Thomas Tinker, wife, and son are not certainly known
to have been of the
Leyden company, or to
have embarked at Delfshaven, but their
constant association
in close relation with others who were and who
so embarked warrants
the inference that they were of the SPEEDWELL’S
passengers. It
is, however, remotely possible, that they were of
the English contingent.
Edward Fuller and his wife and little son were of
the Leyden company, and
on the Speedwell.
He is reputed to have been a brother of Dr.
Fuller, and is occasionally
so claimed by early writers, but by what
warrant is not clear.
John Rigdale and his wife have always been placed
by tradition and
association with the
Leyden emigrants but there is a possibility
that they were of the
English party. Probability assigns them to
the Speedwell,
and they are needed to make her accredited number.
Francis Eaton, wife, and babe were doubtless of the
Leyden list. He is
said to have been a
carpenter there (Goodwin, “Pilgrim Republic,”
p.
32), and was married
there, as the record attests.
Peter Browne has always been classed with the Leyden
party. There is no
established authority
for this except tradition, and he might
possibly have been of
the English emigrants, though probably a
Speedwell passenger;
he is needed to make good her putative number.
William Ring is in the same category as are Eaton
and Browne. Cushman
speaks of him, in his
Dartmouth letter to Edward Southworth (of
August 17), in terms
of intimacy, though this, while suggestive, of
course proves nothing,
and he gave up the voyage and returned from
Plymouth to London with
Cushman. He was certainly from Leyden.
Richard Clarke is on the doubtful list, as are also
John Goodman, Edward
Margeson, and Richard
Britteridge. They have always been
traditionally classed
with the Leyden colonists, yet some of them
were possibly among
the English emigrants. They are all needed,
however, to make up
the number usually assigned to Leyden, as are
all the above “doubtfuls,”
which is of itself somewhat confirmatory
of the substantial correctness
of the list.
Thomas English, Bradford records, “was hired
to goe master of a [the]
shallopp” of the
colonists, in New England waters. He was probably
hired in Holland and
was almost certainly of the Speedwell.
John Alderton (sometimes written Allerton) was, Bradford
states, “a hired
man, reputed [reckoned]
one of the company, but was to go back
(being a seaman) and
so making no account of the voyages for the
help of others behind”
[probably at Leyden]. It is probable that he
was hired in Holland,
and came to Southampton on the Speedwell.
Both English and Alderton
seem to have stood on a different footing
from Trevore and Ely,
the other two seamen in the employ of the
colonists.