WILLIAM WHITE

ORIGIN: Leiden, Holland (but see MF 1 :96-97)

MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower

FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth

ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land William White received five acres as a passenger on the Mayflower (even though he had been dead for two years) [PCR 12:4]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle Resolved White and Peregrine White were the tenth and eleventh persons in the third company [PCR 12:10].

BIRTH: By about 1590 based on estimated date of marriage.

DEATH: Plymouth 21 February 1620[/l] [Prince 184].

MARRIAGE: About 1615 Susanna __ . She married (2) Plymouth 12 May 1621 EDWARD WINSLOW [Bradford 86].

CHILDREN:

1. RESOLVED, b. say 1615; m. (1) Scituate 8 April 1640 Judith Vassall [PCR 8:19], daughter of WILLIAM VASSALL {1630, Boston} [GMB 3:1871-75]; m. (2) Salem 5 October 1674 Abigail(_) Lord, widow of WILLIAM LORD {1635, Salem}.
2. PEREGRINE, b. 4 December 1620 ("Whilst some were employed in this discovery [ of a good harbor], it pleased God that Mistress White was brought abed of a son, which was called Peregrine" [Mourt 31]); m. by 6 March 1648/9 Sarah Bassett, daughter of WILLIAM BASSEIT [PCR 2:183; PM-48].

COMMENTS: In his list of those who came in the Mayflower Bradford includes "Mr. William White and Susanna his wife and one son called Resolved, and one born a-shipboard called Peregrine, and two servants named William Holbeck and Edward Thompson" [Bradford 442]. In his accounting of 1651 Bradford tells us that "Mr. White and his two servants died soon after their landing. His wife married with Mr. Winslow, as is before noted. His two sons are married and Resolved hath five children, Peregrine two, all living. So their increase are seven" [Bradford 445].

Most Mayflower researchers argue that Susanna L_) (White) Winslow was not, as often claimed, sister of SAMUEL and EDWARD FULLER [MF 5:7, 13:2, 5:7; NEHGR 110:182-83; MD 53:67-69; PM 215, 217]. Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs has, however, recently dissented from this view, arguing that William White of the Mayflower did marry in Leiden a sister of the Fuller brothers [NEHGR 154: 109-18].

On 30 October 1623 EDWARD WINSLOW wrote from London to "his much respected Uncle Mr. Robert Jackson" who was clerk of the sewers at Spalding, Lincolnshire. In his letter he wrote that "almost two years since I wrote to my father-in-law declaring the death of his son White & the continued health of his daughter and her two children; also how that by God's providence she was become my wife .... My wife hath had one child by me, but it pleased him that gave it to take it again unto himself; I left her with child at my departure (whom God preserve) but hope to be with her before her delivery" [NEHGR 1955:242-43]. This remains the best clue to of the wife of William White.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1975 Robert M. and Ruth W. Sherman published an account of William White and his descendants as part of the first volume of the Five Generations Project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants [MF 1 :95-187]. Robert S. Wakefield revised and republished this material in 1997 [MF 13].

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.