Person Information
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AncestryThe ancestry of William White of the Mayflower is not known. Incorrect royal lineages have been given for him, as well as an incorrect identification of him as the son of Rev. John White of London. William Bradford wrote that William White came on the Mayflower with his wife "Susanna". There is a marriage record in Leyden on 27 January 1612 for a William White, woolcomber, and an "Anna" Fuller, sister of Samuel Fuller. The marriage was witnessed by Sarah Priest and Samuel Fuller. This record, however, does not relate to the Mayflower passenger, as commonly claimed. The reasons for this conclusion are as follows: A William White had Sarah Priest witness his marriage; a William White in 1621 witnessed the marriage of Sarah Priest. However, the William White of the Mayflower was dead in America and could not have witnessed Sarah Priest's marriage. It would therefore appear that this is not the William White who came on the Mayflower. Susanna, widow of William White, married second Edward Winslow. Anna Fuller was baptized in 1577, and Edward Winslow in 1595. It is most unlikely that 25-year old Edward Winslow would marry a woman 18 years older than him for his first wife. Children of William White were buried in infancy in 1613, 1615, and 1616. These deaths indicate it would be most unlikely they had a child Resolved in 1615. Susanna, wife of William White, is not Susanna Tilley either, another common claim. That "theory" was disproved in Pilgrim Notes & Queries 1:1.
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