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GEORGE SOULE (d.c. 1680)

MARY BUCKETT (d.c. 1676)

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George was born about 1602. He probably died in January 1680 in Duxbury. [1] He married Mary Buckett before 1627 in Plymouth. [2][3]

Mary Buckett died about December 1676 in Duxbury. [1][2]

George Soule came on the Mayflower as a servant to Edward Winslow. [4, 441]

Land was divided in Plymouth in 1623, with each household receiving an acre per member. George, apparently single at the time, received one acre. [5][6] It is known that George later had a wife Mary. According to the above video, any woman that George married had to have also been in the 1623 land division. Checking the names reveals two women named Mary: Mary Buckett and Mary Chilton. Mary Chilton is known to have married someone else; hence, George must have married Mary Buckett.

George, Mary and Zachariah Soule were in the ninth lot of the division of cattle in 1627 in Plymouth. [7]

The first meeting of the New Plymouth Colony General Court took place on 1 January 1632/3 (all court dates are old style). George was already a freeman by then. All governments need revenue and one of the courts first acts was to order the collection of taxes. The taxes, collected in corn, ranged from nine shillings for most of the households to three pounds and 11 shillings for Isaac Allerton. George was one of those assessed nine shillings. [8]

By an order of 2 January 1633/4, he paid a tax of nine shillings. [8]

On 1 July 1633 mowing was allocated and George was to "mow for a cow" near his house. [8] In the 7 March 1636/7 allocation, he was given what he had before. [8]

George was on a 1633 list of freemen in Plymouth and also on a 7 March 1636/7 list. [8]

Plymouth Colony decided to send soldiers to assist Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut Colony in their war against the Pequot Indians. On 7 June 1637 George was one of the soldiers who volunteered to go. [8]

On 4 December 1637 George was granted a garden place on the Duxbury side. [8] On 7 May 1638 he was granted an acre at the watering place in compensation for an acre taken from him. [8]

On 26 July 1638 the town of New Plymouth considered the disposition of the stock donated by London merchant Mr. James Shirley for the poor of the town of Plymouth and George received a bull calf. [9]

On 5 May 1640 George was on a committee to view and measure all the ungranted meadowland at Greens Harbor. [8] On 2 November 1640 he was granted the meadow that he wanted at Greens Harbor. [8]

On 27 September 1642 George Soule was a representative from Duxbury for a special court called to consider an Indian threat. [10]

George was on a grand jury on 6 June 1643. [10] He was on a petty jury on 1 June 1647. [10]

George was on the committee for the town of Duxbury on 3 March 1645/6, 4 June 1650, 5 June 1651. [10]

George was appointed to a committee to draw up an order concerning the "disorderly drinking of tobacco." [10]

In 1652 George Soule agreed with Mr. John Winslow that his daughter Mary Soule would live with and serve Mr. Winslow for seven years, or eight if she remained unmarried. [11]

George Soule, Sr. of Duxbury, made his will on 11 August 1677. He mentioned that he had formerly given his sons Nathaniel and George land in Dartmouth and formerly given his daughters Elizabeth and Patience land in Middleborough. He left his daughters Susanna and Mary 12 pence each. He said that his eldest son John and his family "hath in my extreame old age and weaknes bin tender and carefull of mee and very helpfull to mee" and he left him all the remainder of his goods and lands and made him his executor. [1]

There must have been some friction in the family: Susanna and Mary were left little, with no suggestion they had already been given their portion, and on 20 September 1677 George added a codicil. If John Soule or his heirs disturbed Patience or her heirs in the peaceable possession of the lands George had given her at Namassakett (Middleborough), then his gift to John was void, she was to be the sole executrix, and to have his lands at Duxbury. [1]

Inventory was taken on George's estate on 22 January 1679/[80?] and was presented on 5 March 1679/80 with John Soule testifying to it. Their is a comment in the records, that "my" [presumably John's] mother had died three years ago last December. [1]

Children of George Soule and Mary Buckett:

i. Zachariah Soule was born before 1627. He married Margaret ___. [2]

Zachariah Soule took up a skiff that belonged to Mr. Hutchison of Massachusetts. On 2 October 1650 the court directed him to deliver it to Mr. William Paddy, who would pay him for his pains.[10]

ii. John Soule was born about 1631/2. He died before 14 November 1707 in Duxbury. He married first Rebecca Simonsen. He married second Hester (Nash) Sampson.

iii. Nathaniel Soule was born between say 1634 and 1646. [2] He married Rose ___. [2]

On 4 March 1673/4 Nathaniel was ordered to pay ten bushels of corn to an Indian woman for the keeping of the child he fathered with her. [2]

iv. George Soule was born about 1639. He married Deborah ___. [2]

v. Susannah Soule was born say 1640. She married Francis West by 1660. [2]

vi. Mary Soule was born about 1642. She married John Peterson. [2]

vii. Elizabeth Soule married Francis Walker. [12]

Elizabeth was fined for fornication on 3 March 1662/3. [2] She sued Nathaniel Church on 5 October 1663 for refusing to marry her. [2] She was ordered whipped for committing fornication a second time on 2 July 1667. [2]

viii. Patience Soule died on 11 March 1705/6 in Middleborough. [12] She married John Haskell in January 1666. [12] He was born about 1640. He died on 15 May 1706, age 66, in Middleborough. [12]

Inventory was taken on John's estate on 20 June 1706; it amounted to 32 pounds and 17 shillings. [12]

Patience bought the old meeting house in Middleborough in 1701. [12]

ix. Benjamin Soule was a soldier in King Philip's war and died on 26 March 1676. [2]

References:

1. George Ernest Bowman, "The Will of George Soule," Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 81–82.

2. "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), 1704–8.

3. George Ernest Bowman, "Mayflower Genealogies: I. Vital Statistics of Mayflower Passengers," Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 114–120.8

4. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647, edited with and introduction and notes by Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).

5. "Division of Land," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 227–30.

6. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), Appendix E (1623 land division).

7. "Division of Cattle in 1627," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 148–54.

8. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855): 3–4 (freeemen 1633).

9. Records of the Town of Plymouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995).

10. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 2, Court Orders, 1641–1651 (Boston: William White, 1855).

11. "Plymouth Colony Deeds," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 214.

12. Thomas Weston, History of the Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts (New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1906), 44–45 (Patience and Elizabeth).

12. George Ernest Bowman, "John Haskell's Inventory," Mayflower Descendant 6 (1904): 6–7.

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Last revised: 27-Dec-2023