Peter Browne (Mayflower Pilgrim) - in Plymouth Colony

In Plymouth Colony

An interesting incident (from Mourt’s Relations pg 27) regarding Peter Browne took place in January 1621 while the Pilgrims were building their settlement of Plymouth. On January 12 Peter Browne, John Goodman and others had entered the forest some distance from the Pilgrim plantation in order to find material for roofing thatch. Sometime around noon, Browne and Goodman wandered further into the forest while the other men stayed behind to make up the thatch into bundles. After these men had done that work, they tried to locate Browne and Goodman in the forest, but they could not be found. These men went to the settlement and informed others that the men could not be located. This caused about 10-12 armed men to search for them, in fear they were captured by Indians. As it happened, Browne and Goodman were eating lunch when their dogs starting chasing a deer and they were soon lost. According to records, “they wandered all that afternoon being wet, and at night it did freeze and snow, they were slenderly appareled and had no weapons but each one sickle.” At night they thought they heard “lions” in the forest and climbed a tree for shelter. They stayed by the tree that night in case they had to escape to safety. The next day they finally climbed the highest hill they could find, were able to see their harbor and find their way back to the settlement. After the searchers had given up hope of finding them, Browne and Goodman finally arrived in Plymouth quite cold, forest-bitten, tired and hungry, having survived their first experience alone in the New England forest.

In the Plymouth settlement of 1620, the house of Peter Browne was near that of John Goodman and was close to the harbor on the south side of the village street. John Goodman is listed as having been alive at least on January 19, 1621 and is noted as having not survived that first winter, but his name does appear in records of the 1623 Division of Land and he may have died sometime after that.

In the 1623 Division of Land, as a single man, Peter Browne received one “aker” of land “these lye on the South side of the brooke to the baywards.” In that record, his name appears as “Peter Browen.”

Sometime after the Division of Land, Peter Browne married the widow Martha Ford, arriving in November 1621 on the ship Fortune as the only recorded woman on board. Her husband ______ Ford apparently died on the voyage or just after arrival. Martha gave birth to a son the day of arrival but he died soon after. Per Banks, Mourt’s Relations (p. 63) records this event: “the good wife Ford was delivered of a sonne the first night shee landed, and both of them are very well.”

Widow Martha Ford received four lots (shares) in the 1623 Division of Land, to which she was entitled by this family count. In those records, she is listed as “Widow Foord.”

In 1626 Peter Browne was one of twenty-seven Purchasers involved with the colony joint-stock company which afterwards was turned over to the control of senior colony members. That group was called Undertakers, and were made up of such as Bradford, Standish and Allerton initially who were later joined by Winslow, Brewster, Howland, Alden, Prence and others from London, former Merchant Adventurers. On the agreement, dated October 26, 1626, his name appears as Peter Browne.

By the time of the 1627 Division of the Cattle, Peter Browne and his wife Martha had a daughter Mary and was pregnant with another daughter, Priscilla. Also in the family were children from Mary Browne’s first marriage, John and Martha Ford. The two Ford children shared in the 1627 division of the cattle. The “eaight lot” of the Division under ‘Samuell ffuller”, consisted of the “Peeter Browne” family listed as “Peeter Browne, Martha Browne, Mary Browne, John fford, Martha fford.”

His wife Martha died about 1630, and Peter Browne remarried to a woman named Mary _____ whose surname and ancestry have not been discovered. With the second wife, Peter Browne had two more children, Rebecca, about 1631, and another child about 1633, name and gender unknown, who may have died as a youth.

On the 1633 Tax List he was recorded as Peter Browne.

On January 1, 1633, Browne was fined three shillings by Plymouth Colony Court for failing to appear at the court session and on January 2 was fined by the court in the same amount for the same reason. When he did appear in court on January 7, he was sued by fellow Mayflower passenger Dr. Samuel Fuller for “divers accounts…wherein they differ.” They were sent to arbitration, the outcome of which is not known. Also in 1633, he appeared on the Tax List for that year as “Peter Browne.”