Notes |
- GSSB#1
2 MAY 2021
The Great Migration Begins
Sketches
PRESERVED PURITAN
GEORGE SOULE
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
REMOVES: Duxbury
FREEMAN: In the "1633" Plymouth list of freemen, ahead of those admitted on 1 January 1632/3 [PCR 1:4]. On list of 7 March 1636/7 freemen [PCR 1:52]. On the 29 May 1670 list of freemen of Duxburrow [PCR 5:275].
EDUCATION: Signed his name as witness to the will of John Barnes of Plymouth 6 March 1667/8 [MD 4:98, citing Scrapbook 56].
OFFICES: Deputy (for Duxburrow), 27 September 1642 (special deputy in case of war with the Indians), 7 June 1653, 7 March 1653/4, 6 June 1654 [PCR 2:45, 3:31, 44, 49]. Committee (from Duxbury), 28 October 1645, 3 March 1645/6, 7 July 1646, 4 June 1650 (to consider the making and repealing of laws), 5 June 1651 [PCR 2:94, 95, 104, 154, 167, 11:155]. Grand jury, 7 March 1642/3, 6 June 1643 [PCR 2:53, 56]. Jury, 3 June 1656, 3 March 1662/3 [PCR 3:102, 7:108]. Petit jury, 1 June 1647 [PCR 2:117]. Lot viewer, 4 June 1645 [PCR 2:88]. Committee to draw an order concerning the disorderly drinking of tobacco [!], 20 October 1646 [PCR 2:108]. Viewer of meadows, 5 May 1640 [PCR 1:151]. Committee to set the range, 1 June 1658 [PCR 3:138].
One of the "voluntaries," soldiers "that willingly offer themselves to go upon ... service" 7 June 1637 [PCR 1:60].
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land received one acre as a passenger on the Mayflower [PCR 12:4]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle George Sowle, Mary Sowle and Zakariah Sowle were the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth persons in the ninth company [PCR 12:12].
Assessed 9s. in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [PCR 1:10, 27]. He was on the list of purchasers [PCR 2:177].
On 1 July 1633 he was granted "mow for a cow near his dwelling house" [PCR 1:15]. On 20 March 1636/7 he was allowed the hay ground where he got hay the year before [PCR 1:56]. On 4 December 1637 George Soule was granted a garden place on Ducksborrow side [PCR 1:69]. On 7 May 1638 one acre of land was granted to George Soule "at the watering place" in liew of another acre which was taken from him for other use, and also two acres of stony marsh at Powder Point were granted to him [PCR 1:83]. On 13 July 1639 George Soule sold to Robert Hicks two acres at the watering place on the south side of Plymouth [PCR 12:45]. On 2 November 1640 he was granted "the meadow he desires" at Green's Harbor [PCR 1:165].
On 4 May 1658 George Soule was granted five acres of meadow [PCR 3:134]. On 22 January 1658 and 17 July 1668, George Soule gave his Dartmouth propriety to his sons Nathaniel and George as a single undivided share [PCLR 3:123, 245].
On 23 July 1668 George Soule, with "consent of my wife Mary," gave land to Francis Walker "husband to my daughter Elizabeth" [MD 27:39-40, citing PCLR 3:126]. On 26 January 1668[/9] George Soule of Duxbury deeded to "Patience Haskall his true and natural daughter and unto John Haskall her husband" his half share of land at Namassakett [MD 27:40, citing PCLR 3:153] On 12 March 1668[/9] George Soule of Duxbury, husbandman, deeded to "my daughter Elizabeth wife unto Francis Walkere" half his share of land at Namascutt [MD 27: 40-41, citing PLR 10:2:327].
In his will, dated 11 August 1677 (with codicil dated 20 September 1677) and proved 5 March 1679/80, "G[e]orge Soule Senior of Duxberry ... being aged and weak of body" confirmed that he had formerly given by deeds "unto my two sons Nathaniel and G[e]orge all my lands in the township of Dartmouth ... [and] I have formerly given unto my daughters Elizabeth and Patience all my lands in the township of Middlebery"; to "my daughters Sussannah and Mary" 12d. apiece; "forasmuch as my eldest son John Soule and his family hath in my extreme old age and weakness been tender and careful of me and very helpful to me, and is likely so to be while it shall please God to continue my life here, therefore I give and bequeath unto my said son John Soule all the remainder of my housing and lands whatsoever"; to "my son John Soule all my goods and chattels whatsoever"; "my son John Soule to be my sole executor." In a codicil dated 20 September 1677, "G[e]orge Soule" indicated that if "my son John Soule" were to disturb "my daughter Patience or her heirs" in the peacable possession of lands he had given her in Middleborough, then "my gift to my son John Soule shall be void" and "my daughter Patience shall have all my lands at Duxburrey and she shall be my sole executrix ... and enter into my housing lands and meadows at Duxburrow" [MD 2:81-83, citing PCPR 4:1:50].
The inventory of the estate of George Soule of Duxbury, taken 22 January 1679[/80], totalled £40 19s., including £25 in real estate: "dwelling house, orchard, barn and upland," £20; and "meadow land," £5; John Soule appended a long list of charges against the estate, including an item "for diet and tendance since my mother died which was three year the last December" [MD 2:83-84, citing PCPR 4:1:51].
BIRTH: By about 1602 based on date of marriage.
DEATH: Between 20 September 1677 (codicil to will) and 22 January 1679[/80] (date of inventory), and probably closer to the latter date.
MARRIAGE: By 1627 MARY BUCKETT (in the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle George Soule had wife Mary and son Zachariah; Mary has been identified by many writers as Mary Buckett of the 1623 land division on that basis that no other Mary was available in the limited Plymouth population of the earliest years). She died about December 1672 (son John Soule indicated in an account of 1676 that "my mother died which was three year the last December" [MD 2:83-84]).
CHILDREN:
i ZACHARIAH, b. by 1627; m. by 1663 Margaret _____ [Scrapbook 20].
ii JOHN, b. about 1632 (deposed 8 March 1705/6 aged "about seventy-four years" [MD 5:46, citing PLR 7:35]); m. (1) by about 1656 Rebecca Simonson, daughter of MOSES SIMONSON (estimated b. of eldest child [MF 3:7]); m. (2) by 1679 Esther (Delano) Samson, daughter of PHILIP DELANO and widow of Samuel Samson [TAG 15:165-67; TG 1:233; MF 3:7].
iii NATHANIEL, b. between say 1634 and 1646 (adult by 1667/8 [PCR 3:178]); before 4 March 1673/4 fathered a child with an unnamed Indian woman and ordered to pay ten bushels of corn to her for the keeping of the child [PCR 5:163]; m. by 1681 Rose _____ (eldest child b. Dartmouth 12 January 1681[/2]).
iv GEORGE, b. about 1639 (deposed 1 March 1672/3 "aged 34 years or thereabouts" [Newport Court Book A:30]); m. by 1671 Deborah _____ (estimated birth of first children [MF 3:9]).
v SUSANNA, b. say 1640; m. by 1660 Francis West (estimated birth of first child [MF 3:10]).
vi MARY, b. about 1642 (in 1653 bound out for seven years or eight if she did not marry [MD 1:214]); m. by 1667 John Peterson (estimated birth of first child [MF 3:10]).
vii ELIZABETH, b. say 1644 (fined for committing fornication 3 March 1662/3 [PCR 5:34]; sued Nathaniel Church 5 October 1663 for refusing to marry her [PCR 7:111]; ordered whipped 2 July 1667 for committing fornication a second time [PCR 5:162]); m. by 23 July 1668 Francis Walker.
viii PATIENCE, b. say 1646; m. Middleboro January 1666[/7] John Haskell [MiddleVR 1:1].
ix BENJAMIN, b. say 1652; fell with Capt. Pierce 26 March 1676 during King Philip's War [Bodge 350]; unm.
COMMENTS: Bradford, in his list of passengers of the Mayflower, included George Soule as one of "two men-servants" of Mr. Edward Winslow [Bradford 441]. In 1651 Bradford summed up the group headed by Winslow, saying that one of the servants died, "but his man, George Soule, is still living, and hath eight children" [Bradford 444].
On 3 January 1636/7 George Soule and Nathaniel Thomas sued and countersued each other over two heifers [PCR 7:4].
On 3 June 1662 "Gorg Soule" was on a list of freemen desiring to look for additional land "being the first born children of this government" [PCR 4:19].
On 5 March 1667/8 George Soule Sr. stood surety with his son John for the good behavior of his son Nathaniel Soule who had verbally abused Mr. John Holmes, teacher of the church at Duxburrow [PCR 4:178].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1980 the General Society of Mayflower Descendants published a genealogy of five generations of descent from George Soule as the third volume in its series of silver volumes [John E. Soule and Milton E. Terry, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume Three: George Soule (Plymouth 1980), ed. Anne Borden Harding (cited herein as MF 3)]. This is a seriously flawed volume, which should not be relied upon. George E. McCracken and Neil D. Thompson published lengthy reviews pointing out some of the problems [TG 1:225-58; TAG 57:57-58].
- ACCEPTABLE BIRTH ORDERING FOR GEORGE SOULE'S CHILDREN
-An unpublished note of Robert S. Wakefield develops an acceptable ordering of the birth of the children of Pilgrim George Soule. It is established that Zachariah was the first born; John was 75 years old in 1707; George Jr. was 34 years old in 1673; Patience?s last child was born 1691; Elizabeth was in trouble in 1663; Pilgrim George had eight children as of 1650. (Benjamin was born after 1650)
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