While Mistress Brewster did not excel the women of her day, probably,
in education, for to read easily and to write were not considered
necessary graces for even the better-bred classes,--she could
appreciate the thirty-eight copies of the Scriptures which were found
among her husband's four hundred volumes; _these_ would be
familiar to her, but the sixty-four books in Latin would not be read
by the women of her day. Fortunately, she did not survive, as did her
husband, to endure grief from the deaths of the daughters, Fear and
Patience, both of whom died before 1635; nor yet did she realize the
bitterness of feeling between the sons, Jonathan and Love, and their
differences of opinion in the settlement of the Elder's
estate. [Footnote: Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.]

A traditional picture has been given [Footnote: The Pilgrim Republic;
John A. Goodwin; foot-note, p.181.] of Captain Peregrine White of
Marshfield, "riding a black horse and wearing a coat with buttons the
size of a silver dollar, vigorous and of a comely aspect to the last,"
[Footnote: Account of his death in _Boston News Letter_, July 31,
1704.] paying daily visits to his mother, Mistress Susanna White
Winslow. We may imagine this elderly matron, sitting in the Winslow
arm-chair, with its mark, "Cheapside, 1614," [Footnote: This chair and
the cape are now In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth; here also are portraits of
Edward Winslow and Josiah Winslow and the latter's wife, Penelope.]
perhaps wearing the white silk shoulder-cape with its trimmings of
embossed velvet which has been preserved, proud that she was
privileged to be the mother of this son, the first child born of white
parents in New England, proud that she had been the wife of a Governor
and Commissioner of eminence, and also the mother of Josiah Winslow,
the first native-born Governor of any North American commonwealth.