| Birth: Unknown. |
 Mourt's
Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
This day-to-day journal, chronicling events during the first year at
Plymouth, may have been partially authored by John Carver.
Portions were also written by Edward Winslow, and probably some by
William Bradford as well. This is the only first-hand account,
written by the Mayflower passengers, that tells the day-to-day
details of what happened while they were exploring Cape Cod, building
their colony, and meeting with the Indians.
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Biographical Summary
Very little is known about John Carver,
even though he was one of the more prominent members of the Pilgrims'
church in Leiden. John Carver and Mary de Lannoy (from L'Escluse,
near Lille, France) appear in Leiden records in February 1609, the same
month that John Robinson and the rest of the Pilgrims sought permission
from the Leiden magistrates for permission to take up residence.
Perhaps John Carver was one of the original members of the Scrooby
congregation; or perhaps he is an Englishman who had already taken up
residence there, he having married a French Walloon. Mayflower
passenger Francis Cooke had done something similar, having married to
Hester le Mahieu, a French Walloon, and had taken up residence in Leiden
more than six years before the Pilgrims had arrived to settle there.
They buried a child a few months later, in July 1609.
Mary died sometime thereafter, perhaps even during the childbirth.
Carver would marry sometime, perhaps arount 1616, to Katherine (White)
Legatt, the daughter of Alexander White of Sturton-le-Steeple,
Nottinghamshire. Katherine's sister Bridget White married the
Pilgrims' pastor John Robinson. They buried a child in Leiden in
November 1617. John Carver is not known to have had any surviving
children. However, Thomas Hutchinson's 1767 history of New England
does mention that one Robert Carver of Marshfield was a grandson: but on
what grounds the author makes this claim is unknown and no records to
support this statement have ever been located.
When the Pilgrims made the decision to begin moving their church to
somewhere in America, they sent John Carver and Robert Cushman as their
representatives to England to negotiate with the Virginia company and
organize the business. Carver came on the Mayflower, where
he acted as governor on the ship for the voyage. After arrival, he
was elected governor of the Colony, and remained in that capacity until
his untimely death from an apparent sun stroke in April 1621. His
wife Katherine died a few weeks later of a "broken heart." |
