fbpx
Wikipedia

George Soule (Mayflower passenger)

George Soule (c. 1601 – between 20 September 1677 and 22 January 1679)[1] was a colonist who was one of the indentured servants on the Mayflower and helped establish Plymouth Colony in 1620.[1] He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact.

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882)

Early life and family origin edit

It is known that George came on the Mayflower and was credited to the household of Edward Winslow as a manservant or apprentice, along with Elias Story and a little girl Ellen More, who both died in the first winter.[2][self-published source][3][4] George Soule was mentioned in Bradford's recollections of the Winslow group: "Mr. Edward Winslow; Elizabeth, his wife; and *2* men servants, called Georg Sowle and Elias Story; also a little girle was put to him, called Ellen, sister of Richard More".[5] He continues: "Mr. Ed. Winslow his wife dyed the first winter; and he is maried with the widow of Mr. White, and hath *2* children living by her marigable besides sundry that are dead. One of his servants dyed, as also the little girle, soone after the ships arrival. But this man Georg Soule, is still living and hath *8* children".[6]

Earlier researchers into Soule's origin believed in the London association of Winslow and Soule.[7] Thus, based on this belief, and for five years ending in 2009, noted Mayflower researcher and biographer Caleb Johnson managed a fairly intensive search for Soule's English origins; he examined a number of likely 'George Soules' in various parts of England and subsequently concluded that the most promising candidate of all the 'George Soules' he reviewed was that of Tingrith, Bedfordshire, baptised in February 1594/5.[8]

More recent work in 2017 has identified the parents of George Soule through a high-quality Y-DNA match of Soule with families in Scotland and Australia. Following up on research published by Louise Walsh Throop in 2009, the DNA study pointed to Soule's parents as Jan Sol and his wife Mayken Labis, who are identified by their marriage as Protestant refugees in London, England, in 1586 and by the baptisms of their children before 1600 in Haarlem, Holland.[9] Their eldest known son Johannes Sol is identified by his baptism in 1591, as well as by his permissions in both Haarlem and Leyden to marry in Leyden. Johannes Sol, a printer in Leyden with one known publication, died suddenly, probably while helping William Brewster in the presswork for the Perth Assembly.[9] His apprentice, Edward Raban, apparently fled to Scotland in 1619 in order to avoid being apprehended by agents of the king of England. It appears he was accompanied by the pregnant widow of his master and probably took with him the missing press of Brewster, as well as the telltale type and initials from Brewster; Raban also apparently took with him the Sol press and type. Edward Raban in 1622 published a very veiled version of his master's shocking death, well hidden in a discussion of drunkenness and resultant whoredom.[10] It would appear all helpers in the press work and distribution of "Perth Assembly" took an oath of silence that was never breached, even after King James I died in 1625.[11]

Some researchers have pointed to circumstantial evidence that George Soule's family may have had Sephardic (Converso) Jewish roots, due to "Sol/Soule" being a common Sephardic name[12] and "Soule" (the version George used in his will) being a Basque province.[13] Soule's daughter-in-law, Rebecca Simonson, daughter of colonist Moses Simonson, may have had Jewish ancestry,[14][15] and Soule's printing colleague, Edward "Raban was from a Jewish-descended family in Germany."[16]

It is likely[according to whom?] that George's presumed father Jan Sol, who married as a refugee in 1586 in London, was the grandson of Jan van Sol.[citation needed] This Jan van Sol was a zealous opponent of Anabaptism, which he saw in 1550 as divided into three movements: the Melchiorites (the peaceful Mennonite group), the Davidites, and the Batenburgers.[17] Jan van Sol was born at Dordrecht, in South Holland, but left the Netherlands in 1530 because of debts (he kept an inn there) and went east to Danzig. There he was known as Johann/Jan Solius (the Latin version of his name). In 1536 he bought the "Robitten" estate near Bardeyn in East Prussia. He returned in 1550 to Brussels but may have spent his last years, until about 1556, in the territory of Preussisch-Holland. A presumed son born about 1525, and by naming patterns was probably named Georg, would have married about 1555 perhaps in Brussels, and thus would have been the father of Jan Sol of the 1586 marriage record in London. This Jan Sol and wife Maecken had seven children baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church of Haarlem in 1590–99.[18]

Mayflower edit

 
Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on 6/16 September 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30–40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship's timbers to be badly shaken with the caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. These conditions, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, contributed to the high number of fatalities in the first winter, especially for the women and children. On the voyage, there were two deaths, being just a crew member and a passenger. The worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.[19]

On 9/19 November 1620, after about two months at sea, preceded by a month of delays in and around England, they spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on 11/21 November.[19]

On 11 November 1620, Soule and others signed the Mayflower Compact.[1] Soule and three others were under 21 years of age, and one of the three had a baptismal record showing he was just 20 years old at the time of signing. It appears the signers were members of a church group, where the age of membership was 18. The original compact was lost. It was published, without any signers' names appended, several times after 1620. It was not until almost 50 years after the signing that the Compact was published with the names of the signers. Thus the print work crew of Brewster, Winslow, Soule and others was sheltered from exposure to the agents of King James I of England. When finally published with all names of signers, only Soule was still alive from the print work crew.[citation needed]

In Plymouth Colony edit

 
Soule first lived with Edward Winslow, whose first house in Plymouth was located on the site of what is now the 1749 Court House Museum on Town Square in downtown Plymouth.[20]
 
After moving to Duxbury, George Soule acquired land at Powder Point.

In 1623, the Division of Land at Plymouth provided one acre for George Soule between the property of "Frances" Cooke and "Mr. Isaak" Allerton.[2][21]

About 1626, George Soule married a woman by the name of Mary. It is known that the only Mary in Plymouth who was then unmarried was Mary Bucket (Buckett). In 1623, "Marie" Buckett, as a single woman, had received one acre of land.[2][22]

In 1626 George Soule was one of twenty-seven Purchasers involved with the colony joint-stock company which afterwards was turned over to the control of senior colony members. That group was called Undertakers, and were made up of such Pilgrim leaders as Bradford, Standish and Allerton initially, who were later joined by other leaders Winslow, Brewster, Howland, Alden, Prence and others from London who were former Merchant Adventurers. On the agreement, dated 26 October 1626, his name appears as "Georg Soule."[23]

In the 1627 Division of Cattle, George and Mary Soule and their first son Zachariah (all with the recorded surname of "Sowle") were listed with the Richard Warren family. They were allotted several animals that arrived on the ship Jacob, probably in 1625.[2][24]

Historic records indicate Soule became a freeman prior to 1632/33 (Johnson) or was on the 1633 list of freemen.[2][4]

In 1633/34 Soule (as "Sowle") was taxed at the lowest rate which indicates that his estate was without much significance.[2][25]

Per Plymouth records, Soule's life with his family appears to have been lived quietly in a Puritan home—obtaining some land holdings through the years which he would later provide for his large family. He was never involved in any criminal or civil court dispute and did participate in a number of public service situations, one being his volunteering to fight in the Pequot War in 1637, which was over before the Plymouth company could get organised.[4][26]

Land records note that in 1637 he was assigned "a garden place…on Duxbury side, by Samuel Nash's, to lie to his ground at Powder Point".[26]

The 1638 land records note that "one acre of land is granted to George Soule at the watering place…and also a parcel of Stony Marsh at Powder Point, containing two acres." The land at the "watering place" in south Plymouth was sold the next year, possibly as he was living in Duxbury at that time and did not need his property in south Plymouth. In 1640 he was granted a meadow at Green's Harbor—now Marshfield. His land holdings included property in several towns, those being Namaskett, Middleboro and Dartmouth.[1][4][26]

First in 1642 and last in 1662, he was assigned to at least five grand and petty juries. He was deputy for Duxbury for several years.[1][4][26]

In the 1643 Able to Bear Arms (ATBA) List, George and his son Zachariah (listed as "Georg" and "Zachary") appear with those bearing arms from Duxbury (written as "Duxbarrow").[27]

In October 1645 the General Court granted to Duxbury inhabitants lands "about Saughtuckquett" and nominated "Captaine Miles Standish, Mr John Alden, George Soul…" and others for "equall devideing and laying forth of the said lands to their inhabitants." The purpose of this committee was to divide property in the Duxbury area for its inhabitants. Soule was also on a similar committee in 1640.[26][28]

On 20 October 1646 Soule, with Anthony Thatcher, was chosen to be on a "committee to draw up an order concerning disorderly drinking (smoking) of tobacco." The law, as drawn up, provided strict limitations on where tobacco could be smoked and what fines could be levied against lawbreakers.[26]

Family edit

Marie/Mary Buckett, wife of George Soule. The young woman known to Plymouth Colony history as "Marie Buckett" arrived in Plymouth in July 1623 as a single woman passenger on the ship Anne. She may have been about age 18 (born c. 1604) and appears to have traveled with some Alden relatives of her mother, or with members of the possible Warren family with whom she may have lived after the death of her father. Earlier researchers have been stymied in their efforts to prove her ancestry, or from where she came, whether Holland or England.[29]

She first appears in Plymouth Colony records in the 1627 Division of Cattle with passengers of the Anne as "Marie Buckett" where she received one lot of her own "adioyning to Joseph Rogers" .."on the other side of towne towards the eele-riuer."[29]

Author Caleb Johnson estimates she married George Soule about 1625 or 1626.[30] As George Soule was probably born in 1601, and he would have had to wait to marry until released as Winslow's servant at age 25, the marriage of George and Mary was probably in 1626.

In the 1627 Division of Cattle she is listed with her husband George and young son "Zakariah" as " Mary Sowle."[24]

Noted Mayflower researcher and author Caleb H. Johnson writes in The Mayflower Quarterly of December 2013 that the origin of Mary Buckett, wife of Mayflower passenger George Soule, has not been conclusively proven by his, or any previous research. What Johnson did find in England, through extensive research and a lengthy process of elimination was a Mary Beckett in the parish of Watford, Hertfordshire. This Mary was born about 1605 and fits the right age to have been on the Anne in 1623. Also she was in a family using the name Nathaniel, which is found in her own children. Her mother had a Mayflower-sounding name—Alden. She and her husband George were grouped with the Warrens in the 1627 Division of Cattle, with Mrs. Warren coming from Hertfordshire, as did Mary Beckett. Mary's home parish register of St. Mary's Church, Watford, has a number of sixteenth-century Warren family entries of names which all appear in the Mayflower Warren family. Johnson considers the following to be among the most important information in considering Marie Buckett's ancestry—Mary Beckett's father died in 1619 when she was only about 14 years old. As a custom of the time, she and her siblings were likely apprenticed out to relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, etc. Her mother remained a widow until at least 1622 (listed in that year as "Widow Buckett")—further increasing the chance that her children would be sent to other families. Johnson concludes by stating that the following could have put Mary Beckett hypothetically on the ship Anne sailing to America in 1623: the right age, associated with families of Mayflower surnames, within a family using the name Nathaniel, and could have had the opportunity to be transferred to another family that would eventually sail to America on the ship Anne. Johnson notes after this time, Mary Beckett is not found again in Watford records, based on recent research.[31]

Children of George and Mary Soule:

  • Zachariah was born by May 1627 and died in Duxbury before 11 December 1663. He married Margaret Ford by 1663, but had no recorded children.
  • John was born about 1632 and died in Duxbury before 14 November 1707. He married:
1. Rebecca Simmons about 1656 and had nine children. She died between 1675 and 1678.
2. Esther (Delano) Samson about 1678 and had three children. She died in Duxbury on 12 September 1735.[1]
  • Nathaniel was born between 1634 and 1646 and died in Dartmouth before 12 October 1699. He married Rose Thorn by 1680 and had five children.

Nathaniel may have caused the most colony trouble of any of his siblings. On 5 March 1667/8, he made an appearance in Plymouth court to "answer for his abusing of Mr. John Holmes, teacher of the church of Christ at Duxbury, by many false, scandalous and opprobrious speeches." He was sentenced to make a public apology for his actions, find sureties for future good behavior and to sit in the stocks, with the stock sentence remitted. His father George and brother John had to pay surety for Nathaniel's good behavior with he being bound for monies and to pay a fine. Three years later, on 5 June 1671, he was fined for "telling several lies which tended greatly to the hurt of the Colony in reference to some particulars about the Indians." And then on 1 March 1674/5 he was sentenced to be whipped for "lying with an Indian woman," and had to pay a fine in the form of bushels of corn to the Indian woman towards the keeping of her child.[32]

  • George was born about 1639 and died in Dartmouth before 22 June 1704. He married by 1671 Deborah Thomas [33] and had eight children. She died in Dartmouth about February 1709.
  • Susanna was born about 1640 and died in Kingstowne, Rhode Island after 1684. She married Francis West by 1660 and had nine children.
  • Mary was born about 1642 and died in Plymouth after 1720. She married John Peterson by 1665 and had nine children. He died between 29 April 1718 and 26 March 1720, probably in Plymouth.
  • Elizabeth was born about 1644 and died after 1667. She married Francis Walker by 23 July 1668 and had one child. He died in probably Middleboro about 1701.[1]
Elizabeth, like her brother Nathaniel, also had her share of problems with the Plymouth Court. On 3 March 1662/3, the Court fined Elizabeth and Nathaniel Church for committing fornication. Elizabeth then in turn sued Nathaniel Church "for committing an act of fornication with her... and then denying to marry her." The jury awarded her damages plus court costs.[34]
On 2 July 1667 Elizabeth was sentenced to be whipped at the post "for committing fornication the second time." And although the man with whom she committed the act was not named, Elizabeth did marry Francis Walker within the following year.[35]
  • Patience was born about 1646 and died on 11 March 1705/6 in Middleboro. She married John Haskell in January 1666/7 in Middleboro and had eight children. He died on 15 May 1706 in Middleboro.
  • Benjamin was born by about 1652 and died unmarried during King Philip's War on 26 March 1676.

Although George Soule became wealthy in the Plymouth colony he still bound out at least one of his daughters to a John Winslow.[36]

 
George Soule's gravestone in Duxbury within the Myles Standish Burial Ground

Will, death and burial edit

George Soule made his will on 11 August 1677 and mentions his eldest son John "my eldest son John Soule and his family hath in my extreme old age and weakness been tender and careful of me and very helpful to me." John was his executor and to whom was given nearly all of Soule's estate. But after he wrote his will, on 12 September 1677 George seemed to have second thoughts and made a codicil to the will to the effect that if John or any family member were to trouble his daughter Patience or her heirs, the will would be void. And if such happened, Patience would then become the executor of his last will and testament with virtually all that he owned becoming hers. To put his youngest daughter to inherit his estate ahead of his eldest son would have been a major humiliation for John Soule. But John must have done well in his father's eyes since after his father's death, he did inherit the Duxbury estate. Twenty years later Patience and her husband sold the Middleboro estate they had received from her father.[35]

George Soule's will was dated 11 August 1677, with a codicil dated 20 September 1677 and with the will proved in 1679. His will named his sons Nathaniel, George and John, and daughters Elizabeth, Patience, Susannah and Mary. His sons Zachariah and Benjamin had predeceased him.[4]

George Soule died shortly before 22 January 1679, when inventory was taken of his estate. He was buried at Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts as his wife Mary had predeceased him in 1676.

Per Stratton, the Soule family history compiled by Gideon T. Ridlon is not reliable.[4] Researcher and author Louise Walsh Throop considers Ridlon occasionally reliable, as the second volume was printed in haste. Records received by correspondence are usually reliable, but Ridlon's assigned lineages and interpretations of relationships are not always reliable.[citation needed]

Notable descendants edit


References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g A genealogical profile of George Soule, (a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013) (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Caleb H. Johnson. The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 205
  3. ^ Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006), pp. 80, 84
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 355
  5. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 406
  6. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 407–408
  7. ^ Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006), p. 80
  8. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, The hunt for the English origins of George Soule, by Caleb Johnson,(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.), vol. 75, no. 3, September 2009, pp. 245–261
  9. ^ a b Soule Kindred Newsletter, Vol.43 No.4, Autumn 2009, pg 10 https://soulekindred.org/resources/Documents/Newsletters/PDF-Newsletters/Vol.-43-No.-4-Autumn-2009.pdf 3 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Record of the Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Introduction of the Art of Printing into Aberdeen by Edward Raban in the Year 1622" (Aberdeen, Scotland: The Master Printers' Guild, 1922) p. 42
  11. ^ Louise Walsh Throop, "William Brewster's Subterfuge" Mayflower Descendant Volume 66, Number 1 (Winter 2018) pp. 14–22
  12. ^ Judith K. Jarvis, Susan L. Levin, Donald N. Yates, Book of Jewish and Crypto-Jewish Surnames, (2018), p. 198 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1985856565
  13. ^ Hay, Maciamo (October 2014). "Genetic history of Spain and Portugal".
  14. ^ Arthur Hertzberg, The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter : a History (1997), pg. 22 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0231108419
  15. ^ Robert P. Swierenga, The Forerunners: Dutch Jewry in the North American Diaspora (2018), Chapter 2, endnote 1 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=081434416X
  16. ^ Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald N. Yates, When Scotland Was Jewish (McFaland & Co, 2007), pg. 161 www.432thedrop.com/NewDrop/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/When-Scotland-was-Jewish.pdf
  17. ^ A L E Verheyden, "Anabaptism in Flanders 1530–1650" (1946, reprinted 1961) p. 31
  18. ^ Louise Walsh Throop, "Further Searching for the Origins of Mayflower Passenger George Soule: Printer's Devil in Leiden?" Soule Kindred Newsletter Volume 43 No. 4 p. 10 (Autumn 2009)
  19. ^ a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton. Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 413
  20. ^ Craig S. Chartier, "Of Plymouth Plantation: Predicting the Location of the Original Plymouth Village, Its Extent, and Its Houses," PARP May 2016, www.plymoutharch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/leyden-st-houses.pdf
  21. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 415
  22. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 355, 417
  23. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 27, 28, 36, 419–420
  24. ^ a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 424
  25. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 427, 429
  26. ^ a b c d e f Caleb H. Johnson. The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 206
  27. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 441
  28. ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 79
  29. ^ a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 417
  30. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, Research into the Possible English Origins of Mary Buckett Wife of Mayflower Passenger George Soule, December 2013,(Plymouth, MA.: The General Society of Mayflower Descendants), by Caleb Johnson, vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 313, 314
  31. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, Research into the Possible English Origins of Mary Buckett Wife of Mayflower Passenger George Soule, by Caleb Johnson, December 2013 (Plymouth, MA.: The General Society of Mayflower Descendants), vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 313–324
  32. ^ Caleb H. Johnson. The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 207
  33. ^ themayflowersociety.org
  34. ^ Caleb H. Johnson. The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), pp. 207–208
  35. ^ a b Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 208
  36. ^ John Demos, Notes on Life in Plymouth Colony The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 22, No. 2, Apr., 1965, p. 284
  37. ^ Silas Soule: A Short, Eventful Life of Moral Courage, Dog Ear Press, 2012.
  38. ^ George Soule of the Mayflower and his descendants for Four Generations, by John E. Souel, Milton E. Terry and Robert S. Wakefield, Second Edition, Boston:Published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1995, pg. 72
  39. ^ "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography". 1900.
  40. ^ Genealogies of the Raymond Families of New England, 1630–1 to 1886: With a Historical Sketch of Some of the Raymonds of Early Times, Their Origin, Etc. Press of J.J. Little & Company. 1 January 1886.

External links edit

  • George Soule Kindred in the U.S.
  • Soule Family in England

george, soule, mayflower, passenger, george, soule, 1601, between, september, 1677, january, 1679, colonist, indentured, servants, mayflower, helped, establish, plymouth, colony, 1620, signers, mayflower, compact, mayflower, plymouth, harbor, william, halsall,. George Soule c 1601 between 20 September 1677 and 22 January 1679 1 was a colonist who was one of the indentured servants on the Mayflower and helped establish Plymouth Colony in 1620 1 He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall 1882 Contents 1 Early life and family origin 2 Mayflower 3 In Plymouth Colony 4 Family 5 Will death and burial 6 Notable descendants 7 References 8 External linksEarly life and family origin editIt is known that George came on the Mayflower and was credited to the household of Edward Winslow as a manservant or apprentice along with Elias Story and a little girl Ellen More who both died in the first winter 2 self published source 3 4 George Soule was mentioned in Bradford s recollections of the Winslow group Mr Edward Winslow Elizabeth his wife and 2 men servants called Georg Sowle and Elias Story also a little girle was put to him called Ellen sister of Richard More 5 He continues Mr Ed Winslow his wife dyed the first winter and he is maried with the widow of Mr White and hath 2 children living by her marigable besides sundry that are dead One of his servants dyed as also the little girle soone after the ships arrival But this man Georg Soule is still living and hath 8 children 6 Earlier researchers into Soule s origin believed in the London association of Winslow and Soule 7 Thus based on this belief and for five years ending in 2009 noted Mayflower researcher and biographer Caleb Johnson managed a fairly intensive search for Soule s English origins he examined a number of likely George Soules in various parts of England and subsequently concluded that the most promising candidate of all the George Soules he reviewed was that of Tingrith Bedfordshire baptised in February 1594 5 8 More recent work in 2017 has identified the parents of George Soule through a high quality Y DNA match of Soule with families in Scotland and Australia Following up on research published by Louise Walsh Throop in 2009 the DNA study pointed to Soule s parents as Jan Sol and his wife Mayken Labis who are identified by their marriage as Protestant refugees in London England in 1586 and by the baptisms of their children before 1600 in Haarlem Holland 9 Their eldest known son Johannes Sol is identified by his baptism in 1591 as well as by his permissions in both Haarlem and Leyden to marry in Leyden Johannes Sol a printer in Leyden with one known publication died suddenly probably while helping William Brewster in the presswork for the Perth Assembly 9 His apprentice Edward Raban apparently fled to Scotland in 1619 in order to avoid being apprehended by agents of the king of England It appears he was accompanied by the pregnant widow of his master and probably took with him the missing press of Brewster as well as the telltale type and initials from Brewster Raban also apparently took with him the Sol press and type Edward Raban in 1622 published a very veiled version of his master s shocking death well hidden in a discussion of drunkenness and resultant whoredom 10 It would appear all helpers in the press work and distribution of Perth Assembly took an oath of silence that was never breached even after King James I died in 1625 11 Some researchers have pointed to circumstantial evidence that George Soule s family may have had Sephardic Converso Jewish roots due to Sol Soule being a common Sephardic name 12 and Soule the version George used in his will being a Basque province 13 Soule s daughter in law Rebecca Simonson daughter of colonist Moses Simonson may have had Jewish ancestry 14 15 and Soule s printing colleague Edward Raban was from a Jewish descended family in Germany 16 It is likely according to whom that George s presumed father Jan Sol who married as a refugee in 1586 in London was the grandson of Jan van Sol citation needed This Jan van Sol was a zealous opponent of Anabaptism which he saw in 1550 as divided into three movements the Melchiorites the peaceful Mennonite group the Davidites and the Batenburgers 17 Jan van Sol was born at Dordrecht in South Holland but left the Netherlands in 1530 because of debts he kept an inn there and went east to Danzig There he was known as Johann Jan Solius the Latin version of his name In 1536 he bought the Robitten estate near Bardeyn in East Prussia He returned in 1550 to Brussels but may have spent his last years until about 1556 in the territory of Preussisch Holland A presumed son born about 1525 and by naming patterns was probably named Georg would have married about 1555 perhaps in Brussels and thus would have been the father of Jan Sol of the 1586 marriage record in London This Jan Sol and wife Maecken had seven children baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church of Haarlem in 1590 99 18 Mayflower edit nbsp Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620 a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899The Mayflower departed Plymouth England on 6 16 September 1620 The small 100 foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30 40 in extremely cramped conditions By the second month out the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales causing the ship s timbers to be badly shaken with the caulking failing to keep out sea water and with passengers even in their berths lying wet and ill These conditions combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months contributed to the high number of fatalities in the first winter especially for the women and children On the voyage there were two deaths being just a crew member and a passenger The worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when in the space of several months almost half the passengers perished in the cold harsh unfamiliar New England winter 19 On 9 19 November 1620 after about two months at sea preceded by a month of delays in and around England they spotted land which was the Cape Cod Hook now called Provincetown Harbor After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook where they anchored on 11 21 November 19 On 11 November 1620 Soule and others signed the Mayflower Compact 1 Soule and three others were under 21 years of age and one of the three had a baptismal record showing he was just 20 years old at the time of signing It appears the signers were members of a church group where the age of membership was 18 The original compact was lost It was published without any signers names appended several times after 1620 It was not until almost 50 years after the signing that the Compact was published with the names of the signers Thus the print work crew of Brewster Winslow Soule and others was sheltered from exposure to the agents of King James I of England When finally published with all names of signers only Soule was still alive from the print work crew citation needed In Plymouth Colony edit nbsp Soule first lived with Edward Winslow whose first house in Plymouth was located on the site of what is now the 1749 Court House Museum on Town Square in downtown Plymouth 20 nbsp After moving to Duxbury George Soule acquired land at Powder Point In 1623 the Division of Land at Plymouth provided one acre for George Soule between the property of Frances Cooke and Mr Isaak Allerton 2 21 About 1626 George Soule married a woman by the name of Mary It is known that the only Mary in Plymouth who was then unmarried was Mary Bucket Buckett In 1623 Marie Buckett as a single woman had received one acre of land 2 22 In 1626 George Soule was one of twenty seven Purchasers involved with the colony joint stock company which afterwards was turned over to the control of senior colony members That group was called Undertakers and were made up of such Pilgrim leaders as Bradford Standish and Allerton initially who were later joined by other leaders Winslow Brewster Howland Alden Prence and others from London who were former Merchant Adventurers On the agreement dated 26 October 1626 his name appears as Georg Soule 23 In the 1627 Division of Cattle George and Mary Soule and their first son Zachariah all with the recorded surname of Sowle were listed with the Richard Warren family They were allotted several animals that arrived on the ship Jacob probably in 1625 2 24 Historic records indicate Soule became a freeman prior to 1632 33 Johnson or was on the 1633 list of freemen 2 4 In 1633 34 Soule as Sowle was taxed at the lowest rate which indicates that his estate was without much significance 2 25 Per Plymouth records Soule s life with his family appears to have been lived quietly in a Puritan home obtaining some land holdings through the years which he would later provide for his large family He was never involved in any criminal or civil court dispute and did participate in a number of public service situations one being his volunteering to fight in the Pequot War in 1637 which was over before the Plymouth company could get organised 4 26 Land records note that in 1637 he was assigned a garden place on Duxbury side by Samuel Nash s to lie to his ground at Powder Point 26 The 1638 land records note that one acre of land is granted to George Soule at the watering place and also a parcel of Stony Marsh at Powder Point containing two acres The land at the watering place in south Plymouth was sold the next year possibly as he was living in Duxbury at that time and did not need his property in south Plymouth In 1640 he was granted a meadow at Green s Harbor now Marshfield His land holdings included property in several towns those being Namaskett Middleboro and Dartmouth 1 4 26 First in 1642 and last in 1662 he was assigned to at least five grand and petty juries He was deputy for Duxbury for several years 1 4 26 In the 1643 Able to Bear Arms ATBA List George and his son Zachariah listed as Georg and Zachary appear with those bearing arms from Duxbury written as Duxbarrow 27 In October 1645 the General Court granted to Duxbury inhabitants lands about Saughtuckquett and nominated Captaine Miles Standish Mr John Alden George Soul and others for equall devideing and laying forth of the said lands to their inhabitants The purpose of this committee was to divide property in the Duxbury area for its inhabitants Soule was also on a similar committee in 1640 26 28 On 20 October 1646 Soule with Anthony Thatcher was chosen to be on a committee to draw up an order concerning disorderly drinking smoking of tobacco The law as drawn up provided strict limitations on where tobacco could be smoked and what fines could be levied against lawbreakers 26 Family editMarie Mary Buckett wife of George Soule The young woman known to Plymouth Colony history as Marie Buckett arrived in Plymouth in July 1623 as a single woman passenger on the ship Anne She may have been about age 18 born c 1604 and appears to have traveled with some Alden relatives of her mother or with members of the possible Warren family with whom she may have lived after the death of her father Earlier researchers have been stymied in their efforts to prove her ancestry or from where she came whether Holland or England 29 She first appears in Plymouth Colony records in the 1627 Division of Cattle with passengers of the Anne as Marie Buckett where she received one lot of her own adioyning to Joseph Rogers on the other side of towne towards the eele riuer 29 Author Caleb Johnson estimates she married George Soule about 1625 or 1626 30 As George Soule was probably born in 1601 and he would have had to wait to marry until released as Winslow s servant at age 25 the marriage of George and Mary was probably in 1626 In the 1627 Division of Cattle she is listed with her husband George and young son Zakariah as Mary Sowle 24 Noted Mayflower researcher and author Caleb H Johnson writes in The Mayflower Quarterly of December 2013 that the origin of Mary Buckett wife of Mayflower passenger George Soule has not been conclusively proven by his or any previous research What Johnson did find in England through extensive research and a lengthy process of elimination was a Mary Beckett in the parish of Watford Hertfordshire This Mary was born about 1605 and fits the right age to have been on the Anne in 1623 Also she was in a family using the name Nathaniel which is found in her own children Her mother had a Mayflower sounding name Alden She and her husband George were grouped with the Warrens in the 1627 Division of Cattle with Mrs Warren coming from Hertfordshire as did Mary Beckett Mary s home parish register of St Mary s Church Watford has a number of sixteenth century Warren family entries of names which all appear in the Mayflower Warren family Johnson considers the following to be among the most important information in considering Marie Buckett s ancestry Mary Beckett s father died in 1619 when she was only about 14 years old As a custom of the time she and her siblings were likely apprenticed out to relatives neighbors acquaintances etc Her mother remained a widow until at least 1622 listed in that year as Widow Buckett further increasing the chance that her children would be sent to other families Johnson concludes by stating that the following could have put Mary Beckett hypothetically on the ship Anne sailing to America in 1623 the right age associated with families of Mayflower surnames within a family using the name Nathaniel and could have had the opportunity to be transferred to another family that would eventually sail to America on the ship Anne Johnson notes after this time Mary Beckett is not found again in Watford records based on recent research 31 Children of George and Mary Soule Zachariah was born by May 1627 and died in Duxbury before 11 December 1663 He married Margaret Ford by 1663 but had no recorded children John was born about 1632 and died in Duxbury before 14 November 1707 He married 1 Rebecca Simmons about 1656 and had nine children She died between 1675 and 1678 2 Esther Delano Samson about 1678 and had three children She died in Duxbury on 12 September 1735 1 Nathaniel was born between 1634 and 1646 and died in Dartmouth before 12 October 1699 He married Rose Thorn by 1680 and had five children Nathaniel may have caused the most colony trouble of any of his siblings On 5 March 1667 8 he made an appearance in Plymouth court to answer for his abusing of Mr John Holmes teacher of the church of Christ at Duxbury by many false scandalous and opprobrious speeches He was sentenced to make a public apology for his actions find sureties for future good behavior and to sit in the stocks with the stock sentence remitted His father George and brother John had to pay surety for Nathaniel s good behavior with he being bound for monies and to pay a fine Three years later on 5 June 1671 he was fined for telling several lies which tended greatly to the hurt of the Colony in reference to some particulars about the Indians And then on 1 March 1674 5 he was sentenced to be whipped for lying with an Indian woman and had to pay a fine in the form of bushels of corn to the Indian woman towards the keeping of her child 32 George was born about 1639 and died in Dartmouth before 22 June 1704 He married by 1671 Deborah Thomas 33 and had eight children She died in Dartmouth about February 1709 Susanna was born about 1640 and died in Kingstowne Rhode Island after 1684 She married Francis West by 1660 and had nine children Mary was born about 1642 and died in Plymouth after 1720 She married John Peterson by 1665 and had nine children He died between 29 April 1718 and 26 March 1720 probably in Plymouth Elizabeth was born about 1644 and died after 1667 She married Francis Walker by 23 July 1668 and had one child He died in probably Middleboro about 1701 1 Elizabeth like her brother Nathaniel also had her share of problems with the Plymouth Court On 3 March 1662 3 the Court fined Elizabeth and Nathaniel Church for committing fornication Elizabeth then in turn sued Nathaniel Church for committing an act of fornication with her and then denying to marry her The jury awarded her damages plus court costs 34 On 2 July 1667 Elizabeth was sentenced to be whipped at the post for committing fornication the second time And although the man with whom she committed the act was not named Elizabeth did marry Francis Walker within the following year 35 Patience was born about 1646 and died on 11 March 1705 6 in Middleboro She married John Haskell in January 1666 7 in Middleboro and had eight children He died on 15 May 1706 in Middleboro Benjamin was born by about 1652 and died unmarried during King Philip s War on 26 March 1676 Although George Soule became wealthy in the Plymouth colony he still bound out at least one of his daughters to a John Winslow 36 nbsp George Soule s gravestone in Duxbury within the Myles Standish Burial GroundWill death and burial editGeorge Soule made his will on 11 August 1677 and mentions his eldest son John my eldest son John Soule and his family hath in my extreme old age and weakness been tender and careful of me and very helpful to me John was his executor and to whom was given nearly all of Soule s estate But after he wrote his will on 12 September 1677 George seemed to have second thoughts and made a codicil to the will to the effect that if John or any family member were to trouble his daughter Patience or her heirs the will would be void And if such happened Patience would then become the executor of his last will and testament with virtually all that he owned becoming hers To put his youngest daughter to inherit his estate ahead of his eldest son would have been a major humiliation for John Soule But John must have done well in his father s eyes since after his father s death he did inherit the Duxbury estate Twenty years later Patience and her husband sold the Middleboro estate they had received from her father 35 George Soule s will was dated 11 August 1677 with a codicil dated 20 September 1677 and with the will proved in 1679 His will named his sons Nathaniel George and John and daughters Elizabeth Patience Susannah and Mary His sons Zachariah and Benjamin had predeceased him 4 George Soule died shortly before 22 January 1679 when inventory was taken of his estate He was buried at Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury Massachusetts as his wife Mary had predeceased him in 1676 Per Stratton the Soule family history compiled by Gideon T Ridlon is not reliable 4 Researcher and author Louise Walsh Throop considers Ridlon occasionally reliable as the second volume was printed in haste Records received by correspondence are usually reliable but Ridlon s assigned lineages and interpretations of relationships are not always reliable citation needed Notable descendants editSilas Soule abolitionist soldier and hero who refused to participate in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and later was murdered possibly in retaliation for his testimony against his commanding officer 37 Dick Van Dyke comedian actor dancer citation needed Richard Gere actor citation needed Joshua Soule Methodist Episcopal Bishop 38 Gideon Lane Soule third principal of Phillips Exeter Academy 39 H Verlan Andersen LDS General Authority Matthew C Perry U S naval officer 40 References edit a b c d e f g A genealogical profile of George Soule a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013 Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2 November 2011 Retrieved 21 April 2012 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link a b c d e f Caleb H Johnson The Mayflower and her passengers Indiana Xlibris Corp 2006 p 205 Charles Edward Banks The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to Plymouth on theMayflowerin 1620 theFortunein 1621 and theAnneand theLittle Jamesin 1623 Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co 2006 pp 80 84 a b c d e f g Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 355 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 406 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 pp 407 408 Charles Edward Banks The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to Plymouth on theMayflowerin 1620 theFortunein 1621 and theAnneand theLittle Jamesin 1623 Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co 2006 p 80 The Mayflower Quarterly The hunt for the English origins of George Soule by Caleb Johnson Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co vol 75 no 3 September 2009 pp 245 261 a b Soule Kindred Newsletter Vol 43 No 4 Autumn 2009 pg 10 https soulekindred org resources Documents Newsletters PDF Newsletters Vol 43 No 4 Autumn 2009 pdf Archived 3 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine Record of the Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Introduction of the Art of Printing into Aberdeen by Edward Raban in the Year 1622 Aberdeen Scotland The Master Printers Guild 1922 p 42 Louise Walsh Throop William Brewster s Subterfuge Mayflower Descendant Volume 66 Number 1 Winter 2018 pp 14 22 Judith K Jarvis Susan L Levin Donald N Yates Book of Jewish and Crypto Jewish Surnames 2018 p 198 https books google com books isbn 1985856565 Hay Maciamo October 2014 Genetic history of Spain and Portugal Arthur Hertzberg The Jews in America Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter a History 1997 pg 22 https books google com books isbn 0231108419 Robert P Swierenga The Forerunners Dutch Jewry in the North American Diaspora 2018 Chapter 2 endnote 1 https books google com books isbn 081434416X Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald N Yates When Scotland Was Jewish McFaland amp Co 2007 pg 161 www 432thedrop com NewDrop wp content uploads 2018 06 When Scotland was Jewish pdf A L E Verheyden Anabaptism in Flanders 1530 1650 1946 reprinted 1961 p 31 Louise Walsh Throop Further Searching for the Origins of Mayflower Passenger George Soule Printer s Devil in Leiden Soule Kindred Newsletter Volume 43 No 4 p 10 Autumn 2009 a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 413 Craig S Chartier Of Plymouth Plantation Predicting the Location of the Original Plymouth Village Its Extent and Its Houses PARP May 2016 www plymoutharch com wp content uploads 2016 05 leyden st houses pdf Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 415 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 pp 355 417 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 pp 27 28 36 419 420 a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 424 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 pp 427 429 a b c d e f Caleb H Johnson The Mayflower and her passengers Indiana Xlibris Corp 2006 p 206 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 441 Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 79 a b Eugene Aubrey Stratton Plymouth Colony Its History and People 1620 1691 Salt Lake City Ancestry Publishing 1986 p 417 The Mayflower Quarterly Research into the Possible English Origins of Mary Buckett Wife of Mayflower Passenger George Soule December 2013 Plymouth MA The General Society of Mayflower Descendants by Caleb Johnson vol 79 no 4 pp 313 314 The Mayflower Quarterly Research into the Possible English Origins of Mary Buckett Wife of Mayflower Passenger George Soule by Caleb Johnson December 2013 Plymouth MA The General Society of Mayflower Descendants vol 79 no 4 pp 313 324 Caleb H Johnson The Mayflower and her passengers Indiana Xlibris Corp 2006 p 207 themayflowersociety org Caleb H Johnson The Mayflower and her passengers Indiana Xlibris Corp 2006 pp 207 208 a b Caleb H Johnson The Mayflower and her passengers Indiana Xlibris Corp 2006 p 208 John Demos Notes on Life in Plymouth Colony The William and Mary Quarterly Third Series Vol 22 No 2 Apr 1965 p 284 Silas Soule A Short Eventful Life of Moral Courage Dog Ear Press 2012 George Soule of the Mayflower and his descendants for Four Generations by John E Souel Milton E Terry and Robert S Wakefield Second Edition Boston Published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants 1995 pg 72 The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 1900 Genealogies of the Raymond Families of New England 1630 1 to 1886 With a Historical Sketch of Some of the Raymonds of Early Times Their Origin Etc Press of J J Little amp Company 1 January 1886 External links edit nbsp United States portalGeorge Soule Kindred in the U S Soule Family in England Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title George Soule Mayflower passenger amp oldid 1192703425, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.