Isaac Allerton-the Original Yankee Trader

Isaac Allerton's signature on The Mayflower Compact 1620

I have decided to look at each of the Mayflower families that were our ancestors.  All told we had 8 Grandparents who arrived on the Mayflower, in 1620. (If we count Aunts and Uncles  there were a total of 14 relatives of my family, 2 of those being by marriage only)
 The list of Grandparents include Isaac Allerton, his wife Mary Norris, his Daughter Mary Allerton Cushman (her husband arrived on the 2nd ship The Fortune, in 1621), John Howland, his wife Elizabeth Tilley Howland, her parents John and Joan Hurst Rogers Tilley, and George Soule (his wife arrived on the 3nd ship The Anne in 1623).  Isaac's brother, John was also a passenger (our 11th Great Uncle) and Isaac's 2 other children, Bartholomew and Remember would be our 10th Great Uncle and Aunt.  Isaac's sister Sarah (our 11th Great Aunt) was married to passenger Degory Priest; she came on a later ship.  John Tilley also had a brother Edward and his wife aboard ship; they would be our 11th Great Uncle and Aunt.

I have chosen Isaac Allerton and his family to start this discussion.  He is the ancestor that I used to join The Society of Mayflower Descendants.  The reason I chose him is because he was our most direct male Mayflower ancestor.  (At that time one could not join under the women passengers!)  His daughter and her husband Thomas Cushman gave rise to a family line that was direct male ancestors from the Mayflower to the birth of our Great Great Grandmother Josephine Cushman Pattison in 1832.

Isaac was the son of Edward Allerton and Rose Davis or possibly of Bartholomew Allerton and his unknown wife.  (The fact that Isaac's oldest son was named Bartholomew leads me to believe this was probably his Father's name)  There is an early record of an Isaac Allerton, son of Bartholomew,  being taken on as an apprentice to a Blacksmith in 1609.  .    He was possibly born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England in 1586.  Isaac's oldest son Bartholomew who was a Mayflower passenger returned to England and settled in Suffolk, so perhaps his family had lived there previously and he had relatives in that area.

 Isaac left England with a group of English Calvinist Separatists who separated from the Church of England and moved to the Netherlands.  Here in 1611, he appears in the records when he marries Mary Norris in Leiden, South Holland.  According to the Marriage record, Mary was born in "Newbury", most like in Berkshire.  Her birth year is usually given as 1590.
The Allertons had 3 children while in Leiden, Bartholomew, Remember and Mary.  A fourth child who died without a name was buried in that Dutch city.   You can read more about the Pilgrims in Leiden at this website:    http://www.leidenamericanpilgrimmuseum.org/Page31X.htm
 Isaac worked as a tailor, in the textile business, not as a Blacksmith.   However,  interestingly Bartholomew, Isaac's Perhaps Father, was a Tailor.   Many of the English Separatists were involved in the textile Industry,  as weavers, fullers and carders

In 1620, Isaac and Mary and their three children along with many of their friends and relatives in Leiden felt they needed to leave Holland. They were afraid that their children were loosing their English cultural ties and were becoming more Dutch than English.  They also feared that they would begin to drift away from their strict Calvinist faith.  To this end they decided to journey to the New World.
Isaac was in his mid-30's when the Separatists travelled across the Atlantic, landing at what they called Plymouth in  Dec 1620.   He became a widower during the dreadful First Winter of 1620-21, when approximately half of the Mayflower passengers died.  His wife Mary had given birth to a still-born child aboard the Mayflower while it was anchored in Plymouth harbor.  Dwellings were being built ashore for the settlers and for five weeks, they had to continue to live in the cramped ship.  The men made several trip to reconnoiter and to hunt, but the women and children for the ,most part, remained aboard the anchored ship.  Mary died on 24 Feb 1621 and was buried in an unmarked grave on Burial Hill.   Isaac was left with three children ages approximately 8, 5 and 4.

Signing of the Mayflower Compact, aboard the ship, on 11 Nov 1621

Somewhere between 1623 and 1626, Isaac married again; this time to Fear Brewster, the daughter of William Brewster, an Elder and leader in the Colony.  Together they had 2 children, Sarah and Isaac.  Fear had died by 1634, reportedly of a fever.

William Brewster

Isaac served as Assistant to John Carver, the 1st governor of the Colony. He served as such from 1621-1625.  In 1626, he became involved in the financial affairs of the Colony and things begin to get a little murky.

John Carver

Apparently Isaac and other Colonist assumed some of the Colony's debt to the men back in England who had footed the bill of their New World adventure.  Eventually, the Colony's  monies and his became somewhat intertwined...he also was setting up fur trading posts and going into competition with Plymouth Colony whose money he was managing.  Perhaps, Isaac was consumed with making money or maybe he miscalculated his ability to pay the Colonists back the monies he had "borrowed".  His fellow Plymouth settlers,  at least in the beginning, thought he meant well and his heart was good.  However, he tried their patience once too often.  Several of them had to go into personal debt to assume the Colony's debt caused by Isaac's wheeling and dealing.

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Eventually, in the 1630's,  he was asked to leave the Colony and he moved to the New Haven Colony and also maintained a home in New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony-today Manhattan in New York City.  He was influential in New Amsterdam, serving on the council of Eight Men, elected officials who governed the Dutch Colony.  He owned property that was not far from the late World Trade Center buildings of our time.  It today is known as Peck's Slip and was the site of a ferry that operated before the Brooklyn Bridge was built over the East River.  http://untappedcities.com/2012/11/14/history-of-streets-the-secrets-of-the-slips-on-the-lower-east-side/

Peck Slip, right in Center, future site of the Brooklyn Bridge, once owned by Isaac Allerton  (1850 Map)

Isaac Allerton became a wealthy man because of his dealings...he traded up and down the New England coast and had invested money in a Caribbean sugar plantation.  He truly was the original Yankee Trader!!

Isaac's 2nd wife Fear Brewster had died in 1634.  About 10m years later he married for the 3rd time in New Haven This wife was named Joanna Swinnerton.  She and Isaac had no children together.  She outlived him by many years.

Isaac died in February 1658 and is buried in New Haven, CT.  His wife Joanna and son by his 2nd wife,  Isaac Jr,  were appointed Executors and Beneficiaries of his estate.  His eldest son Bartholomew had returned to England long ago and raised his family there.  His Daughter Remember married Moses Maverick, Founder of the beautiful seaside town of Marblehead, MA.

Isaac's younger daughter by his 1st wife Mary Norris, married Thomas Cushman and became our 9th Great Grandparents.