Collier, Hatherly, and Thomas all located within a few miles of one another, were all wealthy and prominent men in the government of the Colony, were intimate friends,—­the first and last especially,—­and lent not a little dignity and character to this new dependency of King James the First.  The remaining twenty or thereabouts whose names are not surely known—­though a few of them are pretty safely conjectured, some being presumably of the Holland Pilgrims and their friends—­were probably chiefly small contributors, whose rights were acquired from time to time by others of larger faith in the enterprise, or greater sympathy or means.  Not all, however, who had ceased to hold their interests when the “Composition” was made with Allerton in behalf of the colonists, in 1626, were of these small holders.  Weston was forced out by stress of circumstances; Thomas moved to New England; Pierce was ruined by his ventures by sea; Martin and Mullens died in 1621; Pickering and Greene got out early, from distrust as to profits; Wincob alone, of this class, was a small investor, if he was one at all.

By far the greater portion of the sums invested by the Adventurers in behalf of the Colony is represented by those whose names are known, those still unknown representing, doubtless, numbers rather than amounts.  It is, however, interesting to note, that more than four sevenths of the original number, as given by Captain John Smith, continued to retain their interests till the “Composition” of 1626.  It is to be hoped that it may yet be possible to increase considerably, if not to perfect, the list of these coadjutors of the Pilgrims—­the Merchant Adventurers—­the contracting “party of the second part,” to the charter-party of the may-Flower.

Who the Owner of the may-Flower was, or who his representative, the “party of the first part,” to the charter party of the Pilgrim ship, cannot be declared with absolute certainty, though naturally a matter of absorbing interest.  There is, however, the strongest probability, as before intimated, that Thomas Goffe, Esq., one of the Merchant Adventurers, and always a stanch friend of the Pilgrims, was the owner of the historic vessel,—­and as such has interwoven his name and hers with the histories of both the Pilgrim and Puritan hegiras from Old to New England.  He was, as previously stated, a wealthy “merchant and ship owner of London,” and not only an Adventurer with the Leyden Pilgrims, but—­nearly ten years later—­a patentee of the Massachusetts Company and one of its charter officers.

We are told in the journal of Governor Winthrop of that Company—­then on board the lady ARBELLA, the, “Admiral” or flagship of his fleet, riding at Cowes, ready to set sail for New England—­that on “Easter Monday (March 29), 1630, the Charles, the may-Flower, the William and Francis, the Hopewell, the Whale, the success, and the trial,”