Merchant Adventurers

The Merchant Adventurers were the group of investors whose capital funded the Pilgrims voyage on the Mayflower. The joint-stock company they invested in hoped to make a profit from the fur trade, from fishing, and from any other method they could invent. The number of investors was initially about fifty, but began to drop substantially as various internal disputes arose. From a letter written in 1626, we learn the names of the remaining Merchant Adventurers:

John White	Samuel Sharp	Thomas Hudson
John Pocock	Robert Holland	Thomas Andrews
Robert Kean	James Shirley	Thomas Ward
Edward Bass	Thomas Mott	Fria. Newbald
William Hobson	Thomas Fletcher	Thomas Heath
William Penington	Timothy Hatherley	Joseph Tilden
William Quarles	Thomas Brewer	William Penrin
Daniel Poynton	John Thorned	Eliza Knight
Richard Andrews	Myles Knowles	Thomas Coventry
Newman Rookes	William Collier	Robert Allden
Henry Browning	John Revell	Laurence Anthony
Richard Wright	Peter Gudburn	John Knight
John Ling	Emmanuel Altham	Matthew Thornhill
Thomas Goffe	John Beauchamp	Thomas Millsop

Only the names of a few investors prior to 1626 are known, from various letters and court documents: Joseph Pocock, William Thomas, Mr. Gibbs, Chistopher Coulson, William Greene, John Pierce, Edward Pickering, and William Pierce.

After much financial problems, the flailing company reorganized in 1628, with James Shirley, Richard Andrews, John Beauchamp, and Timothy Hatherley, and a large group of Plymouth colonists buying out the remaining shareholders.