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DEGORY PRIEST (c. 1579–1621)
SARAH ALLERTON (c. 1614–1633)
Sarah Allerton's English Ancestry [3]
Bartholomew Allerton was born say the mid-sixteenth century in the Essex/Suffolk border region. He died between July 1601 and 8 June 1603. He might be related to the Protestant martyr Ralph Allerton who was burned at the stake on 17 September 1555. Bartholomew married Mary ___. Children:
i. Sarah Allerton was born about 1584.
ii. Isaac Allerton was born about 1584, probably in East Bergholt, Suffolk.
iii. John Allerton might have been the Mayflower passenger of this name who died the first winter.
Degory Priest was born about 1579. [1][2] He died on 1 January 1620/1 in Plymouth. [1] He married Sarah (Allerton) Vincent on 4 November 1611 in Leiden, Holland, the same day Sarah's brother Isaac married his first wife Mary Norris. [2]
Sarah Allerton, the daughter of Bartholomew and Mary Allerton, was born about 1584, probably in East Bergholt, Suffolk. [3] She and her third husband died between July and 24 October 1633, when inventory was taken on their joint estate. [4] She married first John Vincent. She married third Godbert Godbertson on 13 November 1621 in Leiden. [4] Godbert was born about 1592. He married Elizabeth Kendall on 27 May 1617 in Leiden. [1]
Sarah and Godbert died during the 1633 smallpox outbreak in Plymouth.
Degory Priest came to Plymouth on the Mayflower. He died soon after his arrival. Degory's wife—Mr. Allerton's sister—and his children arrived after. [5, 447]
Degory Priest and Godbert Godbertson were hatters. [3]
"Isaac Allerton was one of the busiest and most complicated men in early New England, and no attempt is made here to cover his career comprehensively. A full-scale biography would be needed for that ... Records for Allerton may be found in virtually every colony on the Atlantic seaboard and the Caribbean, including Newfoundland, New Netherland, New Sweden, Virginia, Barbados, and in Curacao." [1, 38]
Godbert and Sarah, Sarah's children Mary and Sarah Priest, and Godbert and Sarah's son Samuel came to New England on the Anne in 1623. [3]
On 11 November 1633 Phineas Pratt was appointed to take into his possession all the goods and chattels of Godbert Gobertson and Sarah, his wife, and to safely preserve them according to an inventory presented on oath. [6] On 25 November 1633 the court noted that Godbert and Sarah had died in debt and appointed William Bradford to administer their estates. On 22 December 1633 it was noted that most of their debt was due to Sarah's brother Isaac Allerton, and that Isaac had agreed to absorb his losses before anyone else. [6]
Land was divided in Plymouth in 1623, with each household receiving an acre per member. Godbert Godbertson received six acres, apparently one for himself, one for Sarah, one for Sarah's deceased former husband Degory Priest, two for Sarah's daughters Mary and Sarah, and one for a child of Godbert by a previous marriage. [7]
Sarah Allerton, Godbert Godbertson, Mary and Sarah Priest were in the second lot of the division of cattle in 1627 in Plymouth. [8]
A record of the Court of Assistants held on 3 August 1640 says: [9]
Forasmuch as it appeareth by the testymony of Josuah Pratt & otherwise, that the two acrees of upland lying at Wellingsly Brook, on the north side of the lotte given to Godbert Bodbertson, were given by the said Godbert Godbertson to John Combe, gent, & Phineas Pratt, in marriage wth their wives, his daughters, the Court doth confirme the said two acrees unto the said John Combe & Phineas Pratt, their heires & assignes for eu.
The "daughters" were Godbert's stepdaughters, Sarah and Mary.
Children of Degory Priest and Sarah Allerton:
i. Mary Priest was born say 1612. She married Phineas Pratt. [1][10]
Mr. Thomas Weston had been one of the leading London Adverturers who backed the Pilgrims' voyage. Disenchanted, he sold his shares and begain his own venture, sending out three ships to Wessagusset (now Weymouth). One ship, the Sparrow, brought seven passangers en route to Weymouth to Plymouth, one of whom was Phineas Pratt, who later married, the daughter of Degory Priest. [11]
ii. Sarah Priest was born about 1614 in Leiden. She married John Coombs.
Children of Godbert Godbertson and Sarah Allerton:
i. Samuel Godbertson was born about 1622 in Leiden. [1]
He was apprenticed for seven years to Richard Higgens, tailor, on 1 April 1641.[1]
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), 36–39 (Isaac Allerton), 776–8 (Godbert Godbertson), 1526 (Degory Priest).
2. George Ernest Bowman, "Mayflower Genealogies: I. Vital Statistics of Mayflower Passengers," Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 114–120.
3. Caleb Johnson, Sue Allan, and Simon Neal, "The Origin and Parentage of Mayflower Passenger Isaac Allelrton in East Bergholt, Suffolk," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 173 (2019): 197–205.
4. "Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 154.
5. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, Charles Dean, editor (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856), Appendix.
6. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855).
7. "Division of Land," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 227–30.
8. "Division of Cattle in 1627," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 148–54.
9. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of Plymouth Colony: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855), 159.
10. E.S. Atwood, "The Daughters of Degory Priest," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 28 (1897): 168–9.
11. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), 24 (arrival of Phineas).
Last revised: 27-Dec-2023