of the most eminent antiquarians in England, and an indefatigable student of Pilgrim history among British archives, says:  “I have not observed the name of may Flower [in which style he always writes it] before the year 1583 . . .  But the name soon became exceedingly popular among those to whom belonged the giving of the names to vessels in the merchant-service.  Before the close of that century [the sixteenth] we have a may-Flower of Hastings; a may-Flower of Rie; a may-Flower of Newcastle:  a may Flower of Lynn; and a may-Flower Of Yarmouth:  both in 1589.  Also a may-Flower of Hull, 1599; a may Flower of London of eighty tons burden, 1587, and 1594, Of which Richard Ireland was the master, and another may-Flower of the same port, of ninety tons burthen, of which Robert White was the master in 1594, and a third may-Flower of London, unless it is the same vessel with one of the two just spoken of, only with a different master, William Morecock.  In 1587 there was a may-Flower Of Dover, of which John Tooke was the master.  In 1593 there was a may-Flower of Yarmouth of 120 tons, of which William Musgrove was the master.  In 1608 there was a may-Flower of Dartmouth, of which Nicholas Waterdonne was the master; and in 1609 a may-Flower of Middleburgh entered an English port.”

Later in the century we find a may-Flower of Ipswich, and another of Newcastle in 1618; a may-Flower of York in 1621; a may-Flower of Scarborough in 1630, Robert Hadock the master; a may-Flower of Sandwich the same year, John Oliver the master; a may-Flower of Dover, 1633, Walter Finnis, master, in which two sons of the Earl of Berkshire crossed to Calais.  “Which of these was the vessell which carried over the precious [Pilgrim] freight cannot perhaps be told [apparently neither, unless perhaps the may-Flower of Yarmouth of 1593, in which case her tonnage is incorrectly given], but we learn from Mr. Sherley’s letter to Governor Bradford’ that the same vessel was employed in 1629 in passing between the two countries, a company of the church at Leyden, who had joined in the first emigration, intending to pass in it to America; and in the same author we find that the vessel arrived in the harbour of Charlestown [N.  E.] on July 1, 1630.  There was a may-Flower which, in 1648, gained an unenviable notoriety as a slaver.  But this was not the may-Flower which had carried over the first settlers, it being a vessel Of 350 tons, while the genuine may-Flower was of only 180 tons.”  Of the first of her two known visits, after her voyage with the Pilgrim company from Leyden, Goodwin says:  “In August, 1629, the renowned may-Flower came