MOSES FLETCHER

ORIGIN: Leiden, Holland

MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower

FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth

OCCUPATION: Smith [Leiden Pilgrims 91].

BIRTH: By about 1565 based on date of first marriage. DEATH: Plymouth early 1621 [Bradford 447].

MARRIAGE: (1) St. Peter's, Sandwich, Kent, 30 October 1589 Mary Evans [NEHGR 128:161]; died between April 1609 (baptism of last known child) and December 1613 (remarriage of husband).

(2) Leiden, Holland, 21 December 1613 [NS] Sarah (_____) Denby, widow of William Denby [Plooij XVII; Leiden Pilgrims 91; NEHGR 128:161]; no further record.

CHILDREN:

With first wife

1. MARY, bp. 4 January 1589/90; no further record.
2. JOHN, b. say 1592; m. Leiden 5 December 1618 [NS] Josina Sacharias daughter [Leiden Pilgrims 91, NEHGR 128:163].
3. CATHERINE, bp. 1 September 1594; no further record.
4. RICHARD, bp. 2 January 1596/7; no further record.
5. PRISCILLA, bp. 24 March 1599/1600; m. (1) Leiden 4 April 1626 [NS] Thomas Coit [Leiden Pilgrims 91]; m. (2) Leiden 1 June 1637 [NS] Help/Solomon Terry [Leiden Pilgrims 92, NEHGR 128:162].
6. MOSES, bp. 10 October 1602; bur. 21 April 1603.
7. ELIZABETH, bp. 8 April 1604; m. (1) Casper Barnaart; m. (2) Leiden 21 May 1636 [NS] Michiel Voorsehoten [NEHGR 128:163].
8. JANE, bp. 8 February 1606/7; no further record.
9. MOSES, bp. 2 April 1609; no further record.
10. JUDITH, bur. 6 November 1609 (but presumably born some years earlier).

COMMENTS: Moses Fletcher was emplyed as sexton of St. Peter, Sandwich, for a number of years in the first decated of the seventeenth century. He was excommunicated from that church three times in 1609 and 1610. On two of these occasions the offense was the participation in an illegal burial, and on the second of these two occasions the person buried was Judith Fletcher, daugher of Moses [NEHGS 153:407-10].

According to William Bradford's accounting of 1651, Moses Fletcher sailed on the Mayflower, signed the Compact, and "died soon after ... arrival in the general sickness," leaving "no posterity here" [Bradford 443, 447].

Robert S. Wakefield unearthed almost everything we know about the career of Moses Fletcher in Leiden, and most of this sketch has been gleaned from his article ["The Search for the Descendants of Moses Fletcher," NEHGR 128:161-69]. This article traces some lines of descent beyond the second generation, and suggests the possibility of tracing living descendants. Since this article appeared, a few descendants have been admitted to the Mayflower Society [MQ 53:289, 61 :26-27].

The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633

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