Motivations for the Great Migration' to New England, 1628-1640: The Case of the Kentish Passengers on the Hercules which sailed from Sandwich, March 1635

Motivations for the ‘Great Migration’ to New England, 1628-1640: the Case of the KENTISH PASSENGERS on the Hercules WHICH SAILED FROM SANDWICH, March 1635

diane thomas

The Hercules sailed from Sandwich to New England in March 1635 carrying 102 passengers. Only fourteen years after the Mayflower, and four after the founding of Boston, the Hercules made its journey during a movement which saw an estimated 20,000 English people emigrate to New England between 1628 and 1640.1 Although greater numbers went to some other American colonies in the same period, Americans call this the ‘Great Migration’, seeing it as a collective migration of Puritans and Separatists, underpinning the Puritan character of New England. But whilst many of the emigrants of this period can clearly be recognised as religious radicals, their religion may not have been the sole reason for their journey. Some may have had a complex mix of reasons, religion being just one, and others not motivated by religion at all.

To make sense of the conflicting findings of previous studies concerning the motivations behind the ‘Great Migration’, this study of the passengers on the Hercules examines them in terms of religion, status, education, occupation, family and friendship ties. The Hercules was chosen because it was one of only two ‘Great Migration’ ships known to have sailed from Sandwich; and because its passengers were, with one exception, all from Kent (Fig. 1).2

Rather unusually, the ship was jointly-purchased specifically for the voyage by several of its passengers. The names of many Hercules passengers and their relatives (including, for example, Comfort Starr and his sister Truthshallprevail) suggest, at first sight, that they fit the widely accepted Puritan profile.

The early view that the ‘Great Migration’ represented an exodus of persecuted religious radicals seeking to build, from scratch, their own ideal community drew strongly on the writings of late seventeenth-century New England. By then the colony’s puritanical outlook was well-established, and thus the writings did not necessarily accurately reflect the possibly complex factors that had motivated the first generation of emigrants. It was not until the early twentieth century that historians proposed an alternative theory that the ‘Great Migration’ was heavily influenced by economic factors. More recently, some writers have continued to concentrate on religious motives; some others have suggested a complicated mix of motivations.

There is strong circumstantial support to both the religious and economic arguments regarding the ‘Great Migration’. The period 1628-40 exactly coincided with the rise and fall of anti-Puritan William Laud, its second and stronger phase from 1634 followed Laud’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. The return to England of many of the emigrants during the Interregnum offers further strong circumstantial evidence that they were Puritans or Separatists.

Significant economic pressures also coincided with the ‘Great Migration’ though having begun well before 1628. The early seventeenth century was a time of rising food prices. Many emigrants came from East Anglia and Kent, both traditional cloth-producing areas, and this was a time of general depression. In Kent, however, the ‘New Draperies’ and other emerging new industries meant the county suffered less than other areas.

Characteristics and Connections of the Passengers on the Hercules

Table 1 shows the full Hercules passenger list in its original order and including places of origin. From research in parish registers and wills, parish of baptism, the ages and connections to other passengers have been added, together with occupations, where possible. All, except Parnell Harris from Bow, London, were listed as coming from Kent, and most from east Kent. Parnell was in fact baptised at Northbourne where members of her immediate family continued to live.

When Nathaniel and Lydia Tilden left for New England they were aged 51 and 48 respectively. Comfort Starr and Thomas Besbeech were both 45, Emme Mason 51, and Faintnot Wines and William Holmes also both over 40. To undertake such a journey and such an upheaval at their age, these people must either have feared very greatly for their own futures, or those of their families, in England; or they must have perceived New England as offering some special opportunity. The proportion of over-40s on the Hercules was, however, in keeping with similar groups studied by Anderson (seven ships from the 1630s) and Tyack (East Anglian emigrants 1629-1640).3

Unfortunately we only know the occupations of 14 of the 19 heads of household/single men on the Hercules.

This simple division of occupations hides significant variations in status; for example, the cloth trades include both a fairly humble hempdresser and a possibly prosperous mercer.4

The Hercules carried a significant number of people of good standing and education. Nathaniel Tilden had been mayor of Tenterden in 1622 (his cousin John Tilden succeeded him in 1623); fellow-passenger Jonas Austen was first cousin to John Austen, mayor of Tenterden in 1634, who signed the certificates of honesty and conformity enabling the Austen, Tilden, Hinckley and Lewis families to leave England.5 William Witherell was an ordained clergyman, Robert Brooke a mercer, William Hatch a merchant and cousin to the Tildens, and Comfort Starr a surgeon and grandson of the mayor of New Romney. Together with their wives and families, this influential group accounted for well over a third of those on board.

In an age when university education was rare, four of the families on the Hercules had known university connections. William Witherell graduated m.a. from Corpus Christi in 1626. His contemporary at Cambridge was Freegift Tilden, the brother of Hercules passenger Nathaniel, another of whose brothers, Theophilus, matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1610. (Thomas, eldest son of the Hinckley family who emigrated later, entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1633.) Finally, Thomas Starr, father of Hercules passenger Comfort, matriculated sizar from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1585.6 In fact many on board probably had some standard of education. Almost all came from towns, or the vicinity of towns, that had grammar schools before 1600: Sandwich, Wye, Tenterden, Biddenden, Maidstone and Canterbury. Though records do not exist to say whether any Hercules passengers attended them, the fact that a good number on the ship were of ‘the middling sort’ makes it a reasonable possibility. The probate inventory for Hercules passenger Emme Mason from Eastwell shows that she left a bible, a psalm book, a sermon book and 11 other books, total value 29s. 10d. out of goods and property with a total value £25 16s.7 Nathaniel Tilden’s inventory included 46 books and religious works, value £5.8 Comfort Starr’s inventory included books to value £7 and that of Faintnot Wines seven religious books and a bible.9 Servant Thomas Lapham’s 1648/9 inventory included ten books valued at 13s. 4d.10

Whilst seventeenth-century emigrants from the British Isles to the New World as a whole were generally overwhelmingly young, male and unmarried, those involved in the ‘Great Migration’ to New England much more closely resembled the demographic structure of the English population. In Anderson’s seven-ships study, nearly 90 per cent travelled in family groups of some sort and 75 per cent in nuclear family units.11 That compared to 72.3 per cent travelling in some sort of family group and 64 per cent in a nuclear family on the Hercules. Comfort Starr was travelling without his wife on the Hercules, and with only three of his eight children, though records show the whole family did eventually go to New England; Margaret Johnes was travelling to join her husband.12

Table 1 sets out the known relationships of the passengers on the Hercules. While it cannot be proved, it seems likely that many of those from neighbouring parishes like Maidstone and Aylesford, and from Ashford and nearby locations also knew each other. A catalyst in the Ashford area could have been the radical preacher John Lothrop who, prior to his time leading the Independent Congregation in London after 1625, had been vicar at Little Chart from 1609 and at Egerton from 1610-1624. The inter-connections of the Tilden, Hatch, Austen and Besbeech families are notable. The Tildens had the most connections to others on the ship. As Nathaniel Tilden was also listed first on the passenger list and was part-owner of the Hercules, it can be assumed that he was the most instrumental in bringing the group together. Some Hercules passengers also had connections with other migrants, and again it was Nathaniel Tilden who was most involved. In a connection apparently overlooked by the many writers on aspects of the ‘Great Migration’, Tilden was step-brother to Robert Cushman who had negotiated the patent for the Leiden separatists to go to New England on the Mayflower in 1620.13 Cushman himself followed on the Fortune in 1621, along with his 12-year-old son Thomas, but apparently leaving behind his five-year-old daughter Sarah who accompanied Tilden on the Hercules.14 Tilden’s brother Joseph, citizen and girdler of London, was one of those who financed the Mayflower. At least nine others on the Hercules had close family who travelled separately to New England, including the Hinckley’s eldest son and Parnell Harris’s brother and sister who had been in prison with John Lothrop.15

The people declared as ‘servants’ on the Hercules are an interesting group. There is only clear evidence that two of them were true servants. Tilden servant Edward Jenkins had time still owed on a covenant of service when Tilden made his will in 1641; and Robert Anderson records Samuel Dunkin as having been a servant in both England and New England.16 It seems likely that many other ‘servants’ were actually wider family members, or the children of friends, under the protection of the head of household. Emigration to New England was expensive, and required lengthy planning. Signing on as a servant for three or five years was a means of securing free passage as well as employment and accommodation on arrival.

Of the remaining 19 servants on the Hercules, Sarah Couchman, servant to Nathaniel Tilden, was almost certainly his step-niece; and Truthshallprevail Starr, servant to Comfort Starr, was in fact his sister. Thomas Lapham and George Sutton were listed as Tilden servants, but they married two of the Tilden daughters, Sarah and Mary.17 In a small community of like-minded people, marriages across the class divide were probably not that unusual, but there is additional evidence that Lapham and Sutton were not servants. As already noted, Thomas Lapham possessed a lot of books for someone who had been a servant; and George Sutton’s brother Simon, himself listed as a Hatch servant, witnessed Nathaniel Tilden’s will in 1641.18 Another Hatch servant William Holmes, whose inventory included six books and shown by his death record to have been 43 when the Hercules sailed, had certainly left service by 1638 when he signed the oath of allegiance. Joseph Pacheing’s status as servant is also called into question because he married into the household of his employer. He travelled on the Hercules as a servant of Thomas Besbeech, amongst whose household were Jane Egelden, née Bennet, and her children. In 1642 Joseph married Jane’s widowed sister Elizabeth Iggulden.19 Jane and Elizabeth’s brother James Bennett possibly signed on as a servant to the Tildens as a way of financing his emigration. He had inherited just £10 from his father’s will, insufficient for the voyage. The same may have applied to the Coles’ servant Rose Tritton who was joining her sister and brother-in-law, shown by New England records to have been prosperous.20

Other unlikely servants were Joseph and Symon Ketcherell. The Sandwich town book shows that in 1615 David Ketcherell and Hopestill Tilden (Nathaniel’s brother) were the constables for Sandwich. David Ketcherell served as constable in most years up to 1629.21 This possibly suggests that the Ketcherells moved in similar circles to the Tildens, and that Joseph and Symon were more likely to have been on the Hercules under the protection of William Hatch rather than as servants.

With their apparent Puritan sympathies and several strange-sounding surnames it seemed likely that some of the emigrants were from former immigrant families, but no connections were found.22 That does not rule out the possibility of immigrants amongst them. In particular, Perien could be French, and Couchman/Cushman Dutch, but even Brooke could be derived from Dutch, especially in the case of a mercer. Tilden also sounds possibly Dutch, but several Tilden wills had been proved in the Canterbury probate courts as early as the 1400s, so the family was long-established in Kent.

The Hercules and Sandwich

Comfort Starr made a deposition on 2 February 1634/5, saying the Hercules belonged to him and fellow passengers Nathaniel Tilden and William Hatch, John Witherley and a Mr Osborne; and that John Witherley, a mariner of Sandwich who was to be the ship’s master for the voyage, had bought the 200-ton Flemish-built ship, previously named St Peter, on their behalf for £340 at Dunkirk the previous November. Starr said ‘being noe seaman, [I] cannot tell of what length, breadth or depth she is’.23 Although Starr apparently had no shipping knowledge, Sandwich merchant William Hatch possibly did have the necessary experience. In Sandwich, Nathaniel’s brother Hopestill Tilden was a grocer and the will of Hopestill’s widowed daughter-in-law, dated 1637, included raisins and currants with total value £7 as well as white and brown sugar value £1 7s.24 She was clearly in the grocery business too, with experience of importing, and this probably also applied to Hopestill. This raises the question whether the Hercules was a business venture for its travelling owners, though Tilden, Starr and Hatch did all settle in New England. Virginia Anderson points out that if the Hercules owners charged the same rate as did the Massachusetts Bay Company (£5 per adult with a reduction for children) they would have raised between £300 and £350.25 Having covered their outlay in one journey, the ship would then have been in full profit taking goods back to England on its return and on any subsequent voyage. However, the wills and inventories of Tilden (1641), Hatch (1651) and Starr (1659) make no mention of any ship, so any enterprise of that sort seems to have been short-lived, although Hatch was also part-owner of the emigration ship Castle in 1638.26

Reasons for Going to New England

Excluding servants, roughly a quarter of adult males on the Hercules whose occupation is known were involved in the textile trades: three tailors, a mercer and a hempdresser. Silk, at the top of the scale, and hemp at the bottom, were unlikely to have been much affected by the problems affecting woollen cloth, and tailors worked more to the local market, so none of these should have been serious victims of the slump in cloth exports. Though many weavers did emigrate, lack of raw materials for weaving in New England meant that their skills were not required there. Probate evidence shows that some nevertheless took their looms with them, possibly assuming they would be continuing their trade. Tailors may not have been affected by these problems in the colony, however. Comfort Starr’s 1659 will left his house at Ashford, on condition that the beneficiary send to every one of the testator’s New England grandchildren ‘good Kersey and Peniston cotton, to the worth of 40s apiece’.27 The request for cloth rather than clothes suggests a role for tailors in the colony, but a definite shortage of cloth.

While subject to fluctuations, the Wealden iron industry did not substantially decline until the eighteenth century. Kent benefited from the nearby expanding London market and during the early seventeenth century established new industries including, in the Maidstone area, home of some Hercules migrants, paper and the production of thread.

Whilst the once prosperous port at Sandwich had been in decline since silting of the haven began in the mid-sixteenth century, both this and the mid-1620s slump seem too early to have prompted the Hercules voyage in 1635. Indeed by the 1630s the town was recovering a little. Richardson notes some upward trends: more affluent people in the town and region were importing luxury comestibles including sugar, currants, raisins, olive oil and tobacco, which is partly borne out by the inventory of Elizabeth Tilden.28 Zoe Ollerenshaw suggests that in Sandwich in the 1630s the civic elite, amongst whom she names Hopestill Tilden, Nathaniel’s brother, were still financially secure.29 Unemployment was probably not a factor driving people to emigrate from Kent in the 1630s to the same degree as from some other counties.

Whilst poorer emigrants on the Hercules do not seem to have been driven from England by high prices and lack of opportunity, their richer companions may instead have been drawn by the financial opportunities in New England both in terms of acquiring land and establishing new trades. As already seen, Nathaniel Tilden had close connections to the negotiator of the Mayflower’s patent and one of the earliest settlers of Plymouth and to one of the original financiers of the Mayflower and Plymouth Colony. Samuel Deane says it is certain that Tilden and six others were in Plymouth before 1628, basing his statement on Tilden’s 1628 purchase of land adjacent to that which he already held at Scituate.30 This raises the question whether Tilden, with all his interesting connections, was himself principally an investor in the colony rather than a religious exile, despite his many Puritan connections. When he first went out before 1628 he may just have gone to invest in land, but liked the life he saw developing there, and decided ultimately to take his family to settle.

Clearly many of the people on the Hercules did have radical religious sympathies of some kind. The Starrs and some others had classic Puritan Christian names; the inventories of both Nathaniel Tilden and Thomas Hayward listed works by John Preston, as well as Thomas Shepherd, John Dodd and other leading Puritans. Tilden also had Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, as did Comfort Starr.31

As Tilden had radical connections and was apparently leader of the largest interconnected group on the Hercules, almost certainly the majority of that grouping, at least, were either Separatists or had strong Puritan sympathies. Their religion may not however have been the main or only reason for this group going. Anderson looked for evidence of their persecution but found little, though she says that William Witherell had been in trouble with the church authorities, but gives no details.32

A search for Hercules passengers in the indexes to the many volumes of Canter-bury Consistory Ecclesiastical Court records 1615-34 produced several references to the Tilden, Starr, Besbeech and Witherell families, but mostly relating to minor matters such as disputed wills and non-payment of tithes (an indicator of religious dissent, but not persecution). However Comfort Starr appeared on a schedule of four people excommunicated on 2 December 1618.33

It is difficult to judge exactly what life would have been like for religious radicals in the 1630s in the parishes the Hercules emigrants came from. However the Weald, Ashford and Sandwich all had established communities of religious radicals, few of whom would have had to travel far to find a Minister they approved of. Nevertheless, even without persecution or loss of position, the religious climate would have produced a general dissatisfaction with life in England amongst many religious radicals, making them more open to opportunities to create a new life elsewhere.

All but nine Hercules passengers were from east Kent making Sandwich a logical place to have sailed from. However, if any on board were fugitive Separatists, Sandwich, as a minor emigration port, might have attracted less attention, especially for passengers sailing in their own ship. Fourteen on board had their certificates signed by the vicar of St Mary’s, Sandwich, and a further fourteen by the vicar of St Peter’s, though other evidence suggests that at least half of these were not long-standing Sandwich residents. Possibly in some of these cases Hopestill Tilden, Nathaniel’s brother, Sandwich Common Counsellor and parishioner of St Mary’s, used some influence. A further 32 had certificates signed by John Austen, mayor of Tenterden, a relative of the Tildens and Austens.

Another possible reason for emigrating was the constant threat of epidemics in England from which New England was no doubt seen as a likely refuge. Sandwich had outbreaks of smallpox in 1624 and plague in 1625.34 Tilden himself lost step-brother Robert Cushman, then on a return visit to England, to plague in 1625.35 While not that recent in 1634, their recurrence must have been a continual worry, and in fact Sandwich was to suffer plague again in 1636.

A remote destination like New England would have been a very effective place to hide from the authorities, creditors, or from family problems, but it must surely be assumed that most would have chosen a more comfortable hideout, without all the hard work and deprivation that life in early New England would entail, and that the dissolute would not knowingly have chosen a lifetime in the company of the Godly and righteous.

Peer pressure was another compelling factor. Fear of losing loved ones forever would have been a strong incentive to go with them, and may have been a partial reason behind the complicated web of connections found both between people on the Hercules and between them and other settlers. People were also influenced by the literature of the Massachusetts Bay Company, some of it very over-favourable propaganda, and by the sermons of some Ministers urging them to go.

The sheer size and expense of the undertaking must not be under-estimated: the distance, the journey into the unknown, the uncertainty about safety and security, both on the journey and on arrival, and about any possibility of return. Those most able to accept this challenge were likely to be free-thinkers and thus the better-educated, exactly the sort of people who were also more likely to be radicals, not only in religion.

While all of these factors were possibly good reasons for leaving England, they do not fully explain the emigrants’ choice of New England, when they could have gone to Holland (as in fact 414 emigrants from Yarmouth alone did in 1637), or one of the more developed American colonies that would have entailed a lot less hardship.36 For those motivated by religious difficulties, the nearer refuge of Leiden had already become less attractive for many, largely due to restrictions on trade for strangers there. Although English people were still going to Holland in the 1630s, Mayflower pilgrims from Leiden left in 1620. Their decision to settle in Plymouth, whether the initial landing there was accidental or not, put them outside the jurisdiction of the Church of England which applied in more settled Virginia. It was Plymouth, and subsequently Massachusetts Bay, which offered comparative freedom of religious practice. For the economic migrants, though the hardship was greater in New England, so were the potential economic rewards. In Virginia and other American colonies, the best land had already long been claimed.

Whilst people of various religious beliefs emigrated, once in New England the religious radicals amongst them would soon have been able to take control fairly easily because they included many clergymen, and because men amongst them like Tilden, Starr and Austen had money, position, good education and experience of office.

Conclusion

Research into the Hercules passengers shows that in many respects they were fairly typical of ‘Great Migration’ emigrants. The unusual or unexpected characteristics that emerged were their often close links with the civic elite of the towns they came from, their high number of bonds to university-educated people, their complicated interconnections, and the strong links of Nathaniel Tilden, in particular, to key figures in Plymouth Colony’s earliest history.

The research suggests that although the majority of the Hercules emigrants were either religious radicals of some sort, or had some sympathy with them, religion was not always their principal or only reason for going. Radicalism was perhaps co-incidentally strong both in areas the ‘Great migration’ emigrants came from, such as Kent and East Anglia, and amongst the textile workers who were both strongly-represented amongst the emigrants.

Whilst a strong argument supporting religious problems as a key reason behind the ‘Great Migration’ is that it exactly coincided with the period of William Laud’s dominance this was not a sudden flight for most on the Hercules. Not only is there little evidence of any of them actually being persecuted, but arrangements in terms of financing the trip and getting together the enormous quantities of necessary supplies required long-term planning.

Similarly, whilst it might initially seem that many might have wanted to escape evident economic hardship in England, for families, the dominant group amongst emigrants to New England, the cost of passage, supplies and ‘seed money’ for the new colony would probably have been prohibitive if they had economic problems. Thus, apart from single people, largely signed-on as servants, many of those who went to New England for economic reasons were probably the comfortably-off seeking new economic opportunities rather than escaping hardship.

All these themes suggest that a big factor amongst Hercules emigrants was a wish for a new life and a new community. The key figure who emerges from the Hercules is Nathaniel Tilden. With his interesting range of contacts he seems to epitomise the emigrants’ complicated mix of motivations. Tilden was also the only Hercules passenger known definitely to have been in New England before, and more than six years earlier. Was he one of the motivators behind the main wave of migration to New England from 1634? The same might be asked about fellow passenger and Hercules co-owner William Hatch, owner of the Castle. The location and timing of Tilden’s first land purchases also raises interesting questions about his connection, and that of others like him, to the establishment of Plymouth Colony. The Hercules evidence supports the theory that the emigrants’ motives were a complicated mix that is difficult to unravel and tends to contradict the view, still held by some, that economic factors, including greater opportunities, were unimportant. The Hercules carried some interesting passengers, but whether it was in any way special is unclear.

[The next volume of Archaeologia Cantiana will include a Note on what became of these Kentish families in the New World.]

endnotes

1 Numbers are from KHLC: Sa/Ac7 – The New Black Book of Sandwich 1608-42 (Sandwich Town Book) f. 275r-276r and Allen, David Grayson, 1986, ‘The Matrix of Motivation’, The New England Quarterly (Vol. 59), p. 414.

2 KHLC:Sa/Ac/7, Sandwich Town Book, ff.275-276.

3 Anderson, Virginia DeJohn, 1993, New England’s Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge), Table 1, p. 222; Tyack, N.C.P., 1951, ‘Migration from East Anglia to New England before 1660’, University of London ph.d thesis, App. 1.

4 It is worth noting, despite the limited numbers on the Hercules, that she carried a broadly similar proportion of those involved in agriculture as the East Anglian emigrants; and a similar proportion of cloth tradesmen to the seven ships sample. In terms of other artisans the Hercules is similar to both. See KHLC:Sa/Ac/7, ff.275r-276r; Anderson, New England’s Generation, Table 6, p. 224; Tyack, ‘Migration from East Anglia’, App.1, pp. i-cxix.

5 KHLC:Sa/Ac/7, Sandwich Town Book, ff.275r-276r.

6 http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/Documents/acad/enter.html Cambridge Alumni Database; Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714, vol. iv (Oxford, 1891).

7 http://teh.salemstate.edu/Essex/essexprobate.html Early Essex County Probate Inventories.

8 http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/TILDEN.htm Plymouth Colony Archive Project: Inventory of Nathaniel Tilden 1641.

9 Starr, Burgis Pratt, 1879, A History of the Starr Family of New England (Hartford, Conn.), p. ix; Anderson, Robert Charles, et al., The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, vols 1-7 (Boston, 1999-2011), vol. 7, p. 474.

10 The Mayflower Descendant, 1908, vol. 10, p. 199.

11 Anderson, New England’s Generation, pp. 19-21.

12 KHLC:Sa/Ac/7, Sandwich Town Book ff.275r-276r; Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration, vol. 3, pp. 333-334, vol. 6, pp. 487-492.

13 French, Elizabeth, 1914, ‘Genealogical Research in England – Cushman’, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 68 (1914), pp. 182-83; Cowper, Joseph Meadows (ed.), 1892, Canterbury Marriage Licences 1568-1618 (Canterbury), p. 417.

14 Bateman, Audrey, 1996, The Mayflower Connection (Canterbury), pp. 20-25, 61, and see fig. 1.

15 Burrage, Champlin, 1912, The Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research, Vol. 1 (New York), p. 323.

16 Anderson, The Great Migration, vol. 7, p. 43 and vol. 2, p. 370.

17 Anderson, The Great Migration, vol. 7, p. 44.

18 Ibid., vol. 6, p. 608.

19 Ibid., vol. 5, p. 382.

20 KHLC:PRC17/64/383 – Will of Thomas Bennett 1627; Anderson, The Great Migration, vol. 6, p. 461.

21 KHLC:Sa/AC/7, Sandwich Town Book, ff.48v-148r.

22 Backhouse, Marcel, 1995, The Flemish and Walloon Communities at Sandwich during the Reign of Elizabeth I (Brussels); Cross, Francis, 1898, The History of the Walloon and Huguenot Church (Canterbury). These were both searched for surnames from the Hercules passenger list, or possible variants; Jane Andrewes kindly checked Hercules names against her list of Dutch immigrants to Sandwich from late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century probate documents

23 Hutchinson, J.R., 1916, ‘Some Notable Depositions from the High Court of Admiralty’ New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 47, p. 332.

24 KHLC: PRC 11/2, Inventory of Elizabeth Tilden of Sandwich, 1637, transcript kindly provided by Jane Andrewes.

25 Anderson, New England’s Generation, p. 69.

26 Anderson, The Great Migration, vol. 7, pp. 43-44; Starr, A History of the Starr Family, p. vii; The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 10 (1908), p. 40 (gives Hatch’s inventory in full).

27 Starr, A History of the Starr Family, p. viii.

28 Richardson, Thomas., 2006, Historic Sandwich and its Region 1500-1900 (Sandwich), pp. 52, 55.

29 Ollerenshaw, Zoe L., 1990, ‘The Civic Elite of Sandwich, Kent 1558-1640’, Kent m.phil. thesis.

30 Deane, Samuel, 1831, The History of Scituate, Massachusetts from its First Settlement to 1831 (Boston), p. 8.

31 http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/TILDEN.htm The Plymouth Colony Archive Project: Inventory of Nathaniel Tilden 1641; Anderson, The Great Migration, vol. 3, p. 289; Starr, A History of the Starr Family, p.vii.

32 Anderson, New England’s Generation, p. 40.

33 CCA:DCb-J/J/22/56, Canterbury Consistory Court Schedule of Excommunication, 2 Dec. 1618.

34 KHLC:Sa/Ac/7, Sandwich Town Book, ff.123v and 181r.

35 Pope, Charles, 1990, The Pioneers of Massachusetts (Boston), p. 127.

36 Breen, T.H., and Foster, S., 1973, ‘Moving to the New World: The Character of Early Massachusetts Immigration’, The William and Mary Quarterly (vol. 30), p. 206.

Fig. 1 Map showing the Kentish places of departure of the passengers on the Hercules and the numbers travelling therefrom. (Plus 1 from Bow, London.)

	Agriculture	Cloth trades	Artisans	Trade	Professional
No.	2	4	4	2	2

Table 1. The full Hercules passenger list in its original order and including places of origin

Head of household [no. children] Servant	Age	Occupation	Parish of baptism	Parish on departure	Connected to	How connected
Nathaniel Tilden [7]	51	n/k	Tenterden	Tenterden	Sara Couchman Const. Austen Wm. Witherell William Hatch	Step-uncle? Friend Friend 2nd cousin
Lidia (wife)	48		Tenterden	Tenterden	William Hatch	Cousin
Thomas Lapham	22		Bethersden	Tenterden
George Sutton	27		Sandwich	Tenterden	Simon Sutton	Brother
Edward Ford				Tenterden
Edward Jenkins	17		Bethersden	Tenterden
Sara Couchman	19		Leiden?	Tenterden	Nath. Tilden	Step-niece?
Marie Perien				Tenterden
James Bennet	30		Frittenden	Tenterden	Jane Egelden	Brother
Jonas Austen [4]	36	n/k	Staplehurst	Tenterden	Thos. Besbeech Parnell Harris James Sayers	Cousin Cousin Cousin
Constant (wife)				Tenterden	Nath. Tilden	Friend
Robert Brooke [7]		Mercer		Maidstone
Anne (wife)				Maidstone
Thomas Hayward [5]		Tailor		Aylesford
Susannah (wife)				Aylesford
Will. Witherell [3]	32	Minister/school-master	(Yorks)	Maidstone	Nath. Tilden	Friend
Mary (wife)	29		B. Monch.	Maidstone
Anne Richards				Maidstone
Faintnot Wines	42	Hemp- dresser	Eastwell	Ashford	Thomas Bony	Friend
Thomas Bony	30	Shoe-maker		Sandwich	Faintnot Wines Henry Ewell	Friend Friend
Henry Ewell		Shoe-maker		Sandwich	Thomas Bony	Friend
William Hatch [5]	35	Merchant	Ashford	Sandwich	Lidia Tilden Nath. Tilden	Cousin 2nd cousin
Jane (wife)	37		Thanington	Sandwich
William Holmes	43			Sandwich
Joseph Ketcherell				Sandwich
Simon Ketcherell				Sandwich
Head of household [no. children] Servant	Age	Occupation	Parish of baptism	Parish on departure	Connected to	How connected
Robert Jennings				Sandwich
Symon Sutton	15		Biddenden	Sandwich	Geo. Sutton	Brother
Lidia Wells				Sandwich
Samuel Hinckley [3]	45	Yeoman	Harrietsham	Tenterden	Eliz: Hinckley	Uncle
Sara (wife)	34		Hawkhurst	Tenterden
Elizabeth Hinckley				Tenterden	Sam. Hinckley	Niece
Isaac Cole [2]	27	Carpenter		Sandwich
Joane (wife)				Sandwich	Marg. Johnes	Sister-in-law
Rose Tritton	23		Ashford	Ashford
Tho. Champion	18	n/k	Lenham	Ashford
Thomas Besbeech [2]	45	n/k	Biddenden	Sandwich	Jonas Austen	Cousin
Jane Egelden [3]	32		Frittenden	Sandwich
Thomas Neuley				Sandwich
Joseph Pacheing	24			Sandwich
Agnes Love				Sandwich
John Lewis [1]	28	Butcher	Brenchley	Tenterden
Sarah (wife)	22		Tenterden	Tenterden
Parnell Harris	28	n/k	Northbourne	Bow London	James Sayers Jonas Austen	Step-sister Cousin
James Sayers	22	Tailor	Northbourne	Northbourne	Parnell Harris Jonas Austen	Step-brother Step-cousin
Comfort Starr [3]	45	Surgeon	Cranbrook	Ashford	Truth… Starr	Brother
Samuel Dunkin	34		Ashford	Ashford
John Turke	16		Marden	Ashford
Truth… Starr	30		Ashford	Ashford	Comfort Starr	Sister
Josiah Rootes	22	n/k	Ashford	Great Chart	Emme Mason	Son
Emme Mason	51		Kennington	Eastwell	Josiah Rootes	Mother
Margaret Johnes				Sandwich	Joane Cole	Sister-in-law
John Best	23	Tailor	St Mary Mag. Canterbury	St George Canterbury
Tho. Brigden [2]		Husband-man		Sandwich
? (wife)				Sandwich

Table 1 (cont.).