Pioneer Archetype

January 31, 2013 — 7 Comments

Mayflower document

My family in history is LOADED with Pioneers, including my own parents. I find that almost all of my people left Europe in the early 1600’s to come to America. They had both the sense of adventure and the wherewithal to make it happen.  Before that they were running around Europe doing daring stuff, but the whole idea of sailing in a ship across the Atlantic to live in the New World was extremely bold. As soon as they arrived in Plymouth there was quibbling about religion, which lead to some banishment and some abandonment of the first settlements. Here we have at work both the light and the shadow aspects of the Pioneer.  A passion for innovation and creativity can have the shadow aspect of a compulsive need to keep moving with no anchor.

My 11th great-grandfather, John Tilley sailed on the Mayflower, signed the Mayflower Compact, then promptly dropped dead. He did his pioneer thing and died in Plymouth Colony.  Lucky for me, his daughter Elizabeth survived.

John was a singer of the Mayflower compact which was done November 11, 1620.  Therefore, if the day and month aqre correct he must have died in 1621.

John Tilley (1571 – 1620 or 1621) was one of the settlers who traveled from England to North America on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. Tilley died shortly after arrival in New England.

Overview

Tilley was christened in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England on 19 December 1571. He was the eldest child of Robert and Elizabeth Tilley. He had four sisters (Rose, Agnes, Elizabeth, and Alice) and three brothers (George, William, and Edward or Edmund). Research done by Robert Ward Leigh, using probate records, show that Tilley’s paternal grandparents were William and Agnes Tylle, his great-grandparents were Thomas and Margaret Tylle, and great-great-grandparents were Henry and Johann[a]? Tilly, all of Henlow.

On 20 September 1596 in Henlow, John married Joan Hurst Rogers, the daughter of William and Rose Hurst and the widow of Thomas Rogers of Henlow. Joan had had one daughter from her previous marriage. John and Joan had five children between 1597 and 1607. At least one child died young. Research by George Ernest Bowman shows that John was not the Jan Tellij that married Prijntgen Van den Velde in Leyden.

In September 1620, John and Joan embarked on the Mayflower along with their teenage daughter Elizabeth and John’s brother Edward Tilley and his wife Ann or Agnes (Cooper) Tilley. Edward and Ann brought along Ann’s relatives Henry Sampson and Humility Cooper. They left behind their older children, who were married by this time. They arrived at what would become Plymouth in November. John and brother Edward were amongst the men who signed the Mayflower Compact.

Unfortunately, the first winter after their arrival was extremely difficult and a number of the settlers died. Amongst these were John, wife Joan, brother Edward, and sister-in-law Ann. William Bradford reported, “…Edward Tillie, and his wife both dyed soon after their arrivall; and the girle Humility their cousen, was sent for unto Ento England, and dyed ther But the youth Henery Sampson, is still liveing, and is married, & hath .7. children. John Tilley and his wife both dyed, a litle after they came ashore…” This left daughter Elizabeth the only surviving member of the Tilley family in America. The orphan was taken in by John Carver but he and his wife both died that spring. Elizabeth later married John Howland, Carver’s former servant, and left many descendants. I am one.