by My entire life I never knew of any family legends regarding my ancestors. It wasn’t until I began rooting through my family history that any legend surfaced. While researching my connection to the Mayflower I learned that my 9th-Great Grandmother, Mary Chilton, was a passenger on the Mayflower. Digging a little deeper I found the “legend” that Mary Chilton was the first female passenger from the Mayflower to set foot at Plymouth. All of the mentions of Mary’s being first were accompanied by a disclaimer that essentially said there is no formal record of Mary being first and ascribed the claim as family legend.
A Chilton family tradition, first recorded in 1744, has the 12-year-old Mary Chilton as the first woman ashore at Plymouth. There is no contemporary recording of the event, but there are also no competing claims. Mary Chilton’s landing on Plymouth Rock has been celebrated in story and in art. From the Pilgrim Hall Museum web site.
Because of the importance of the Mayflower, and her passengers, many things have been written of them and they have researched thoroughly. I read some articles about Mary that I found on Google and one of the articles contained a painting by Henry Bacon. I followed my search with a search for images and found several more artist interpretations of Mary’s appearance.
The legend of Mary’s first steps in North America have provided her ancestor’s with images of what she may have looked like. I can honestly say that I have no other ancestor that has been the subject of paintings. In this instance the family legends provides more than fodder for fireside chats.
The following images were found on the Internet. In some instances these images appeared on we sites without citation. Each of these images reportedly has Mary Chilton.
We had family friends in the 1940s named Steele. He had been an owner of a 5th Avenue NYC jeweler and she was named Mary Chilton. I understood she was a direct decedent of Mary Chilton, but in a cursory look at genealogy websites, I can’t find descendants later than the1700s.
Have you come across any information on this?
Mary Chilton was my 8th great grandma. I don’t have my info in front of me but it goes backwards Sweeney, Ball, Lathrop, etc.