Thank you for reminding us of the anniversary of the sailing of the Mary and
John from Plymouth, Devan, England, on March 30, 1630. In a scholarly article
published a decade before the appearance of the Quarterman book, the eminent
genealogist Dr. David Greene resolved the question as to whether Henry Way
and family sailed from Plymouth on the Mary and John in 1630 or on the Lyon
from Bristol in 1631. Both versions are in different places of the
Quarterman book.
I believe, however, that I am the only one to point out, in my book, that
Henry Way was a skipper and master mariner who lived at Bridport, only 12
miles from Weymouth, and that the home port of the Mary and John was Weymouth
(named for being the mouth of the Wey River.) Moreover, the Mary and John,
unlike the tiny Lyon, was a veritable ark with all its animals. The
passengers of the Mary and John decided to settle on Dorchester Neck because
it was easier there to pen up their cattle.
Henry Way and family almost certainly embarked their farm animals and
household effects at Weymouth before it made a stop at Plymouth. Plymouth
was simply the last port of call or jumping off place for America for the
Mary and John, as it had been for the Mayflower earlier and was to be for
subsequent shipload of colonists going to Australia and New Zealand, for
example.
Henry Way's grandson, Aaron Way, Jr., married the granddaughter of the
Reverend John Maverick, Mary Maverick, who was also on the Mary and John. By
doing so, their Way descendants became descendants not only of nobility but
of royalty. By two separate lines, the wife of the Reverend John Maverick,
Mary née Gye (Guy) Maverick, was descended from English King Henry III and
from his son Edward I. Through them we are descended from what Sir Winston
Churchill in his History of the English Speaking People termed the oldest
royal house in Europe, that of Alfred the Great. We are also descended from
Queen Margaret of Scotland, King Stephen of Hungary, Rollo the Viking and
William the Conqueror, and a King of France. Edward I married Eleanor of
Castile, the royal house of ancient Castile.
Dane Bowen in Alexandria, Va., researching Bowen, Way, Carlton (Carleton),
Sanders (Saunders), Chaudoin (Chaudoins), Richey (Ritchie, Richie, Ritchey)
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