Winslow.
  Person ID	I61030	Main Tree
  Last Modified	3 Sep 2021

  
  

  Family	Susanna FULLER,   c. Redenhall, Norfolk, England d. Between 18 Dec 1654 and 02 Jul 1675, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
  Children	1. Resolved WHITE,   b. Bef 1615, England d. Aft 19 Sep 1687, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 73 years)  [Birth]   2. Peregrine WHITE,   b. Bef 30 Nov 1620, Aboard the "Mayflower" d. 20 Jul 1704, Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Age > 83 years)  [Birth]
  Family ID	F05280	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	10 May 2021

  
  

• Sources

  [S02658] Mayflower Increasings 2nd Edition by Susan E. Roser. [S02656] Mayflower Families Through 5 Generations Vol. 13 William White.