The former occupations of fourteen of the adult colonists, Browne, Billington, Britteridge, Cooke, Chilton, Clarke, Crackstone, Goodman, Gardiner, Rogers, Rigdale, Turner, Warren, and Williams are not certainly known.  There is evidence suggesting that Browne was a mechanic; Billington and Cooke had been trained to husbandry; that Chilton had been a small tradesman; that Edward Tilley had been, like his brother, a silk-worker; that Turner was a tradesman, and Warren a farmer; while it is certain that Cooke, Rogers, and Warren had been men of some means.

Of the above list of fourteen men whose last occupations before joining the colonists are unknown, only five, viz.  Browne, Billington, Cooke, Gardiner, and Warren lived beyond the spring of 1621.  Of these, Warren died early, Gardiner left the colony and “became a seaman;” the other three, Billington, Browne, and Cooke, became “planters.”  Thomas Morton, of “Merry Mount,” in his “New Eng land’s Canaan” (p. 217), gives Billington the sobriquet “Ould Woodman.”

The early deaths of the others make their former handicrafts—­except as so much data pertaining to the composi tion and history of the colony—­ matters of only ephemeral interest.

CHAPTER VII

QUARTERS, COOKING, PROVISIONS

Probably no more vexatious problem presented itself for the time being to the “governors” of the two vessels and their “assistants,” upon their selection, than the assignment of quarters to the passengers allotted to their respective ships.  That these allotments were in a large measure determined by the requirements of the women and children may be considered certain.  The difficulties attendant on due recognition of social and official station (far more imperative in that day than this) were in no small degree lessened by the voluntary assignment of themselves, already mentioned, of some of the Leyden chief people to the smaller ship; but in the interests of the general welfare and of harmony, certain of the leaders, both of the Leyden and London contingents, were of necessity provided for in the larger vessel.  The allotments to the respective ships made at Southampton, the designation of quarters in the ships themselves, and the final readjustments upon the may-Flower at Plymouth (England), when the remaining passengers of both ships had been united, were all necessarily determined chiefly with regard to the needs of the women, girls, and babes.  Careful analysis of the list shows that there were, requiring this especial consideration, nineteen women, ten young girls, and one infant.  Of the other children, none were so young that they might not readily bunk with or near their fathers in any part of the ship in which the latter might be located.