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Parentage of Susanna (Jackson) (White) Winslow
Name and Origins
One of the interesting and much debated problems in genealogy has been the parentage of Mayflower passenger Susanna Jackson, wife successively of Mayflower passengers William White and Gov. Edward Winslow. It has now been shown that she is Susanna Jackson, daughter Richard Jackson and Mary Pettinger.
The evidence for Richard Jackson being her father is circumstantial, but taken as a whole is very compelling.
- The primary clue is the letter Edward Winslow sent to his Uncle Robert Jackson which allowed the identification of he correct family group. Though this letter has been in print since 1955, the exact relationships (Susanna's parents) remained unknown. If Robert Jackson was an Susanna's uncle, then who could be her actual father?
- Correspondence between Robert Jackson and his brother Richard Jackson showed how many sons and daughters Richard had. This matched what was known about Susanna's siblings from other correspondence.
- Extensive connections of Richard Jackson to other Pilgrims. He was an associate of William Brewster in Scrooby, and was named as a a fellow Brownist (follower of Robert Brown) on the arrest of William Brewster. He was then among those who removed from Scrooby to Holland. He had connections to the Rev. Ezeikiel Culverwell, a Puritan minister in London. He was married to Mary Pettinger whose relatives also appear among the separatists in Leiden.
- The other siblings of Robert Jackson can all be excluded as a possible parent of Susanna.
- This leads to the obvious conclusion that Richard Jackson is the father of Susanna Jackson.[1]
Common Errors to Avoid
Susanna (_____) (White) Winslow was not, as often claimed, sister of Samuel and Edward Fuller (MF 1:96, 5:7; NEHGR 110:182-83). The resolution of this problem fundamentally comes down to the question of whether the William White who married Ann Fuller, sister of Samuel Fuller, at Leiden in 1612 was identical with the William White who came to Plymouth in 1620. The position of the sources cited earlier in this paragraph is that they were not identical. In 2000 Jeremy D. Bangs revisited the problem and argued that the possibility that the two William Whites were identical could not be dismissed, and in fact that it was more likely than not that they were identical.[2][3]
On 30 October 1623 Edward Winslow wrote from London to "his much respected Uncle Mr. Robert Jackson" who was clerk of the sewers at Spalding, Lincolnshire. In his letter he wrote that "almost two years since I wrote to my father-in-law declaring the death of his son White & the continued health of his daughter and her two children; also how that by God's providence she was become my wife.... My wife hath had one child by me, but it pleased him that gave it to take it again unto himself; I left her with child at my departure (whom God preserve) but hope to be with her before her delivery" (NEHGR 1955:242-43). This remains the best clue to her identity. [how so? it affirms that Edward Winslow married the widow of White and says nothing about her possible maiden name]
Additional biographical data was also obtained from the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth (www.pilgrimhall.org).
Marriage
C. 1610 probably Leiden, Netherlands[4]
William White and Susannah Fuller were supposedly aboard the Mayflower,with their son, Resolved. Barbara Farrand Umstot is currently working on this theory and is awaiting verification by mail (March 2003). If you have additional information you would like to contribute, please contact me, or Barbara Umstot at totsmu@@msn.com
Ref #1 - MayflowerHistory.com William White's biographical information found on Mayflower Passengers: "William White is a difficult individual to research, and much has been mispublishedabout him. There is a marriage record in Leiden, Holland, which records the marriage of a William White to Anna Fuller...."
"This has been a heavily-debated issue: was this the marriage of the MAYFLOWER passenger or not? There are at least two William White's living in Leiden during the appropriate time period, one was a woolcomber, and one was a tobacco merchant.
The William White who married Anna Fuller was called a woolcomber in the 1612 marriage record, well after the Mayflower departed a Willem Wit(t) was a witness and aquintance of Godbert Godbertson in Leiden, this person is assumed to be the same as William White, woolcomber, and because of this it is said he could not have been the Mayflower passenger. And since Sarah Priest nee Allerton had witnessed the will of William White in 1612, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume it was the same William White who witnessed her own marriage to Godbert Godbertson in Leiden in October 1621? The Mayflower passenger was also not the tobacco merchant, who appears in numerous Leiden records throughout the 1620s. So there was either a THIRD William White in Leiden, or else the William White of the Mayflower may have joined onto the Mayflower's voyage from England."