certain. He was of the Leyden congregation, and evidently a man of
some standing with the leaders, as he was made their messenger to
Carver and Cushman in London, in June, 1620, and was apparently
accustomed to travel. He appears to have had business of his own in
England at the time, and was apparently a man of sober age. As he
had three children,--a daughter who came later to New England, and
two sons, as stated by Bradford,--it is probable that he was thirty
or over. He and both his sons died in the spring of 1621.

Francis Eaton was of Leyden, a carpenter, and, having a wife and child,
was probably a young man about twenty five, perhaps a little
younger. He married three times.

Mrs. Sarah Eaton, wife of Francis, was evidently a young woman, with an
infant, at the date of embarkation. Nothing more is known of her,
except that she died the spring following the arrival at Plymouth.

Samuel Eaton, the son of Francis and his wife, Sarah, Bradford calls "a
sucking child:" He lived to marry.

Gilbert Window was the third younger brother of Governor Edward Winslow,
and is reputed to have been a carpenter. He was born on Wednesday,
October 26, 1600, at Droitwitch, in Worcester, England. ("Winslow
Memorial," vol. i. p. 23.) He apparently did not remain long in
the colony, as he does not appear in either the "land division" of
1623 or the "cattle division" of 1627; and hence was probably not
then in the "settlement," though land was later allowed his heirs,
he having been an "original" voyager of the Plymouth colony. He was
but twenty years and fifteen days old when he signed the Compact,
but probably was--from his brother's prominence and his nearness to
his majority--counted as eligible. Bradford states that he returned
to England after "divers years" in New England, and died there. It
has been suggested that he went very early to some of the other
"plantations."

John Alden was of Southampton, England, was hired as "a cooper," was
twenty-one years old in 1620, as determined by the year of his
birth, 1599 ("Alden Memorial," p. 1), and became the most prominent
and useful of any of the English contingent of the MAY FLOWER
company. Longfellow's delightful poem, "The Courtship of Miles
Standish," has given him and his bride, Priscilla Mullens,
world-wide cele