Peter Browne (Mayflower passenger)
William Mullins was a shoe and boot maker in Dorking and was one of the Londoners who was later involved in the financial support of the Mayflower voyage.
As a single man of about age twenty-five, and possibly coming from an apprenticeship, he boarded the Mayflower in the company of the Mullins family.
This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children.
After the searchers had given up hope of finding them, Browne and Goodman finally arrived in Plymouth quite cold, frostbitten, tired and hungry, having survived their first experience alone in the New England forest.
[6] 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 19 January 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.
"[6] 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.
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.
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.
"[10][11] His wife Martha died about 1630, and Peter Browne remarried to a woman named Mary whose surname and ancestry have not been discovered.
When he did appear in court on 7 January, he was sued by fellow Mayflower passenger Dr. Samuel Fuller for "divers accounts…wherein they differ."
"[2] Peter Browne married twice, first to Martha, the widow of Mr. Ford, both passengers in 1621 on the ship Fortune with the husband dying before arrival.
His estate also owed Kenelm, brother of Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow, twelve shillings for building his coffin.
Browne's estate inventory detailed such as grain, animals, a firearm, tools, household goods, clothing, etc.. Ironically, his attending doctor Samuel Fuller also died from the same disease at that time, as did fellow Mayflower passenger Francis Eaton and others.
She was ordered by the court to pay 15 pounds to John Doane to assume custody of Browne's daughter Mary and the same amount to William Gilson for the custody of Browne's daughter Priscilla with the court placing Mary with Doane for nine years and Priscilla with Gilson for twelve years until both were age seventeen.
