Benjamin Winslow

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

Edward married Madaline Ollyver. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BORN: About 1556 (he stated he was 63 in a 28 April 1619 Leyden document), probably Canterbury, Kent, England, son of Lyonell
Chilton and his second wife (her name is unknown).
DIED: 8 December 1620, on board the Mayflower
MARRIED: probably about 1586 based on baptism of first known child. Her name is currently unknown. The claim by John Hunt in
The American Genealogist 38:244-245 that his wife was possibly Susanna Furner has been recently disproven on the basis of the
discovery of Susanna Furner's baptism record, which indicates she was far too young (only 12) to be married and having children in
1586. See Michael Paulick, "The 1609-1610 Excommunications of Mrs. Chilton and Moyses Fletcher--Mayflower Pilgrims" in the
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 153 (October 1999) for further information on this.

James Chilton, a tailor by trade, was the oldest Mayflower passenger, and one of the first to die after reaching the New World. He was
born and raised in Canterbury, Kent, England and around 1600 moved to Sandwich, Kent.

By July 1615, and probably as early as 1610, James, his wife, and at least some of his children were living in Leyden, Holland. On 28
April 1619, James Chilton and his daughter Isabella were caught in an anti-Armenian riot and James was hit in the head with a large stone
and required the services of the town surgeon, Jacob Hey.

He came on the Mayflower with his wife and daughter Mary. James and his wife died the first winter, leaving their daughter orphaned;
she probably joined with the household of Myles Standish.

Mary Chilton came on the Mayflower at the young age of 13, and popular legend gives her the distinction of being the first female to
step ashore at Plymouth. She married John Winslow, who came in the ship Fortune in 1621, and was the brother of Mayflower
passengers Edward Winslow and Gilbert Winslow.

James married Susanna Furner before 1587. Susanna was born in UNKNOWN in Unknown; died in 1621 in Plymouth, MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Kenelam married Catherine Bucke. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Margery Young on 3 Nov 1594. Margery was born in UNKNOWN; died in UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lyonell married Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]