MAYFLOWER
A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Viking Press
C 2006 Nathaniel Philbrick
After the Mayflower journeyed to what would be New England, other ships made the journey, including the Fortune.
124) "There were a large number of Strangers among the passengers, many of them single men who undoubtedly looked with distress at the noticeable lack of young women among the Pilgrims. With the arrival of the Fortune, there would be a total of sixty-six men in the colony and just sixteen women. For every eligible female there were six eligible men. For young girls such as fifteen year old Elizabeth Tilley, nineteen year old Pricilla Mullins, and fourteen-year-old Mary Chilton (all of them orphans). The mounting pressure to marry must have been intense, especially since the new arrivals tended to be, in Bradford's words, "lusty young men, and many of them wild enough." Adding to the potential volatility of the mix was the fact that there was no place to put them all. Bradford had no choice but to divide them up among the preexisting seven houses and four public buildings, some of which must have become virtual male dormitories..."
Guess whose ancestors arrived on this voyage? Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His ancestors name was Philip de la Noye, whose French surname was changed to Delano...
