Humility Cooper (1619prior to 1651), of
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
, Holland, traveled in 1620 on the voyage of the ship ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'' as a one-year-old female child in the company of the
Edward Tilley
Edward Tilley (c. 1588 – c. winter of 1620/1621) traveled in 1620 on the historic voyage of the ship ''Mayflower'' as a Separatist member of the Leiden, Holland contingent. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact, and died with his wife in t ...
family. Although Edward Tilley and his wife died the first winter in the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
, Humility survived to live her young life in
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...
, returning to England possibly in her teen years. Her fate in England is unknown.
[Charles Edward Banks, ''The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the "Mayflower" in 1620, the "Fortune" in 1621'' and the "Anne" and "The Little James" in 1623 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing 1965), p. 49][Eugene Aubrey Stratton, ''Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691,'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 273][R. I. Ward, ''The Baronial Ancestry of Henry Sampson, Humility Cooper, and Ann (Cooper) Tilley,'' (The Genealogist 6:166-186).][''A genealogical Profile of Humility Cooper''](_blank)
(a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013) [Pilgrim Hall Museum, (n.d.]
/ref>
Humility was born about 1619 in Holland to Robert Cooper and his wife Joan (Gresham) of Henlow
Henlow is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about south-east of the county town of Bedford. The name Henlow is believed to derive from the old English ''henna hlaw'', meaning ...
in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
, England. They are known to have been in Leiden with English Separatists
English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who disagrees in opinion, belief an ...
as in 1618 his name appears on a Leiden business agreement. He was a nephew of Edward Tilley's wife Ann, and with Humility's father Robert Cooper apparently being Ann's brother, who may have been a resident of Leiden, Holland at the time of ''Mayflower'' sailing.[Caleb H. Johnson, ''The Mayflower and her passengers,'' (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., Caleb Johnson, 2006), pp. 129, 234]
The ''Mayflower'' Voyage
Edward and Ann Tilley came aboard the Mayflower without any children of their own, but in company with two young relatives of Ann's – her sixteen-year-old nephew Henry Samson
Henry Samson (c. 16031685) In 1620 Henry Samson travelled as a member of the Edward Tilley family on the historic voyage of the Pilgrim ship ''Mayflower''. The Tilleys died in the first winter but Henry Samson survived to live a long, fulfilling ...
and her one-year-old niece Humility Cooper. Both children had apparently been given over to the Tilleys in Leiden, but the reason those two children were with them has never been fully explained.[Charles Edward Banks, ''The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the "Mayflower" in 1620, the "Fortune" in 1621'' and the "Anne" and "The Little James" in 1623 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing 1965), pp. 49, 79][Eugene Aubrey Stratton, ''Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691,'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 362]
Per William Bradford's later recollection of this family: "Edward Tillie, and Ann, his wife; and *2* children that were their cossens, Henery Samson and Humility Coper."[Eugene Aubrey Stratton, ''Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–1691,'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 46]
Why Humility was in the custody of the Edward Tilleys is unknown – possibly her mother was deceased, and if she was an orphan, Ann Tilley, being childless, may have assumed custody in place of the child's mother.
The ''Mayflower'' departed Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymout ...
England on September 6/16, 1620, the small 100 foot ship having 102 passengers with about 30 crew members. The first month in the Atlantic, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong north-Atlantic winter gales causing the ship to be badly shaken with water leaks from structural damage. There were two deaths, but this was just a precursor of what happened after their Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mon ...
arrival, when almost half the company would die in the first winter.
On November 9/19, 1620, after about 3 months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted land, which was Cape Cod. And after several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day. There were forty-one of the adult males, including the servants, who signed the Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact, originally titled Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth, was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the men aboard the ''Mayflower,'' consisting of separatist Puritans, adventurers, an ...
on November 11, 1620.
Life in New England
In the 1623 Division of Land, with the Winslow family, she was assigned one "aker" as "Humillitie Cooper" adjoining the property of Henry Samson.
In the 1627 Division of Cattle, she was in lot five with the Brewster family as "Humillyty Cooper."
Return to England
From William Bradford's 1651 writing, she "was sent for into England" – by whom it is not known, possibly her father. Her return to England may have occurred sometime about 1638 or prior to that. She was baptized at the church of Holy Trinity Minories
Minories ( ) is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in central London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate.
Both are ...
in London on March 17 or 19, 1638/9 with the record stating she had been born in Holland. Her baptism date would have made her age nineteen then and with the Tilleys on the Mayflower in 1620 she would have been about one year old.[Caleb H. Johnson, ''The Mayflower and her passengers,'' (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., Caleb Johnson, 2006), p. 129]
The Fate of Humility Cooper
From William Bradford's 1651 recollection, writing of the death of Humility Cooper: "……and the girle Humility, ther cousen (niece), was sent for into England, and dyed ther."
It is known that Humility Cooper returned to England unmarried some time after May 22, 1627, and if Bradford is correct in stating that she "dyed ther", she apparently died between the date of her baptism in 1638/9 and the time of Bradford's 1651 record. There is no further information about her.[Eugene Aubrey Stratton, ''Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 273, 409]
References
Sources
* Morrison, S. E. (1976). Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647 by William Bradford, New York: Alfred Knopf.
External links
Plimoth Plantation Web site
main sit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Humility
1619 births
17th-century deaths
Mayflower passengers
People from Leiden