John Beckett

The origins of Mary, wife of 1620 Mayflower passenger George Soule and mother of George's nine known children, remains unconfirmed. She likely was born in England in the early 1600s and died, per son John, in December 1676 at Duxbury, Mass., but John did not provide her age at death.

In the 2016 GSMD published Mayflower Families in Progress for Mayflower passenger George Soule, George's wife is identified as Mary, " b. ca. 1605, and possibly bap. St. Mary Church, Walford, Hertfordshire, England 24 Feb. 1605, and if so, daughter of John and Ann (Alden) Beckett. Recent findings indicate this Mary had siblings bap. 1607-1618 who were named John, James, Nathaniel and Jeremy. The surname Alden in this period appears interchangeable in English records with Aldwyn, Aldin, and Aldyn. This Mary Beckett's father John d. 1619 when she was about 14 years old. John's widoiw Ann is still referred to as "widow Buckett" in the burial entry of her son James in 1622. It is presumed that half-orphaned Mary, in the years before 1623, could have lived with another family and then accompanied that or another family for the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the Anne. Futher work in English records is needed."