GEORGE SOULE

ORIGIN: Unknown

MIGRATION: 1620 on the Mayflower

FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth

REMOVES: Duxbury

FREEMAN: In the "1633" Plymouth list of freemen, ahead of those admitted on 1 January 1632/3 [PCR 1:4]. In list of 7 March 1636/7 freemen [PCR 1:52]. In the Duxbury sections of the 1639, 1658 and 29 May 1670 Plymouth Colony lists of freemen. [PCR 5:275, 8:175, 198].

EDUCATION: Signed his name as witness to the will of John Barnes of Plymouth, 6 March 1667/8 [MD 4:98, citing Scrapbook 56]. Signed his will. His inventory included "books" valued at i pound [MD 2:83].

OFFICES: Deputy for Duxbury to Plymouth Colony General Court, 27 September 1642, 28 October 1645, 3 March 1645/6, 7 July 1646, 4 June 1650, 5 June 1651, 7 June 1653, 7 March 1653/4, 6 June 1654 [PCR 2:46, 3:31, 44, 49, 94, 95, 104, 154, 167].

Plymouth grand jury, 7 March 1642/3, 6 June 1643 [PCR 2:53, 56]. Jury, 3 June 1656, 3 March 1662/3 [PCR 3:102, 7:108]. Petit jury, 1 June 1647 [PCR 2:117].

Committee to grand land, 5 May 1640, 4 June 1645 [PCR 1:151, 2:88]. Committee to draw an order concerning the disorderly drinking of tobacco [!], 20 October 1646 [PCR 2:108]. Committee on magistrates and deputies, [blank] October 1650 [PCR 11:155]. Committee on boundaries 1 June 1658 [PCR 3:138].

Volunteered for Pequot War, 7 June 1637 [PCR 1:60]. His inventory included "a gun" valued at 15s. [MD 2:83].

ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land received one acre as a passenger on the Mayflower [PCR 12:4]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle George Sowle, Mary Sowle and Zakariah Sowle were the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth persons in the ninth company [PCR 12: 12].

Assessed 9s. in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [PCR 1: 10, 27]. He was on the list of purchasers [PCR 2: 177].

On 1 July 1633 he was granted "mow for a cow near his dwelling house" [PCR 1:15]. On 20 March 1636/7 he was allowed the hay ground where he got hay the year before [PCR 1:56]. On 4 December 1637 George Soule was granted a garden place "on Ducksborrow side" [PCR 1 :69]. On 7 May 1638 one acre of land was granted to George Soule "at the watering place" in lieu of another acre which was taken from him for other use, and also two acres of stony marsh at Powder Point were granted to him [PCR 1:83]. On 13 July 1639 George Soule sold to Robert Hicks two acres at the watering place on the south side of Plymouth [PCR 12:45]. On 2 November 1640 he was granted "the meadow he desires" at Green's Harbor [PCR 1:165].

On 4 May 1658 George Soule was granted five acres of meadow [PCR 3:134]. On 22 January 1658 and 17 July 1668, George Soule gave his Dartmouth propriety to his sons Nathaniel and George as a single undivided share [PCLR 3:123, 245].

On 23 July 1668, "G[e]orge Soule Senior of Duxburrow...., planter,... with the consent of Mary my wife," deeded to "Francis Walker husband to my daughter Elizabeth half my whole share of lands at Namassakett both upland and meadow" [MD 27:39-40, citing PCLR 3:126]. On 26 January 1668[/9], "G[e]orge Soule of Duxburrow" deeded to "Patience Haskall his true and natural daughter and unto John Haskall her husband all that his half share of land at Namassakett both upland and meadow... having given the other half share formerly until Francis Walker" [MD 27:40, citing PCLR 3:153] On 12 March 1668[/9], " George Soul of Duxburro ..., husbandman," deeded to "my daughter Elizabeth wife unto Francis Walker ... the moiety or half share of all my purchase or purchases lying and being as before expressed in the place commonly called Namascutt"; "wife Mary Soul" relinquished her dower rights [MD 27: 40-41, citing PLR 10:2:327].

In his will, dated 11 August 1677 (with codicil dated 20 September 1677) and proved 5 March 1679/80, "G[e]orge Soule Senior of Duxberry ... being aged and weak of body" confirmed that he had formerly given by deeds "unto my two sons Nathaniel and G[e]orge all my lands in the township of Dartmouth ... [and] I have formerly given unto my daughters Elizabeth and Patience all my lands in the township of Mid­dlebery"; to "my daughters Sussannah and Mary" 12d. apiece; "forasmuch as my eldest son John Soule and his family hath in my extreme old age and weakness been tender and careful of me and very helpful to me, and is likely so to be while it shall please God to continue my life here, therefore I give and bequeath unto my said son John Soule all the remainder of my housing and lands whatsoever"; to "my son John Soule all my goods and chattels whatsoever"; "my son John Soule to be my sole executor." In a codicil dated 20 September 1677, "G[e]orge Soule" indicated that if "my son John Soule" were to disturb "my daughter Patience or her heirs" in the peacable possession of lands he had given her in Middleborough, then "my gift to my son John Soule shall be void" and "my daughter Patience shall have all my lands at Duxburrey and she shall be my sole executrix ... and enter into my housing lands and meadows at Duxburrow" [MD 2:81-83, citing PCPR 4:1 :50].

The inventory of the estate of George Soule of Duxbury, taken 22 January 1679[/80], totalled £40 l 9s., of which £25 was real estate: "dwelling house, orchard, barn and upland," £20; and "meadow land," £5; John Soule appended a long list of charges against the estate, including an item "for diet and tendance since my mother died which was three year the last December" [MD 2:83-84, citing PCPR 4:1:51].

BIRTH: By about 1602 based on date of marriage.

DEATH: Between 20 September 1677 (codicil to will) and 22 January 1679[/80] (date of inventory), and probably closer to the latter date.

MARRIAGE: By 1627 MARY BUCKETT (in the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle George Soule had wife Mary and son Zachariah; Mary has been identified by many writers as Mary Buckett of the 1623 land division on that basis that no other Mary was available in the limited Plymouth population of the earliest years). She died about December 1672 (son John Soule indicated in an account of 1676 that "my mother died which was three year the last December" [MD 2:83-84]).

CHILDREN:

1. ZACHARIAH SOULE, b. by 1627; m. by 1663 Margaret ____ [Scrapbook 20].
2. JOHN SOULE, b. about 1632 (deposed 8 March 1705/6 aged "about seventy-four years" [MD 5:46, citing PLR 7:35]); m. (1) by about 1656 Rebecca Simonson (eldest known child, Rebecca (Soule) Weston, d. Plympton 18 November 1732 "in her76th year"), daughter of MOSES SIMONSON [PM 419] ; m. (2) by 1679 Esther (Delano) Samson, daughter of PHILIP DELANO [PM 164] and widow of Samuel Samson [TAG 15:165-67; TG 1:233; MF 3:7].
3. NATHANIEL SOULE, b. between say 1634 and 1646 (adult by 1667/8 [PCR 3:178]); before 4 March 1673/4 fathered a child with an unnamed Indian woman and ordered to pay ten bushels of corn to her for the keeping of the child [PCR 5:163]; m. by 1681 Rose __ (eldest child b. Dartmouth 12 January 1681 [/2]).
4. GEORGE SOULE, b. about 1639 (deposed 1 March 1672/3 "aged 34 years or thereabouts" [RICT 3:28]); m. by about 1665 Deborah ____ (eldest known child b. 1665 [MFIP Soule 5]).
5. SUSANNA SOULE, b. say 1642; m. by 1662 Francis West (eldest known child b. by 1662 [MFIP Soule 5]).
6. MARY SOULE, b. about 1643 (in 1653 bound out for seven years or eight if she did not marry [MD 1:214]); m. by 1665 John Peterson (eldest known child b. by about 1665 [MFIP Soule 6]).
7. ELIZABETH SOULE, b. say 1645 (fined for committing fornication 3 March 1662/3 [PCR 5:34]; sued Nathaniel Church 5 October 1663 for refusing to marry her [PCR 7:111]; ordered whipped 2 July 1667 for committing fornication a second time [PCR 5:162]); m. by 23 July 1668 Francis Walker [MD 27:39-40, citing PCLR 3:126].
8. PATIENCE SOULE, b. say 1647; m. Middleboro January 1666[/7] John Haskell [MiddleVR 1:1].
9. BENJAMIN SOULE, b. say 1649; fell with Capt. Pierce 26 March 1676 during King Philip's War [Bodge 350]; unm.

COMMENTS: Bradford, in his list of passengers of the Mayflower, included George Soule as one of "two men-servants" of Mr. Edward Winslow [Bradford 441]. In 1651 Bradford summed up the group headed by Winslow, saying that one of the servants died, "but his man, George Soule, is still living, and hath eight children" [Bradford 444].

On 3 January 1636/7 George Soule and Nathaniel Thomas sued and countersued each other over two heifers [PCR 7:4].

On 3 June 1662 "Gorg Soule" was on a list of freemen desiring to look for additional land "being the first born children of this government" [PCR 4:19].

On 5 March 1667/8 George Soule Sr. stood surety with his son John for the good behavior of his son Nathaniel Soule who had verbally abused Mr. John Holmes, teacher of the church at Duxburrow [PCR 4:178].

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1980 the General Society of Mayflower Descendants published a genealogy of five generations of descent from George Soule as the third volume in its series of silver volumes [John E. Soule and Milton E. Terry, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume Three: George Soule (Plymouth 1980), ed. Anne Borden Harding]. This is a seriously flawed volume, which should not be relied upon. George E. McCracken and Neil D. Thompson published lengthy reviews pointing out some of the problems [TG 1:225-58; TAG 57:57-58].

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