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"Charles,
Mildreth [Mildred Charles] of England, acc[ompanied] by Jenne Tickins
[Jane Thickens nee White] and Maycken Ring [Mary Ring] his acq[aintances]
betr[othed] 16 May 1614, mar[ried] 31 May 1614 to Samuel Terrier [Samuel
Terry] of Caen in Normandy [France], Say-worker, acc[ompanied] by Rogier
Wiltsum [Roger Wilson] and Samuel Fuller his acq[aintances]."
Johanna W. Tammel, The Pilgrims and other people from the British
Isles in Leiden 1576-1640 (Isle of Man : Mansk-Svenska Publishing,
c1989), p. 67, 256.
"Ringh, Willem [William Ring], Say-worker, guar[anteed] as
Citz[Citizen] by Alexander Prijs [Alexander Price] and William Bradford
[William Bradford], 7 June 1619."
Johanna W. Tammel, The Pilgrims and other people from the British
Isles in Leiden 1576-1640 (Isle of Man : Mansk-Svenska Publishing,
c1989), p. 226. |
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Robert Cushman was a
member of the Leiden community who spent much time in London helping to
make the arrangements for the Mayflower voyage.
He was intending to sail to America in 1620 but, when the Speedwell
had to be abandoned and a number of passengers left behind, Cushman
was among those who chose not to make the voyage.
While the Mayflower and Speedwell were in Dartmouth Harbor
in August of 1620, in a futile attempt to make the Speedwell seaworthy,
Cushman wrote a letter to Edward Southworth in London.
The letter is extremely pessimistic, detailing Cushman's illness,
the leaking of the Speedwell, the depletion of the group's food
supplies caused by the delay in sailing, the possible misappropriation of
funds (with many complaints about Mayflower passenger Christopher
Martin), the complaints of the Pilgrims about the terms Cushman negotiated
with the merchant adventurers.
He ends "Friend, if ever we make a plantation, God works a miracle,
especially considering how scant we shall be of victuals, and most of all
ununited amongst ourselves and devoid of good tutors and regiment…If I
should write to you of all things which promiscuously forerun our ruin, I
should over-charge my weak head and grieve your tender heart.
Only this, I pray you prepare for evil tidings of us every day.
But pray for us instantly, it may be the Lord will be yet entreated
one way or other to make for us. I
see not in reason how we shall escape even the gasping of hunger-starved
persons; but God can do much, and His will be done.
It is better for me to die than now for me to bear it, which I do
daily and expect it hourly, having received the sentence of death both
within me and without me. Poor
William Ring and myself do strive who shall be meat first for the fishes,
but we look for a more glorious resurrection…"
This passage indicates that William Ring was part of the original group
from Leiden that meant to journey to America in 1620 and that, I August of
1620, he was ailing. Nothing
further is known of his fate beyond the fact that Ring was not a passenger
on the Mayflower and he had died by 1629/30 when his widow came to
America with their three children.
Note: Robert Cushman journeyed to Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621
and, returning to England the same year, lived until 1625.
It is possible that Mary Ring and the three Ring children were also part
of the original group that meant to travel to America. William Bradford notes that, when the Speedwell was
determined to be unseaworthy,
"…it was resolved to dismiss her [the Speedwell] and part of
the company, and proceed with the other ship [the Mayflower].
The which (though it was grievous and caused great discouragement)
was put into execution. So
after they had took out such provision as the other ship could well stow,
and concluded both what number and what persons to send back, they made
another sad parting; the one ship [the Speedwell] going back for
London and the other [the Mayflower] was to proceed on her voyage.
Those that went back were for the most part such as were willing so
to do, either out of some discontent or fear they conceived of the ill
success of the voyage, seeing so many crosses befall, and the year time so
far spent. But others, in
regard of their own weakness and charge of many young children were
thought least useful and most unfit to bear the brunt of this hard
adventure; unto which work of God, and judgment of their brethren, they
were contented to submit."
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, ed.
Samuel Eliot Morison (New York : Knopf, 1991), p. 53. |
