DEGORY PRIEST
ORIGIN: Leiden, Holland
MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
OCCUPATION: Hatter (when admitted as a citizen of Leiden) [Leiden Pilgrims 216].
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth land division "Cudbart Cudbartsone" received six acres as a passenger on the Anne in 1623 [PCR 12:6]; four of these six shares would be for the deceased Degory Priest, his widow Sarah and his two daughters. In the 1627 Plymouth cattle division "Marra Priest" and "Sarah Priest" were the tenth and eleventh persons in the second company, just after their mother and stepfather [PCR 12:9].
BIRTH: About 1579 (aged about forty in 1619 [Dexter 630]).
DEATH: Plymouth 1 January 1620/1 [Prince 287].
MARRIAGE: Leiden 4 November 1611 [NS] "Sara Vincent, widow of Jan Vincent" [Plooij IX; MD 7:129-30; Leiden Pilgrims 216]; Priest is said to be of London. She was sister of ISAAC ALLERTON [PM 10] and married (3) Leiden 13 November 1621 or soon after (betrothed 25 October 1621 [NS]) GODBERT GODBERTSON [Plooij XLVII; Leiden Pilgrims 101; PM 226].
CHILDREN:
- MARY, b. say 1612; m. by about 1630 PHINEAS PRATT [PM 369].
- SARAH, b. say 1614; m. by about 1632 JOHN COOMBS [PM 153].
COMMENTS: Bradford includes "Digory Priest" in his list of those on the Mayflower, and in his accounting of 1651 says that Priest "died soon after ... arrival in the general sickness," but "had his wife and children sent hither afterwards, she being Mr. Allerton's sister" [Bradford 443, 447].
In 1957 John G. Hunt published the 1582 baptism for a "Digorius Prust" in Hartland, Devonshire [NEHGR 111 :320]; although there is nothing to connect this with Degory Priest of London, Leiden and Plymouth, it is a useful clue.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Degory Priest and his descendants have been given full and definitive treatment in the eighth volume of the Five Generations project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, compiled by Mrs. Charles Delmar Townsend, Robert S. Wakefield and Margaret Harris Stover, and edited by Robert S. Wakefield (Plymouth 1994).
The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633
Buy the print edition of The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633.
The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633
Buy the print edition of The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633 Vols I-III.
Become an American Ancestors.org member to access this biography and over 40,000 more records in the searchable online database of The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633 Vols I-III.
This authoritative work by Robert Charles Anderson identifies and describes all Europeans who settled in New England prior to the end of 1633. Each individual or family entry includes (when known) the port or country of origin; when and on what ship they arrived in New England; the earliest known record of the individual or family; their first and subsequent residences; return trips to their country of origin; marriages, births, and deaths; and other important family relationships. This work is available in print and database form on AmericanAncestors.org.
