Oldest Mayflower Passenger: James Chilton (1556-1620) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 40) Theme: "Oldest"

400 years ago (at the time of this writing) James Chilton, my 11X great grandfather, was somewhere out on the Atlantic Ocean, probably enjoying pleasant September weather aboard the Mayflower while anticipating the adventure of a new life for his family in America. 

James was the oldest of the 102 passengers to make that epic 66 day journey to America. The average age of the 50 men aboard Mayflower was 34. James was almost double that at age 64.

Most likely born at Canterbury, Kent, England, to Lionel and Edith Chilton, James grew up to be a tailor by trade. At some point in his life he adopted a Protestant Separatist belief system, considered radical and definitely at odds in many respects with the state-mandated Church of England religion. 

The author enjoying the empty streets of Canterbury early morning 11 August 2016

Photos of Canterbury taken by Graham Barnard August 2016
Buildings that would have been familiar to the Chiltons

He married, probably about 1583, and started to have children baptized in Canterbury, but his wife's name remains unknown. Even when she got in trouble with the Archdeaconry Court for attending the secret burial of a child (because her religion was against "popish" burial ceremonies required by the Church of England), she was still denied a name and is referred to obliquely as "wife of James Chilton".

By the time their eighth child was baptized in July of 1601, the family had moved from Canterbury to Sandwich and were attending St. Peter's Parish Church. This was also where their 10th and final child, Mary (my 10X great grandmother), was baptized on 31 May 1607.

Google Earth Street View Image of St. Peter's Church, Sandwich

The Chiltons would have been joining a group of Huguenots and Flemish Protestant refugees from the Netherlands who had moved to Sandwich in 1560 and had made St. Peter's their church. There was probably a sympathetic connection between the English and continental European Protestant religious dissidents. Sometime after "the wife of James Chilton" was excommunicated on 12 July 1609, the Chiltons moved to Leiden, Holland to join a contingent of about 500 like-minded English religious dissidents living there. The Chiltons were living in Holland at the time of their daughter Isabella's marriage there to Roger Chandler on 15 July 1615 and continued to enjoy more religious freedom there than they would have had back in England. Even in Holland, however, storm clouds were gathering: there was fear that the Spanish would once again exert their influence and make life there untenable too.

It may have been an attack on James Chilton  by about 20 boys in April 1619  that provided the actual impetus for the move to America. James was hit in the head with a stone and required medical attention. One of his daughters had been with him at the time of the attack. With the English group no longer feeling quite so welcome in Leiden, plans were formulated to move a portion of the congregation to the perceived safety of America.

Hence we find 64 year-old James Chilton, his wife,  and their 13 year-old daughter, Mary, aboard the Mayflower when it departed from Plymouth Harbour in 1620. 

Area of old Plymouth associated with the Mayflower passengers preparing to embark for America

James Chilton, Tailor of Canterbury
About halfway down the list

Commemorative plaque in the area where the Pilgrims spent their final night in England

Plymouth Harbour, Devon, England 2016
Mayflower passengers would have had a similar view as they left from here in 1620

Mayflower II Replica ship docked in Plymouth, MA 1999

Problems encountered by intended sister ship Speedwell had caused the voyage to be delayed beyond the ideal sailing season. Although the weather had started off pleasantly enough, conditions  soon became very unpleasant with storms lashing Mayflower's leaky hull. Some 130 people were crammed into a ship that was only about 100 feet long. The passengers' living space was on the gun deck (approximately 50 feet by 25 feet and a ceiling just 5 feet high). There would have been no privacy whatever. Seasickness was common among the passengers, most of whom were not experienced sailors. There was the added worry about possible attack by pirates and privateers . Three of the women were pregnant and about one-quarter of the passengers were children, providing some extra challenges.

During one of the storms, another of my ancestors, John Howland, fell overboard and had to be rescued. 

It was very late in the year when they arrived at Cape Cod with no welcoming committee or accommodations to greet them. They had actually been aiming for the existing English settlement known as "Virginia" but conditions caused them to land north of there. James Chilton had survived the lengthy and arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to be one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact on 11 November 1620. This was a document agreed by the men in the group (not women, children or indentured servants) about how the colony would be governed, given the lack of any other law that would apply in this new area.

Mayflower Compact Plaque in Plymouth, MA
James Chilton is third man listed on right side

James never actually got to live in the new Plymouth Colony. The newcomers had not had time to build any shelters by 8 December when James died aboard Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor. It might be speculated that it was his age that made him more vulnerable, but five other passengers also died that month. His unnamed wife died sometime that first winter too, along with nearly half the other newcomers. 

Daughter Mary was among the survivors. Four years later, at age 17, she married John Winslow and had a family of ten children with him, ensuring the survival of James Chilton's dreams of a new life for his family in America. 

Some Resources:

• Deetz, Patricia Scott and James F., The Plymouth Colony Archive Project, "Passengers on the Mayflower: Ages & Occupations, Origins and Connections", 2000 at the following website: http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/Maysource.html
• Evans, James, BBC History Extra Podcast, 24 September 2020 which can be accessed at https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/the-mayflower/
• Johnson, Caleb H., The Mayflower and Her Passengers, Xlibris Corporation,2006 and Caleb Johnson's Mayflower website located at http://mayflowerhistory.com/
• Roser, Susan E., Mayflower Increasings 2nd Edition, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1989.