John White and Eleanor Smith are often listed as William White's parents, but since his name is so common, it has not been determined who his parents were, or even where he was born.
Biography
The Mayflower Compact was signed while the Mayflower was anchored at Cape Cod (Provincetown Harbor) on 11 November 1620. It was signed by all free adult males and some, not all, servants. William White was the eleventh male to sign. From Bradford's list: Mr. William White, and Susanna, his wife, and one sone, caled Resolved, and one borne a ship-bord, caled Peregriene; and *2* servants, named William Holbeck and Edward Thomson. Mr. White and his *2* servants dyed soone after ther landing. His wife maried with Mr. Winslow.
The following biography of William White was provided by Carl Boyer 3rd in "Ancestral Lines, Third Edition," published by the author in Santa Clarita, California in 1998. Additional data was obtained from "The Great Migration Begins" by Robert Charles Anderson, published by NEHGR in 1998.
In 1975 Robert M. and Ruth W. Sherman published an account of William White and his descendants as part of the first volume of the Five Generations Project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants ("Mayflower Families, Volume 1, Pages 95-187). Robert S. Wakefield revised and republished this material in 1997 [ "Mayflower Families, Volume 13).
Robert M. and Ruth W. Sherman have suggested that William White may have been a nephew of Alexander and Eleanor White of Sturton-le-Steeple in Nottinghamshire, England. Bishop John White of Barham, Suffolk, did not mention a son William in his will, nor any son "who left his country and his church" (Mayflower Quarterly, 41:16-18).
William White was probably born in England around 1590. He was apparently in Leiden in Holland before 1615, when heis son Resolved was born there.
In his list of those who came in the Mayflower Bradford includes "Mr. William White and Susanna his wife and one son called Resolved, and one born a-shipboard called Peregrine, and two servants named William Holbeck and Edward Thompson" (Bradford, 442). In his accounting of 1651 Bradford tells us that "Mr. White and his two servants died soon after their landing. His wife married with Mr. Winslow, as is before noted. His two sons are married and Resolved hath five children, Peregrine two, all living. So their increase are seven" (Bradford, 445).
William White was the eleventh signer of the Mayflower Compact. It has been said that he brought the family Bible with him. Crapo stated "William White had a 'Breeches Bible' (printed in 1586-1588) given to him in Amsterdam where the Pilgrims tarried awhile in 1608, and by memoranda on the fly leaves, still well preserved, it appears that he went to Leyden in 1609, and sailed from Delft Haven for southampton in 1619..." He had two servants, William Holbeck and Edward Tompson, who died during the first winter.
On 4 December 1620 ("Whilst some were employed in this discovery [of a good harbor], it pleased God that Mistress White was brought abed of a son, which was called Peregrine" (Mourt, 31).
William White died in February 1621 in Plymouth.
In the 1623 Plymouth division of land William White received five acres as a passenger on the Mayflower (even though he had been dead for two years) (Plymouth Court Records, 12:4]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle Resolved White and Peregrine White were the tenth and eleventh persons in the third company (Plymouth Court Records, 12:10).
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What evidence do you have of William White's birth in Holland, or that this William White was the one that married Susanna Fuller in 1612?
The Mayflower Society does not accept these events. Why do you not use the Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13 (for William White) book as a source? It is the most authoritative source to date.
The William White on the Mayflower died in early 1621. How did he father a son William in 1622 in Leyden and a daughter Anna in 1654 in England?
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