Note 489 — Chapter VIII

Priest, Tinker and Soule, are names found in the records of parishes near Scrooby (Palfrey’s History of New England, i. 160), and it is not unlikely that Degory Priest, Thomas Tinker, and George Sowle, of the “Mayflower,” may have come from this region. It is also said by Mr. W. T. Davis (Harper’s Magazine, lxiv. 254, January, 1882, “Who were the Pilgrims?”), that a William Butten’s baptism is found in Austerfield, under date of Sept. 12, 1589. But it would be hazardous to identify this man of thirty-one years with the “William Butten, a youth, servant to Samuel Fuller,” who died on the “Mayflower’s” voyage to America. It is also believed that Miles Standish was a scion of the Standish family of Duxbury Hall, Lancashire. [This view is encouraged, if not established, by the expressions of Standish’s own will, which is printed in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., v. 335. The story of Standish’s career has been more than once reviewed of late years, on account of the efforts, not yet completed, to erect a tower to his memory on Captain’s Hill, in Duxbury. Its proposed height is not yet reached; and when completed, it will bear his effigy on its top. There were Proceedings printed to commemorate the consecration of the ground, Aug. 17, 1871, and on laying the corner-stone, in 1872. It is known that Standish was never of the Pilgrim communion; and “Was Miles Standish a Romanist?” is discussed in Mag. of Amer. Hist., i. 390. The inventory of his books is given in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., i. 54. Bartlett, Pilgrim Fathers, and the illustrated edition of Longfellow’s Poems, 1880, give some views connected with the English family. On the descendants of the Captain, see N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1873, p. 145; Winsor’s Duxbury; Savage’s Dictionary, etc.