The Women Who Came in the Mayflower by Annie Russell Marble
page 43 of 60 (71%)
page 43 of 60 (71%)
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three "great pewter dishes" and twenty small pieces of pewter for two
pounds, six shillings. She had gowns, mantles, head bands, fourteen in number, seventeen linen caps, six white aprons, pocket-handkerchiefs and all other articles of dress. Mary Chilton Winslow could not write her name, but she made a very neat mark, M. She was buried beneath the Winslow coat of arms at the front of King's Chapel Burial-ground in Boston. She closely rivalled, if she did not surpass in wealth and social position, her sister-in-law, Susanna White Winslow. Elizabeth Tilley had a more quiet life, but she excelled her associates among these girls of Plymouth in one way,--she could write her name very well. Possibly she was taught by her husband, John Howland who left, in his inventory, an ink-horn, and who wrote records and letters often for the colonists. For many years, until the discovery and printing of Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation in 1856, it was assumed that Elizabeth Tilley was either the daughter or granddaughter of Governor Carver; such misstatement even appears upon the Howland tombstone in the old burying-ground at Plymouth. Efforts to explain by assuming a second marriage of Carver or a first marriage of Howland fail to convince, for, surely, such relationships would have been mentioned by Bradford, Winslow, Morton or Prence. After the death of her parents, during the first winter, Elizabeth remained with the Carver household until that was broken by death; afterwards she was included in the family over which John Howland was considered "head"; according to the grant of 1624 he was given an acre each for himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter, and the boy, William Latham. The step-mother of Elizabeth Tilley bore a Dutch name, Bridget Van De Veldt. [Footnote: N. E. Gen. Hist. Reg., i, 34.] Elizabeth was ten or twelve years younger than her husband, at least, for he was |
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