Mary Beckett

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigrant: 1623, England; Ship: Ann Arrived: Jun 1623 Plymouth, Massachusetts

Notes:

The origins of Mary, wife of 1620 Mayflower passenger George Soule and mother of George's nine known children, remains unconfirmed. She likely was born in England in the early 1600s and died, per son John, in December 1676 at Duxbury, Mass., but John did not provide her age at death.

In the 2016 GSMD published Mayflower Families in Progress for Mayflower passenger George Soule, George's wife is identified as Mary, " b. ca. 1605, and possibly bap. St. Mary Church, Walford, Hertfordshire, England 24 Feb. 1605, and if so, daughter of John and Ann (Alden) Beckett. Recent findings indicate this Mary had siblings bap. 1607-1618 who were named John, James, Nathaniel and Jeremy. The surname Alden in this period appears interchangeable in English records with Aldwyn, Aldin, and Aldyn. This Mary Beckett's father John d. 1619 when she was about 14 years old. John's widoiw Ann is still referred to as "widow Buckett" in the burial entry of her son James in 1622. It is presumed that half-orphaned Mary, in the years before 1623, could have lived with another family and then accompanied that or another family for the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the Anne. Futher work in English records is needed."

The foregoing represents the most current prospective identity of George Soule's wife Mary and her possible origins. Mary arrived at Plymouth in 1623 aboard the Ann, the third ship to bring groups of Pilgrim families to Plymouth. Whether she knew her evential husband in England prior to George Soule sailing in 1620 on the Mayflower is unknown. She is not considered to have been an indentured servant upon arrival as she is not shown in Plymouth's initial 1623 division of land as attached to a specific person. In the latter division she was allotted one acre of land "next to John Rogers" who is otherwise shown as having been allotted two acres at a different location than Mary.

George Soule and wife Mary had nine known children, eight of which were born by 1650. This is reflected in the 1650 Journal of William Bradford by the entry "George Soule is still living and hath 8 children." The ninth child, Benjamin, was born approximately one year later in 1651, but died unmarried in 1676 at Pawtucket, RI, a combatant and casualty of the King Philip's War with the Massaquoit Indians.

On May 22, 1627 the Division of Cattle was recorded in the Plymouth Colony Records. This division was essentially a complete census of 1627 Plymouth. At the date of division Zachariah was George and Mary's only living child.

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Esther Delano. Esther (daughter of Philip Delano and Hester Dewsbury) was born on 6 Mar 1640 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; died on 12 Sep 1735 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; was buried in Myles Standish Burying Ground, Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

George married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rebecca married Edmund Weston on 13 Dec 1688. Edmund was born on 13 Dec 1660 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; died on 23 Sep 1727 in Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Nathan married Marcy Gifford on 12 Jun 1704 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Marcy was born about 1683 in Massachusetts; died in Jan 1772 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Timothy married Elizabeth Allen on 6 Jan 1735/1736 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Ebenezer Allen and Margaret Williams) was born in Mar 1710 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; died in 1770 in Dutchess County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]