Benjamin Washburn

Family/Spouse: Zerviah Packard. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joseph married Hannah Latham on 7 Jul 1673 in Marshfield, MA. Hannah (daughter of Robert Latham and Susanna Winslow) was born about 1654 in Bridgewater, MA; died after 1 Jul 1725 in Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Elizabeth Mitchell on 6 Dec 1645 in Plymouth, MA. Elizabeth (daughter of Experience Mitchell and Jane Cooke) was born about 1628 in Plymouth Colony, MA; died before 5 Dec 1684 in Bridgewater, MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Robert was convicted of manslaughter in February 1654/1655 (Old Style calendar) for the death of his young servant, John Walker. The jury found that John's death was caused by "unreasonable correction [that is, whippings and beatings], by withholding the necessary food and clothing, and by exposing [John] to extremities of seasons." The court punished Robert by branding him on the hand and confiscating all of his property. He apparently was able to climb the economic ladder again, and by at least 1660 he was a landowner.

In 1676, Indians burned Robert's house and barn to the ground. Robert and his family were away at the time, so they were not injured, and most of his personal property and crops were saved. A party of settlers set off after the Indians, but the Indians were not caught.

Robert married Susanna Winslow about 1649 in Plymouth, MA. Susanna (daughter of John Winslow and Mary Chilton) was born before 1630 in Plymouth, MA; died after 14 Nov 1685 in East Bridgewater, MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Margery Moore on 23 Nov 1618 in England. Margery was born about 1586 in England; died in UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Experience married Jane Cooke. Jane (daughter of Francis Cooke and Hester Mahieu) was born before 1613 in Leyden, Hollard; died about 1650 in Plymouth Colony, MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Nicholas married Elizabeth Newman on 3 Apr 1604. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Mary Chilton on 22 May 1627 in Plymouth, MA. Mary (daughter of James Chilton and Susanna Furner) was born about 1607 in Sandwich, Kent, England; died before 1 May 1679 in Boston, MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Mary's parents, James Chilton and Susanna, were married before 1587.
James was the son of Lionel Chilton, and Susanna may have been the daughter of Francis and Isabelle Furner.

In the early 1600s, many English men and women began to question some of the teachings of the Church of England that had been founded by Henry VIII in the previous century. Some of these individuals remained members of the church but tried to "purify" it from within, and were called "Puritans." One group of Puritans founded MA Bay Colony at Boston in 1630.

More radical individuals believed that the church was too contaminated by "error" to be salvaged, and these individuals separated from the church. The so-called "Separatists" were persecuted by the monarchy and to a lesser degree by the Puritans, and a few congregations of Separatists fled to Holland, where the Separatists' religious views were tolerated. Although James Chilton in the past was not thought to be a Separatist, later research discovered a record of James and his daughter Mary being attacked by a group of rock throwing boys in Leyden, Holland in 1619, and it therefore appears that he was a member of that group.

Although the Separatists were able to worship freely in Holland, they found that it was very difficult to make a living there. (Most of the Separatists had been farmers in England, and they had to learn new but lower paying job skills in urban Holland.) The Separatists also discovered that their children were slowly slipping away from the Separatist faith in easy going Holland, and in fact were becoming more Dutch than English.

Accordingly, the Separatists in Leyden entered into an agreement with a group of "Adventurers" (venture capitalists, really) in England pursuant to which the Adventurers would pay for the passage of some of the Separatists to America in return for a certain percentage of the fruits of their labors. The Adventurers also financed the passage of a number of passengers who came to America for purely economic reasons and who were called the "Strangers" by the Separatists. James, Susanna and Mary Chilton came to America with the first group of Separatists on the Mayflower in 1620. Congregationalist churches evolved from the Separatist congregations that came to America.

Either by accident or design, the Mayflower did not land as intended at Jamestown, VA Colony but instead arrived at Cape Cod in November. James Chilton was one of the oldest of the Mayflower passengers, and he died on 18 December 1620 while the Mayflower was still in Provincetown harbor and shortly after he signed the Mayflower Compact. There is no record regarding whether he was buried on land or at sea.

The Mayflower crossed Cape Cod Bay, and the passengers founded a new colony at Plymouth. According to tradition, Mary Chilton raced John Alden to the front of the launch bringing the Mayflower passengers to the shore and was the first woman to set foot on Plymouth Rock. The painting "The Landing of the Pilgrims" by Henry Bacon and exhibited in Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, MA reflects this tradition.

During the first winter in America, almost half of the Mayflower passengers died during the First Sickness, including Susanna Furner on 21 January 1620/1621 (Old Style calendar). The thirteen year old Mary Chilton was left an orphan, and based upon a later division of land it is believed that she lived for the next few years with the family of either John Alden or Myles Standish.

Mary's husband John Winslow came to Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621. John was the brother of Edward Winslow, a Mayflower passenger and a Governor of Plymouth Colony.

Mary and John moved to Boston about 1655, where John became a successful merchant and shipowner. John died after 12 March 1673. Mary left the only will of a female passenger on the Mayflower, which is preserved at the Suffolk County Registry of Probate in Boston.

They were buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, where their tombstones still stand.

Sources: Stratton and MF Chilton