Mayflower Passenger Mary Chilton Winslow

Was She First to Step Ashore on Famed Plymouth Rock

Nov 8, 2008

Mary Chilton, perhaps the first pilgrim to step ashore, arrived as a young teen whose parents soon died. She was taken in by other pilgrims and later married a Winslow.

A well-known 1877 Henry Bacon oil painting depicts a young girl stepping ashore at what would become Plymouth. Was it, as many believe, the orphaned Mary Chilton? This Chilton family tradition was first recorded in 1744.

Experts at Pilgrim Hall, the Plymouth museum which preserves artifacts of the Mayflower Pilgrims and has carefully researched mentions of them in 17th century records, says there was no contemporary recording of the event and no competing claims.

The Chilton Family

Mary was the youngest child of James Chilton and his wife and the only one to accompany them on the Mayflower. James Chilton—in his 60s—was probably the oldest passenger. He died aboard the Mayflower shortly after signing the Mayflower Compact. His wife died within weeks.

James Chilton, a tailor from Canterbury, England, moved to Sandwich, England about 1600, became part of the separatist movement and later joined the pilgrim community in Leiden. Many of his children stayed behind in England.

Young Mary Chilton, one of eleven under-age girls on the voyage, was among the nine that survived. By contrast, only four of the fourteen adult women on the Mayflower survived the first winter.

Mary received three shares in the 1623 land division—one for each of her parents and one for herself. Her land was between that of Myles Standish and John Howland. Later, her sister Isabella came from England.

Mary Chilton Weds John Winslow

Mary Chilton married John Winslow, who arrived on the Fortune in 1621. He was a brother of Mayflower passengers Edward and Gilbert Winslow. Brothers Kenelm and Josiah Winslow later joined their siblings in New England.

John and Mary had 10 children: John, Susanna, Mary, Edward, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Isaac, an unnamed child who died young, and Benjamin.

Sometime after Benjamin’s 1653 birth, the Winslows moved to Boston, eventually purchasing in 1671 “the Mansion or dwelling-house of the Late Antipas Voice with the gardens wood-yard and Backside as it is scituate lying and being in Boston aforesaid as it is nowe fenced in And is fronting & Facing to the Lane going to mr John Jolliffes” The house no longer exists but a plaque marks its place on today’s Spring Lane. John Winslow, a prosperous Boston merchant, died in 1674.

The Prosperous Winslows

Mary (Chilton) Winslow died in 1679. Her will conveys numerous silver cups, tankards and spoons to children and grandchildren, as well as linens and furniture that would only have been found in a well-to-do family.

The inventory of Mary’s estate equally bespeaks of a wealthy household containing perhaps as many as six bedrooms and at least nine leather chairs.

The Winslows are believed to be buried in the old Winslow tomb at King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston.

Famous Descendants

Famous descendants of this couple include former First Lady Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, singer Pete Seeger, former Attorney General Elliot Richardson and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

Additional information on the family is available through the “Chiltons Children” website. There is a genealogical project underway.

SOURCES: Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, by William Bradford, edited by Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: 1991); Mourt’s Relation (Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth), from journals of pilgrims William Bradford and Edward Winslow, edited by Jordan D. Fiore (1985: Plymouth); Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, MA

The copyright of the article Mayflower Passenger Mary Chilton Winslow in Colonial America is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Mayflower Passenger Mary Chilton Winslow in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.