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UNKNOWN FORD (say 1592–1621/3)
MARTHA UNKNOWN (say 1597–by 1630)
Unknown Ford was born say 1592. He died between 11 December 1621 and March 1623 in Plymouth.
Martha Unknown was born say 1597. She died by 1630. [1] She married second Peter Browne by 1626 in Plymouth. [1][2] Peter, the son of William Browne, was baptized on 26 January 1594/5 in Dorking, county Surrey. [2] He died in 1633. [2] He married second Mary Unknown.
Peter was a passenger on the Mayflower. He died during the 1633 smallpox outbreak in Plymouth.
Unknown Ford and his wife Martha migrated in the Fortune in 1621. [1]
Edward Winslow wrote in a letter to a friend dated 11 December 1621, and sent by the return voyage of the Fortune, "The Goodwife Ford was delivered of a son the first night landed and both of them are very well." [3] It is unlikely that pregnant and with two small children, Martha sailed without her husband. As Winslow calls Martha Goodwife, and not Widow, it is apparent that her husband arrived in Plymouth.
"Widow Foord" received four acres in the 1623 Plymouth land division as a passenger on the Fortune. [1]
In the 1627 Plymouth cattle division she was the fifth person in the fifth company and her children John and Martha Ford were the seventh and eighth persons. [1]
Children of Unknown Ford and Martha Unknown:
i. John Ford was born say 1617. He died or left Plymouth between 5 January 1640/1 and 1643. [1]
John Ford was granted 30 acres and some meadow on 2 November 1640. [NBS1] On 5 January 1640/1 there was a settlement of a difference between John and Jonathan Brewster over a corn crop. [3] He does not appear on the 1643 list of those able to bear arms in Plymouth colony. [3]
ii. Martha Ford was born about 1619. She died on 20 December 1683. She married William Nelson.
iii. Unknown Son Ford was born on 9 November 1621 and died soon after. [1]
Children of Peter Browne and Martha Unknown:
i. Mary Browne [2] was born about 1626. [3] She died after 17 January 1683, when she was mentioned in her husband's will. [3] She married Ephraim Tinkham about 1647. [3] He died between 17 January 1683 and 20 May 1685, when inventory was taken on his estate. [3]
Mary was place with Mr. John Doane for nine years. [3]
ii. Priscilla Browne [2] was probably born in 1628. [3] She died after 17 February 1697/8, when she was mentioned in her husband's will. [3] She married William, the son of George Allen, on 21 March 1649 in Sandwich. [3]
Endnotes:
1. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 686–7.
2. Caleb Johnson, "Peter Browne," MayflowerHistory.com (http://mayflowerhistory.com/browne : accessed 27 December 2023) > Mayflower Passenger List > Peter Browne.
3. Mrs. John E. Barclay, "Goodwife Martha Ford alias "Widow" Ford, Her Second Husband, Peter Browne, and Her Children," The American Genealogist 42 (1966): 35–42.
Last revised: 27-Dec-2023