John Carver (governor)

thumb|290px|Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by [[William Halsall (1882)]]

John Carver was one of the Pilgrims who made the Mayflower voyage in 1620 which resulted in the creation of Plymouth Colony in America. He is credited with writing the Mayflower Compact and was its first signer, and was also the first governor of Plymouth Colony.

Life in Leiden

Little is known about Carver's ancestry or early family life. Jeremy Bangs notes that Carver and his wife Mary were members of the Walloon church in Leiden, Holland on February 8, 1609. The Flemish Walloon community was fleeing religious persecution in their homeland (then part of the Spanish Netherlands, now split between Belgium and France), as were the Puritan separatists who came to Holland from England around 1607.

Carver was a deacon in Leiden around 1609 at about age 25, and he is believed to have been born sometime before 1584. Leiden records of St. Pancras Church state that Carver buried a child on July 10, 1609. Sometime shortly after the death of the child, his wife Mary died. He later married Katherine White who was a prominent member of the Leiden English separatist church, though the exact date is unknown. She was originally of Sturton in Nottinghamshire, eldest daughter of Alexander White. Carver became much more involved in the Leiden church after marrying Katherine, making a close association with Puritan pastor John Robinson, husband of Katherine's younger sister Bridget.

Preparing for the New World

Carver and Robert Cushman began negotiations with officials of the Virginia Company in London in 1617 for land in the Colony of Virginia where they could live and be self-governing. They came in contact with Sir Edwin Sandys, an acquaintance of church elder William Brewster and a leading member of the Virginia Company. They had to put together seven articles for the Council for Virginia, signed by all the senior Puritan church members, which acknowledged the supremacy of the king and the Church of England.

To fund the Mayflower voyage, the Leiden congregation turned to Thomas Weston and the Merchant Adventurers, London businessmen interested in supporting the voyage in hopes of profit. Carver had the task of organizing the voyage and negotiating funding with Weston and the Adventurers along with Cushman as the chief agent. In 1620, they were in Aldgate, London where they negotiated with Weston for financial backing. Weston hired the Mayflower, and it sailed from London to Southampton to rendezvous with the Speedwell, which was carrying the Pilgrims from Leiden in Holland. Carver was in Southampton in June 1620 purchasing supplies for the Mayflower voyage, along with Christopher Martin. Carver was very wealthy and provided much of his personal fortune to invest in the joint-stock company and in the Mayflower voyage itself. and seven year-old Jasper More, one of the four children of the More family who were sent in the care of the Pilgrims. Carver seems to have been elected governor of the Mayflower for the duration of the Atlantic crossing. Carver may have been the author of the Compact, and was definitely its first signer. He was subsequently chosen to be governor of Plymouth Colony.

Life in Plymouth

The first winter in Plymouth Colony was exceedingly difficult, as the colonists suffered greatly from lack of shelter, diseases such as scurvy, and general conditions on board ship. Nearly half the Mayflower passengers died in the course of a few months. The first will drawn up in New England was that of William Mullins, and it was written on his behalf by Carver while Mullins was on his deathbed. It was signed as the last will and testament of Mullins by Carver, Mayflowers captain Christopher Jones, and the ship's surgeon Giles Heale. This is the only known copy of Carver's signature.

Family

John Carver married Mary de Lannoy sometime before February 8, 1609. John and Katherine buried a child at St. Pancras in Leiden November 11, 1617.

Carver died in April or May 1621, aged 56 years, and his wife died five or six weeks later.

Notes

References

External links

Plimoth Plantation Web site