Mary Norris Allerton, ancestress of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, was about 30 years old when she came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620. Born about 1587 in Newbury, Berkshire, England, daughter of Edward Norris and a currently unknown mother. She and Isaac Allerton were married in 1611 in Leiden, Holland, one of the first marriages amongst the Pilgrims after they had fled to Holland from England. Their children Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary were born in Leiden, all of whom accompanied their parents on the Mayflower. She and Isaac buried a child, not yet named, at St. Peters, Leiden on 5 February 1620, and she gave birth to a stillborn son ten months later, on board the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, on 22 December 1620.

Exhausted and ill, and undoubtedly heartsick, Mary died on 25 February 1621, during the height of the first winter when half the Mayflower passengers and crew died. Her husband Isaac, and their three children Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary survived. Isaac later married Fear Brewster, daughter of Plymouth's Elder William Brewster.

Gov. Bradford's journal says, "Friday, 22d. (Dec. 1620 O.S.) This morning good-wife Alderton was delivered of a son, but dead-born." This was the second child born since the Pilgrims left Holland. It was the son of Allerton, though spelled Alderton, as it frequently was... Of Mrs. A. we know but little. She was probably from 35 to 40 years of age at her decease, and left four children. In Sargeant's painting of the Landing of the Pilgrims, she is represented as having a fine face, rather beautiful, and as being of a 'meek and quiet spirit. (Cushman, p. 614)

Marriage and Children

Mary Norris married Isaac Allerton (c.1585 - 1659) believed to have been born in London, England, on 4 November 1611 in Leiden, Holland. They had the following children:

1. Bartholomew Allerton was born about 1612 in Leiden, Holland; married (1) Margaret; married (2) Sarah Fairfax in probably, Rumbough, Suffolk, England; died about 15 October 1658 in Bramfield, Suffolk, England.
2. Remember Allerton was born about 1613 in Leiden, Holland; married Moses Maverick before 6 May 1635 at Salem, Massachusetts; died about 12 September 1652.
3. Mary Allerton was born 6 June 1616 in Leiden, Holland; married Thomas Cushman about 1636 in Plymouth, Massachusetts; died 28 Nov 1699 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
4. Infant Allerton died unnamed 5 February 1620, Leiden, Holland.
5. Son Allerton was stillborn 22 December 1620 in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts.

Sources

• Allerton, Walter S. A History of The Allerton Family in The United States, 1585 To 1885, and A Genealogy of the Descendants of Isaac Allerton, 'Mayflower Pilgrim', Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620. Ed. Horace True Currier. Chicago, Illinois: Samuel Waters Allerton, 1900. Print.
• Bradford, William, and Harvey Wish. Of Plymouth Plantation. New York: Capricorn, 1962. Print.
• Cushman, Henry Wyles. A Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans: the Descendants of Robert Cushman, the Puritan, from the Year 1617 to 1855. Boston: Little, Brown, and, 1855. Print. Ebook available through OpenLibrary at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23303956M/A_Historical_and_biographical_genealogy_of_the_Cushmans
• Hall, Newman A. "'The Children of Isaac Allerton.'" The Mayflower Quarterly 47 (1981): 14-18. Print.
• Hall, Newman A. "'The Unproved Allerton Family Lineage.'" The Mayflower Quarterly 452: 23-24. Print.
• Heath, Dwight B., and George Morton. A Relation or Journal (of the Beginning and Proceedings) of the English Plantation Settled at Plymouth in New England, by Certain English Adventurers Both Merchants and Others. New York, NY: Corinth, 1963. Print.
• Roberts, Gary Boyd., and Julie Helen. Otto. Ancestors of American Presidents. Santa Clarita, CA: Published in Cooperation with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass. by C. Boyer, 3rd, 1995. Print.
• Wakefield, Robert S. Mayflower Families in Progress: Isaac Allerton of the Mayflower and His Descendants for Four Generations. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1992. Print.

Links

• http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/IsaacAllerton.php
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Allerton
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact

Further Reading

• Cushman H. Memoirs of Isaac Allerton, NEHGR, Vol. 8, p 265-270, 1854
• Greenwood I. Allertons of New England and Virginia, NEHGR Vol. 44, p 290-296, July 1890 (reprinted by Higginson Books, Salem, MA)
• Wakefield, Robert S., FASG, and Margaret Harris Stover, CG. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume 17, The Family of Isaac Allerton, 1998