The Mayflower
Families of Tomah,
Monroe County,
Wisconsin
The Pilgrims were a
group of English people who broke away from the Church of England and sought
religious freedom during the reign of King James I. After two attempts to leave England and move
to Holland, the “Separatist” group finally relocated to Amsterdam in 1608,
where they stayed for about one year. From there, the group moved south to the town
of Leiden, Holland, where they remained for about ten years—able to worship as
they wished under lenient Dutch law.
Fearing that their
children were losing their English heritage and religious beliefs, as well as
wanting to escape the worsening economic conditions in Holland, a small group
from the Leiden churches made plans to settle in Northern Virginia—as New England
was known at the time. Although King
James refused to grant them a Charter to settle in the New World, he promised
that he would not try to stop them from settling abroad.
In August 1620 the
group sailed from Holland to Southampton, England, where they met other English
colonists who hoped to make a new life in America. They planned to make the crossing to America
in two ships—the Speedwell and the Mayflower. However, primarily because it was leaking, the
Speedwell was forced to return to England where the group was reorganized and the voyage was limited to about 100
passengers and a crew to sail on the Mayflower. The new group consisted of the Pilgrims as
well as some non-Separatists that were added to fill out the passenger list. The latter group was known as the
“Strangers.”
In its second
attempt to cross the Atlantic, the Mayflower and its passengers departed on 6
September 1620 from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World. After a stormy voyage of two months, they arrived
at Cape Cod on 11 November. They spent
about a month contemplating their future in their new land, performing isolated
explorations of the area to find a suitable settlement location, and writing
The Mayflower Compact.
The purpose of The
Mayflower Compact was to bind the Pilgrims and the Strangers to submit to “such
a government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and
choose.” Many of the 100 passengers
realized that differences of opinion were bound to occur
and dissensions were bound to arise. So,
they wrote a document that had four main purposes:
· It
expressed the deep faith and belief in God and His divine guidance, which was
held so dear to the Pilgrim Fathers;
· It
expressed the deep loyalty to their native England and to the King, even though
they had been persecuted and exiled by his actions;
· It
expressed their mutual regard for one another as equals in the sight of God;
and
· It
expressed their intent to establish just and equal laws upon which would be
built a truly democratic form of government.
The Compact stated
that they would choose their own leaders and make their own laws. It also stated there would be equal justice
for all. This Compact became the
constitution of the Plymouth Colony and was the first document of American
democracy to establish "government of the people, by the people, for the
people."
On 11 December
1620, as winter was settling in, the passengers went ashore and endured
significant hardships as they struggled to establish a successful colony at
Plymouth. During that first winter,
nearly half of the Pilgrims, Strangers and crew died because of the severe
conditions. But, in time their colony
flourished and led the way to establish religious freedom and create the
foundations of the democracy that Americans enjoy today.
The Mayflower
Compact was signed by all 41 male passengers on board—Pilgrims as well as
Strangers and their indentured servants. Surprisingly, of the 41 signers, at least nine
have descendants that eventually settled in and around Tomah, in Monroe County,
Wisconsin. Those signers were: William White (the 11th signer),
Richard Warren (12th), John Howland (13th), Stephen
Hopkins (14th), John Tilley (16th), Francis Cooke (17th),
Peter Browne (33rd), George Soule (35th), and Edward Doty
(41st). There may be more
than these nine, and research continues.
Many residents of
the Tomah area descend from more than one of the signers, because of the inter-marriage
of many of the early descendants of the Mayflower passengers. For example:
· Members
of the Griggs family descend from William White, Richard Warren, John Howland,
John Tilley, and Peter Browne.
· Members
of the Wadephul family descend from Stephen Hopkins,
Francis Cooke, George Soule, and Edward Doty.
· Members
of the Sowle family descend from George Soule and Richard Warren.
· Some
members of the Vandervort, Clay and Koopman families (thru the marriage of Roll
Vandervort and Mattie Griggs) descend from William White, Richard Warren, John
Howland, John Tilley and Peter Browne.
· One
family, the Purdy’s, descends from Richard Warren thru the marriage of Daniel
Crane Purdy to Susan Savage, whose mother was a descendant of the Warren line.
There are many more
Tomah-area families who, thru marriages in the 1800's and 1900's, descend from
the Mayflower families. To determine
which of the passengers that you may descend from, go to the “Surname Index” in
each of the “Descendant” reports, below, and look for your family surname. Then, look for the descendants that have a
tilde (“~”) after their name, and follow the ancestral line from the Mayflower
families to their descendants in Tomah. (Note:
These trees do not contain all of the descendants of the Pilgrims and the Strangers—just
those that are known to link to Tomah families.)
About twelve
generations have passed since the Mayflower landed in 1620, and there are now
millions of descendants of its passengers. However, it must be truly unique for a community
the size of the Tomah—more than 1,200 miles from Cape Cod—to be linked to such a large number of Mayflower Families.
I hope that you are able to find your ancestry link. If you have a known connection to a Mayflower
passenger that is not listed below, please contact me and I will be glad to
research and include your information.
Descendants
of John Howland, Sr.
Descendants
of Stephen Hopkins
Descendants
of John Tilley, Sr.
Descendants
of Peter Browne, Sr.
Descendants
of George Soule, Sr.
Links to Mayflower
and Pilgrim websites:
Links to our other Monroe County genealogy websites:
·
Griggs and Pergande
Families
Gary Griggs
Murrells Inlet, SC
Garygriggs1@outlook.com