Marie Prower, "Mayflower" Passenger

Marie Prower was born in 1577. She died on 11 Jan 1620/1621 on board the Mayflower/at sea. She married Christopher Martin on 26 Feb 1607 in Billerica,Essex,England.

Christopher Martin was born probably around 1580, probably in the vicinity of Great Burstead, Billericay, which is where he married the widowed Mrs. Mary Prower on 26 February 1606/7; she brought into the family her son from her previous marriage, Solomon Prower. Christopher and Mary had a child together, Nathaniel Martin, baptized on 26 February 1609/10 in Billericay. No other children are recorded to the couple.

died on Mayflower

family

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Martin_(Mayflower_passeng... retrieved June 2015

The family information stated here replaces previous information due to new research in England by Mayflower researcher and biographer Caleb Johnson. The research reported the first family of Mary Prower and children of that marriage, most of whom were previously unreported. Present-day descendants of several of those children may be qualified as newly found Mayflower descendants.

Christopher Martin married widow Mary Prower in Great Burstead parish, co. Essex, on February 26, 1606/07.[1][21]

Mary (______) Prower may have been born in the mid-1570s due to her first child having been born about 1594. Her ancestry is unknown.[1] After extensive research, Author Caleb Johnson believes the name of her first husband was Edward Prower who first appears in Billericay, co. Essex, about 1586, possibly from Hallingbury. He married to Mary (_____) about 1592.

Edward and Mary Prower had the following children, all born or baptized in Great Burstead:

1. Edward Prower (Jr), born about 1594. Possibly named for his father. No baptism record for he or his brother Solomon in Great Burstead parish as no records exist from 1579 through 1596.
2. Solomon Prower, born possibly between 1595 and 1598. He was a Mayflower passenger with Bradford referring to him as a servant. He died in Plymouth on December 24, 1620.
3. John Prower, baptized December 2, 1599, buried December 11, 1599.
4. Mary Prower, baptized June 21, 1601. Possibly named after he mother.
5. Unnamed child, buried October 26, 1603.

Although no burial record or probate exists for Edward Prower, Johnson believes that he died between 1603 (had infant buried in October 1603) and February 1606/07, when his widow Mary married Christopher Martin.[22]

Author Caleb Johnson additionally states that since Mary (Prower) Martin came as a passenger on the Mayflower, her five children are rightfully Mayflower descendants. It is known that her son Solomon came on the Mayflower as a "singleman" and died in December 1620. Two other children – John and an unnamed child, died in infancy.

Johnson further states that if there are any descendants of Mary (Prower) Martin alive today, they must be descendants of eldest son Edward Prower (Jr.) or daughter Mary Prower. Johnson has found no record to prove that daughter Mary survived, but he states that there is proof that Edward Prower did survive, married and had several children. There is a record that on August 19, 1621, that Edward Prower and his wife Dorothy registered the baptism of their first child at Greaat Burstead, naming him Solomon Prower. Johnson believes that Edward had heard about the death of his brother Solomon in Plymouth seven months earlier and had named his first-born for him. This infant died in January 1622, so in memory Edward Prower named his next child, baptised in November 1622, also Solomon. In August 1628 they baptised a daughter Martha.[23]

It is possible that the grandchildren of Mayflower passenger Mary (Prower) Martin did survive to adulthood, married, and left descendants behind who may be ancestors of persons alive today in England or elsewhere.

Footnotes

• 1. A genealogical profile of Christopher Martin, (a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013)
• 21. Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers (Boston: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006), p. 70 Christopher Martin, p. 76, Solomon Prower, p 66
• 22. Mayflower Quarterly,vol. 76, no. 3, September 2010 and (Samuel Prower) pp. 242-243
• 23. Mayflower Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 242-243 and 244-246