and later to Carver. [Footnote: The Colonial, I, 46; also
Gen. Hist. Reg., 67; 382, note.] Two children died and were buried in
Holland in 1609 and 1617 and, apparently, these were the only children
born to the Carvers. The maid Lois, who came with them on _The
Mayflower_, is supposed to have married Francis Eaton, but she did
not live after 1622. Desire Minter, who was also of the Carver
household, has been the victim of much speculation. Mrs. Jane
G. Austin, in her novel, "Standish of Standish," makes her the female
scapegrace of the colony, jealous, discontented and quarrelsome. On
the other hand, and still speculatively, she is portrayed as the elder
sister and house keeper for John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, after
the death of Mistress Carver; this is assumed because the first girl
born to the Howlands was named Desire. [Footnote: Life of Pilgrim
Alden; Augustus E. Alden; Boston, 1902.] The only known facts about
Desire Minter are those given by Bradford, "she returned to friends
and proved not well, and dyed in England." [Footnote: Bradford's
History of Plymouth Plantation; Appendix.] By research among the
Leyden records, collated by H. M. Dexter, [Footnote: The England and
Holland of the Pilgrims.] the name, Minter, occurs a few
times. William Minter, the husband of Sarah, was associated with the
Carvers and Chiltons in marriage betrothals. William Minter was
purchaser of a house from William Jeppson, in Leyden, in 1614. Another
record is of a student at the University of Leyden who lived at the
house of John Minter. Another reference to Thomas Minter of Sandwich,
Kent, may furnish a clue. [Footnote: N. E. Gen. Hist. Reg., 45, 56.]
Evidently, to some of these relatives, with property, near or distant
of kin, Desire Minter returned before 1626.

Another unmarried woman, who survived the hardships of the first
winter, but returned to England and died there, was Humility