Mary (Bucket) Soule (abt. 1605 - 1676)

Born about 1605 in England

Wife of George Soule Sr — married about 1626 in Plymouth Colony, New England

Descendants

Died Dec 1676 at about age 71 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony

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Mary (Bucket) Soule was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

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Origin of Mary

• Surname of Mary: Reference December 2013 Mayflower Quarterly. Noted Mayflower author Caleb Johnson reported in 2013 new findings based on his personal research in England. He believes her to be Mary Beckett, baptized February 24, 1605 at St. Mary, Watford, Hertfordshire, the daughter of John Beckett and Ann Alden. Mayflower researcher for Soule and Eaton, Louise Walsh Throop, notes that George and Mary named a son Nathaniel, apparently after one of Mary's siblings who were baptized 1607-1618: John, James, Nathaniel, and Jeremy.

• Soule Kindred of America, based on research by Caleb Johnson,^[1] reports in 2016 that Mary Becket of Watford is a good candidate to be Mary the wife of George Soule, Mayflower passenger. She was the daughter of John Beckett and Ann Aldwyne. Her age is right, eighteen when she immigrated to Plymouth in 1623 and 21 when she married George. "Names, dates, ages, geography and chronology are all consistent..." "However, it still cannot be proven conclusively," according to Marcy Kelly of the Soule Kindred in 2016. ^[2]

Research on the mitochondrial DNA of three descendants of Mary Beckett, through all-female lineages, shows Mary and her mother Ann Alden belonged to the group H1g1.

Biography

We may never know why Mary left home, and made the voyage to a new world. She boarded the ship "Anne" about the end of April 1623, one of about 60 passengers. The ship also carried 60 tons of goods, much needed by the Plymouth colonists. Governor Bradford said of the Mayflower voyage, "they were incountred many times with crosse winds, and mette with many feirce stormes, with which ye shipe was shroudly shaken.^[3]" The voyage of the "Anne" would have been no different. During one storm their fellow ship the "Little James" was lost and did not arrive until some 10 days after the "Anne." Some of the passengers were "very usefull persons, and became good members to ye body^[3]", and some were wives and children of previous arrivals. "And some were so bad, as they were faine to be at charge to send them home againe ye next year.^[3]" Mary, no doubt, fell into the first group.

The Mayflower Society estimates Mary's birth at about 1605^[4]. Specific dates such as 17 January 1589, 17 January 1590 and places (eg. St Botolph, Aldersgate, London; Eckington, Worcester, England)^[5] are unproven, as are sometimes suggested parents Sylvester Beckett of Juddonham, Suffolk, England and Elizabeth (Hill) Becket.

Mary Bucket was on the passenger list of the "Anne" which arrived the latter part of June 1623, in the newly begun Plymouth Colony.^[6] In the same year Marie Buckett received one acre of land in the 1623 division: "on the other side of towne towards the eele river" and next to Joseph Rogers^[7][8].

In the 1627 division of animals, listed as part of the ninth lot, headed by Richard Warren were George Sowle, Mary Sowle and Zachariah Sowle^[7].

The population of the New World was very small around 1624. Even a given name as common as Mary, could be tracked. Mary Bucket existed in 1623, but was not mentioned again. George's wife was "Mary" in 1627. No other known Mary's were available to be his wife^[9][10].

Houses were small in Plymouth Plantation and life was filled with sunrise to sunset hard work. Mary and George had nine known children: Zachariah, John, Nathaniel, George, Susanna, Mary, Elizabeth, Patience, Benjamin.

George and Mary, left Plymouth Village, for Duxburrow, an area nearby the original Plymouth plantation, where they had probably been farming the land for some years.

At Court on 1 March 1658/1659, Goodwife Soule, the wife of George Soule of Duxburrow, their son John, and about ten others were fined for frequent absence from the public worship of God. The fine of 10 shillings each was for the colonies use.^[11]

Mary Soule died December 1676. Among the items of debt to be paid to John Soule from his fathers estate, listed as part of the inventory presented March 1679/1680 is this, "Item for Diett and tendance since my mother Died which was three yeer the Last December ...". No value was actually put on this item.^[12]

mtDNA Results H1g1

mtDNA testing of three^[13] matrilineal (all female line) descendants of Mary have all come up with the same Haplogroup. H1g1. According to haplogroup.org (Link via Wayback Machine at Archive.org, capture date 14 Aug 2022) H1g1 is well over 1,000 years old, so mtDNA results cannot be used to conclusively prove an individual is a matrilineal descendant, but it can be used to conclusively disprove such a relationship.

Autosomal DNA

A triangulated group has been discovered through autosomal testing that shares Mary (Bucket) Soule and her husband George Soule Sr as most recent common ancestors. They share a 10.5 cM segment on chromosome 2:

• Duane Kelly is a descendant of Nathaniel Soule
• BG is a descendant of Susannah (Soule) West
• RG is a descendant of Patience (Soule) Haskell
• LS is a descendant of George Soule Jr.

Sources

1. ↑ Johnson, Caleb H. "Research into the Possible English Origins of Mary Buckett Wife of Mayflower Passenger George Soule. " The Mayflower Quarterly. 79:4 December 2013 pages 313-324. Original article.
2. ↑ Kelly, Marcy. "Mary Beckett -- Found?" Soule Kindred Newsletter Vol. L, No. 2, Summer 2016. Based on research commissioned by the Soule Kindred in America, Inc.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation." From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1898. Project Gutenberg eBook
4. ↑ George Soule of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations. "Mayflower Families in Progress" Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006.
5. ↑ Ancestry trees and others
6. ↑ Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} 'Records of the colony of New Plymouth in New England. Vol XII (Deeds & c. 1621-1650). Boston: 1861.
8. ↑ "The Division of Land." Mayflower Descendant. Vol 1, page 1899
9. ↑ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, "Plymouth Colony," Ancestry Publishing, 1986, page 243
10. ↑ There was an unsourced statement, here, that her marriage to George was established through George's sale of Mary's acre of land. This would certainly be a good indication of their marriage, but published literature on this has not been located to support this statement. Certainly if record of this sale existed, it would have been located and published long since as proof.
11. ↑ Records of the colony of New Plymouth in New England. Vol VIII (Miscellaneous Records. 1633-1689). Boston: 1857.
12. ↑ Bowman, George Ernest. "The Will and Inventory of George Soule." The Mayflower Descendant: A Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy and History. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899- . Vol 2, page 83. (AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010)
13. ↑ Two of these results can be found in the Soule DNA Project mtDNA results

• MayflowerDNA.org wiki and mtDNA profile for Mary Buckett (Beckett)
• Wikipedia "The Anne and the Little James"
• Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, Utah; Date: 2013;
• Yates Publishing U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, Utah; Date: 2004;
• Ancestry.com North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 "The Peterson Family of Duxbury, Massachusetts Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, Utah;
• Information gleaned from family history records