Mayflower Month! My Connection to Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton

Isaac Allerton may have come from the vicinity of Ipswich, co. Suffolk, England.  He first appears in Leiden, Holland records on 4 November 1611, when he married Mary Norris.  Isaac had a sister named Sarah who also resided in Leiden, and who married future Mayflower passenger Degory Priest.  He was probably also related, perhaps a brother, to Mayflower passenger John Allerton.

Isaac Allerton is one of the most complex figures in early Plymouth Colony.  He was elected assistant to Governor Bradford in 1621, and continued in that capacity well into the 1630s.  He was the individual sent to handle most of the buyout negotiations with the London investors that ccommenced in 1627, and continued through the early 1630s.  Allerton soon began to take advantage of his position by engaging in some personal trading deals, and engaging the Pilgrims' joint-stock company in business ventures they had not authorized.  After driving the colony deeper into debt with ill-advised business opportunities, he was eventually removed and replaced by Edward Winslow.  After the death of his wife Fear in 1634, he retreated to the New Haven Colony and married there to Joanna Swinnerton.  

Allerton became an active merchant trader, engaging in transactions and trade with many neighboring colonies including the Dutch at New Netherlands; New Sweden; Virginia; Massachusetts Bay; and Barbados. ~from MayflowerHistory.com

Mary (Norris) Allerton was about thirty when she came on the Mayflower with her husband Isaac and three children Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary.  Her marriage record in Leiden indicates she was from Newbury, which is presumably Newbury, Co. Berks, England.  Searches of this area for her baptism record and other Norris family records have not yet turned up anything conclusive.  They buried a child at St. Peters, Leiden, on 5 February 1620, and she gave birth to a stillborn son in Plymouth Harbor on 22 December 1620.  She herself died during the height of the first winter, on 25 February 1620/1, though her husband and three children all survived. ~from MayflowerHistory.com

My lineage:

• Isaac Allerton married Mary Norris 
• Remember Allerton (1614/1652) married Moses Maverick (1611/1686)
• Elizabeth Maverick (1649/1698) married Nathaniel Grafton (1642/1670)
• Priscilla Grafton (1671/1698) married Thomas Jackson 1673/1710)
• Mary Jackson (1698/1766) married John Potwine Sr (1698/1792)
• Thomas Potwine Sr (1731/1802) married Abigail Moseley (1732/1759)
• Thomas Potwine Jr (1756/1824) married Martha Stiles (1760/1822)
• Benjamin A Potwine (1788/1852) married Cornelia Curtis (1798/1885)
• Monroe A Potwin (1837/1917) married Ella A Burt (1850/1902)
• Irving A Potwin (1878/1938) married Carrie E Twining (1881/1969)
• Elizabeth T Potwin (1904/1985) married Robert W Thomas (1904/1955)
• Elizabeth A Thomas (1936 - ) married Robert L Faulkner (1934 - )
• ME

©2016 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Mayflower Month! My Connection To The Pilgrims

Well, it's November. 

Again. 

Here in the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving later this month. The characters of our Thanksgiving are the Pilgrims who sailed across the ocean on the Mayflower to land at Plymouth Rock, and thus colonize the New World. Every schoolchild knows the story. Parents and Grandparents sit through 'The First Thanksgiving" plays, watching their progeny in construction paper headdresses and Pilgrim hats. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving airs on TV. And personal curiosity to find a connection to one of the original 102 travelers peaks. Everybody wants to have a Mayflower Connection!! 

At least in November.

The blood of several Mayflower passengers courses through my veins. It is exciting, as a genealogist and family historian, to make the connection. To think of those people, my ancestors, and their lives; struggles and triumphs, wins and loses. The oppression that drove them to a virtually unknown wilderness across a vast ocean, guided by their beliefs. Facing delay and peril, yet forging ahead.

Strong people. 

Stubborn people. 

My people.

To date I have discovered my connection to three families:

• Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton through their daughter Remember.
• Edward Fuller through his son Matthew.
• Stephen Hopkins through his daughter Constance.

In the coming weeks I will briefly explore each of these families and share my connection. As so much has already been written on these folks I seen no need for in-depth coverage, but I would like to share my ties, and hopefully discover some 'cousins' who share some of the same ancestors.

Until next time here are some links for further reading:

MayflowerHistory.com
Wikipedia 
TheMayflowerSociety.org


©2016 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved