(2) Ship Mary and John Passenger List

There is no passenger list for the trip made by the ship Mary and John from England to America in 1630. One rea­son for this was advanced by Reverend James K. Allen, pastor of the First Parish Church in Dorchester, Massachu­setts, in 1986:

“In 1585, an Act was passed by Parliament accusing all Jesuits and seminary priests entering England as guilty of high treason for which there was a punishment of hanging, drawing, and quartering. The Reverend Father Thomas Pilchard was tried and executed on the gallows in Dorchester, England, on March 21,1587. So, Too, William Pike, a Catho­lic layman, was put to death in Dorchester, England. In fact, the threat of execution was so great to certain of the Puritans who sailed with the Mary and John that a complete list of the passengers was never published.”

 

Passengers aboard the Mary and John in 1630 founded the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and a church. Five years later a part of the group migrated to Connecticut where they founded the town of Windsor and a church. Florence B. Mills in 1969 prepared a history of the First Church in Windsor, Connecticut, in which she stated:

 

“The Mary and John sailed from Plymouth, England. In preparation for sailing, a group of people was gathered which represented all elements needed to make a well-rounded society: doctor, lawyer, teacher, craftsmen. Also, the new community of 140 persons ‘gathered’ itself as a church, selected the Reverend John Warham as the pastor, with the Reverend John Maverick as his assistant. There were preach­ing services on shipboard daily for the ten weeks of crossing, and thus the ship Mary and John became the first meeting house of the church which came to Windsor.

 

“Five years later, at Dorchester, Massachusetts, such of the group as were willing to follow Reverend Warham came across the wilderness to Windsor, Connecticut, where the church continued and still remains to this day a Congrega­tional church.”

 

Samuel Perkins, a historian of the First Parish Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts, had this to say about the journey of the Mary and John in 1630 and the Congregational church­es in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Windsor, Connecticut:

 

“To my knownledge there is no official list of the 140 immigrants that landed at Dorchester in May of 1630. The group included three of the stockholders in the venture, Edward Rossiter, Roger Ludlow, and John Glover.

 

“In 1632 another ship came bringing 80 more settlers to the town. In 1635 the ship that brought Richard Mather also brought more Puritans some of whom bought out the people who were leaving for Windsor. The first Dorchester party had brought two ministers to the new world, Reverend John Maverick and Reverend John Warham. One of the stockholders, Roger Ludlow, and one of the ministers, John Warham, went with the group that moved to Windsor.

 

“According to the list that appears in the Dorchester Record for 1636, there were 89 ‘freemen’ previous to that year. As this list does not contain wives, children, and in­dentured servants the number must be around 300.

 

“If there was 125 in the group that went to Windsor, there was still a goodly number left in the town with John Maverick as their minister. As Maverick was ailing and unable to administer the church, Richard Mather was called to be its minister the following year.

 

“There is no evidence that the Windsor migration ‘cleaned out’ the town, as has been claimed, but only that some of the residents seceded from the town and formed a new town and church in another locality. As Dorchester was officially recognized by the colony before the group moved to Windsor, it is difficult at this time to determine by what authority the party took the town and church records with them.

 

“As to the legality of this issue, Judge Shaw (Stebbins vs Jennings, Pickering, p. 72) ruled that departing members of a church are to be regarded as seceders, no matter how many go; while those who remain, however few, are still the church.”

 

Under the terms of the Dedham Decision of 1819/1820 in the Massachusetts Supreme Court, at the time of the trinitarian/unitarian controversy in Congregationalism, it was ruled that the continuity of the church goes with that portion of the church which adheres to the parish. Thus, the First Parish Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts, would appear to be the original church founded by passengers aboard the Mary and John in 1630, while the same claim is made by the First Church in Windsor, Connecticut.

 

This unofficial passenger list of the Mary and John in 1630 was compiled by Maude Pinney Huhns:

 

Maude Pinney Kuhns says it is doubtful that 19 wives and children on her passenger list were actually aboard the Mary and John in 1630. The presence of ministers and officials of the group aboard the Mary and John in1630 has been documented. Elder John Strong, for instance, definitely came with the Mary and John passengers in 1630, because four presidents of the United States are descended from him.

 

Another passenger list of the Mary and John in 1630 was compiled by Charles E. Banks in “The Planters of the Com­monwealth” in 1930 in honor of the Boston Tercentary (1630-1930). It is substantially the same as the passenger list compiled by Maude Pinney Kuhns, except the latter is more complete.

 

Maude Pinney Kuhns listed Henry and Elizabeth Way as passengers aboard the Mary and John in 1630. Charles E. Banks listed Henry, Elizabeth, Samuel, Richard, Henry, and Susannah Way as passengers aboard the Mary and John in 1630. These Ways may have been the first American ances­tors of the Ways who settled Liberty County, Georgia, beginning in 1753. But such is not a genealogical fact. For another version of how these Ways reached America see Appendix Number 5.