Carpenter Sisters Among U.S. Founding Mothers
Six Sisters Intimately Connected with America’s Beginnings
Apr 19, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor
Much has been written about the brave men who helped found and forge a great nation, but it takes considerable searching to find the story of the six Carpenter sisters and other courageous women who shouldered the burdens of life in the New World. These women learned to cope with wilderness hardships, use food they could grow, and work in the fields, helping to plant and harvest.
The Carpenter Parents
The sisters were daughters of Alexander Carpenter, a prosperous landowner at Wrington in England’s Somersetshire. He joined Separatists who wished to break ties with the Anglican Church. In 1608, he took his family to Holland to escape religious persecutions sweeping England.
At Leyden, the Carpenters found sanctuary with other religious refugees. The sisters were Mary, at 20 the oldest, and Alice, Agnes, Julianna, Priscilla and Bridget. They were comfortable here, but John Robinson, their pastor, urged them to seek a new country where they would not lose their English identity. This, then, is the backdrop for the story of the Mayflower pilgrims.
Agnes Carpenter
Agnes, the only one of the sisters who didn’t come to Massachusetts, married Dr. Samuel Fuller, physician to the little group of Separatists. She died young and was buried at St. Peter’s.
Alice Carpenter
Alice was courted by many suitors, including young William Bradford. She returned his affections. Her parents opposed the marriage; she instead married Edward Southworth.
Not all pilgrims could go on the Mayflower, so the Southworths went to London to promote, arrange and supervise future voyages. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is one of their descendants.
William Bradford and wife Dorothy went on the Mayflower, but within days of arrival at Plymouth, Dorothy fell overboard and drowned. The next year, William Bradford was chosen Plymouth Colony governor.
When Bradford heard that Edward Southworth had died in London, leaving Alice with two sons, he wrote and invited her to America. She and her youngest sister, Bridget, arrived in July of 1623. Alice became Mrs. Bradford a month later.
Alice was admired by the colonists for her strength of character and warm heart. She was well educated and lectured on topics of interest. The true love she and Bradford shared endured the 34 years of their marriage.
Julianna Carpenter
Julianna Carpenter and husband George Morton, financial agent for Plymouth Colony, had also remained in London. They, their four children and a fifth born during the voyage, arrived at Plymouth later in 1623. Morton died during their first year at Plymouth. The Bradfords helped raise the children. Julianna married Menassah Kempton in 1627, but they had no children.
George Morton wrote Mourt’s Relation, the first history of New England, and his son, Nathaniel Morton, raised in the Bradford household, became Secretary of the Colony and author of New England Memorial and other books.
Mary Carpenter
The oldest sister, quiet and shy Mary, remained in Holland to care for her aging parents. After they died, she came to Plymouth and lived with the Bradfords. Records refer to her as a “Godly old maid”.
Priscilla Carpenter
Priscilla Carpenter and her husband, William Wright, also ended up in Plymouth Colony. He came on the second ship in 1621, but she may have come later.
Pilgrim Elder Brewster described these people as the fathers and mothers of America, saying that "through their trials we inherited our blessings".
Sources:
Willison, George F., Saints and Strangers (1945) New York
DAR Magazine (December, 1970)
Chamberlain, Louise Aiston, Aiston-Chamberlain Family History (1981: Stuart, FL).
The Mayflower
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Authoritative Work on the Pilgrim Families
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