John Tilley

Mayflower passenger, 1620. Of Henlow, Bedfordshire, before the voyage: the will of George Clarke (22 Sept 1607) notes that Thomas Kirke owed him money, and on 7 Apr 1613 “John Tilley, yeoman,” of Wootton, Bedfordshire, aged 40, gave sworn evidence (Banks 1929, as summarised by Wikipedia). He and his brother Edward were members of the Leiden Separatist congregation, and both signed the Mayflower Compact (Wikipedia). Caleb Johnson lists five children: Rose (died young), John, a second Rose, Robert and Elizabeth; only Elizabeth sailed with her parents. Wikipedia notes that Robert was apprenticed in Bedfordshire in October 1617, which raises doubt about how long the family lived in Leiden.

He was one of the ten men of the exploring party of 6 Dec 1620 that met the “First Encounter”: “Captaine Standish, Maister Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslowe, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Houland, and three of London, Richard Warren, Steeuen Hopkins, and Edward [Doten]” (Mourt’s Relation, 1622). John Howland, later his son-in-law, and Richard Warren, both also ancestors, were in the same party.

Bradford: “John Tillie and his wife both dyed a litle after they came ashore; and their daughter Elizabeth maried with John Howland, and hath issue as is before noted.” And of his brother: “Edward Tillie and his wife both dyed soon after their arivall.”

Open questions

• The family is taken from the standard compiled accounts. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (the Howland volume) has not been checked.