JOHN GOODMAN

John Goodman came to Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower, signed the Compact, and is listed by Bradford as one of seven men who "died soon after their arrival in the general sickness" [Bradford 443, 447].

On 12 January 1620/1 John Goodman and Peter Brown, while cutting thatch, became lost in the woods, spent a night in the open, and found their way back to the rest on the 13th. Goodman's feet were damaged, and "it was a long while after ere he was able to go," and on the 19th he "went abroad to use his lame feet" [Mourt 45-47].

In the 1623 Plymouth land division, John Goodman received a grant, presumably one acre, as a passenger on the Mayflower [PCR 12:4].

COMMENTS: Bradford's statement that someone died in "the general sickness" should mean that the death occurred in the winter of 1620/1, so there may be a simple clerical error in the 1623 compilation. Another possibility (suggested by Robert S. Wakefield in private correspondence) is that John Goodman was related to some other Plymouth resident who in 1623 made good a claim to Goodman's right to an acre of land. John Goodman had certainly died by 1627, since he is not in the 1627 cattle division. (See Stratton 297 for discussion of attempts to identify John Goodman with other men of similar names.)

The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633

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