This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
July 15, 1620—May 6, 1621
Chiefly from Original Sources
By AZEL AMES, M.D.
Member of Pilgrim Society, etc.
The officers and crew of the MAY-FLOWER were obviously important factorsin the success of the Pilgrim undertaking, and it is of interest to knowwhat we may concerning them. We have seen that the "pilot," John Clarke,was employed by Weston and Cushman, even before the vessel upon which hewas to serve had been found, and he had hence the distinction of beingthe first man "shipped" of the MAY-FLOWER'S complement. It is evidentthat he was promptly hired on its being known that he had recentlyreturned from a voyage to Virginia in the cattle-ship FALCON, as certainto be of value in the colonists' undertakings.
Knowing that the Adventurers' agents were seeking both a ship and amaster for her, it was the natural thing for the latter, that he shouldpropose the Captain under whom he had last sailed, on much the samevoyage as that now contemplated. It is an interesting fact thatsomething of the uncertainty which for a time existed as to the names andfeatures of the Pilgrim barks attaches the names and identity of theirrespective commanders. The "given" name of "Master" Reynolds, "pilott"and "Master" of the SPEED WELL, does not appear, but the assertion ofProfessor Arber, though positive enough, that "the Christian name of theCaptain of the MAY-FLOWER is not known," is not accepted by otherauthorities in Pilgrim history, though it is true that it does not findmention in the contemporaneous accounts of the Pilgrim ship and hervoyage.
There is no room for doubt that the Captain of the FALCON—whose releasefrom arrest while under charge of piracy the Earl of Warwick procured,that he might take command of the above-named cattle-ship on her voyageto Virginia, as hereinafter shown—was Thomas Jones. The identity ofthis man and "Master Jones" who assumed command of the MAY-FLOWER—withthe former mate of the FALCON, John Clarke, as his first officer—isabundantly certified by circumstantial evidence of the strongest kind, asis also the fact that he commanded the ship DISCOVERY a little later.
With the powerful backing of such interested friends as the Earl ofWarwick and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, undoubtedly already in league withThomas Weston, who probably made the contract with Jones,as he had with Clarke, the suggestion of the latter as to the competencyand availability of his late commander would be sure of prompt approval,and thus, in all probability, Captain Thomas Jones, who finds his chiefplace in history—and a most important one—as Master of the MAY-FLOWER,came to that service.
In 1619, as appears by Neill, the Virginia Company had one John Clarke inIreland, "buying cattle for Virginia." We know that Captain Jones soonsailed for Virginia with cattle, in the FALCON, of 150 tons, and as thiswas the only cattle ship in a long period, we can very certainly identifyClarke as the newly-hired mate of the MAY-FLOWER, who, Cush man says(letter of June 11/21, 1620), "went last year to Virginia with a ship ofkine." As 1620 did not begin until March 25, a ship sailing in Februarywould have gone out in 1619, and Jones and Clarke c