♀Margery Moore

Margery Moore was an Englishwoman of Evesham, in Worcestershire, who in the spring of 1635, at the age of forty-nine, sailed for New England on the Elizabeth & Ann with her two sons, John, aged fourteen, and Philip, aged eleven. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son John Washburn (died 1686).

According to Robert Charles Anderson’s The Great Migration Begins, which follows a 1907 history of the Washbourne family, she married John Washburn (died about 1671) at Bengeworth, beside Evesham, in 1618, probably in November, and their sons were baptized there: John on 26 November 1620, and Philip in June 1622, who was buried within the week; a second Philip was born about 1624. Her husband had gone ahead to Plymouth Colony^W, where Anderson dates his arrival to 1632, and Anderson suggests that he came back late in 1633 to arrange the family’s passage and sailed again late in 1634, some months before them. Between 13 April and 14 May 1635 she was entered as “Margerie Washborn” among the passengers of the Elizabeth & Ann, master Roger Cooper, her age placing her birth about 1586; a compiled family history dates a christening at Bengeworth, probably hers, to 3 November 1588, two years after that birth. A Mayflower genealogy has the ship reaching Boston at midsummer, and two such genealogies call her Margaret. No later record of her is known.

Notes

Christening

The 1907 Washbourne family history by James Davenport prints a Bengeworth baptism of 3 November 1588 for “Margery the Daughter of Robart More”. It is the only Margery More baptism he printed, and linking it to her is probable rather than proven. The passenger list gives her age as forty-nine in the spring of 1635, which points to a birth about 1586; the two dates cannot both be exact.