Page:David Alden's Daughter.djvu/17

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PREFACE.
vii

tesy of that prelate accurately copied and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society. There the governor, as if foreseeing the importance to posterity of such information, has set down not only the names and relationships of every passenger of the Mayflower, but thirty years later has continued the record with memoranda of the subsequent fortunes of these passengers. This is a statement at firsthand and of the most incontrovertible character, and from it we learn that John Howland, who accompanied Governor Carver as some sort of assistant, married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Bridget Tillie, who with their brother Edward Tillie and Ann his wife died in the first sickness. Carver and his wife also died within three months of landing, leaving no children, nor is there any reason to suppose that they ever had any.

A certain Robert Carver appeared in Marshfield in 1638, but he never claimed connection with the governor, nor has the most careful research discovered any tie between them. From him have descended a numerous posterity, many of whom proudly claim Governor Carver as an ancestor, until the facts are set before them and they are painfully convinced that a childless pair cannot become anybody's ancestors.

It is much to be wished that the misleading