One of the more frustrating missing pieces of the Mayflower puzzle is the lack of an extant will of her master, Christopher Jones. While it would not have necessarily offered any clues as to the vessel’s overall ownership, it is likely it would have included some useful information, such as family leads, and work colleagues. So why does a will not exist?
First, it should be stated that the will was not lost to time; there never was a will to begin with. In a post I wrote in 2019, as well as foreshadowing the current topic, I explain that due to the process of his widow, Josian Jones, obtaining administration rights, there cannot have been a will outlining this at the time.
The simplest explanation for the lack of a will is that Jones died suddenly, and therefore did not have time to prepare one, nor even dictate one to whoever was present. This is fair, but the counter is that a previously written will would have been used, even if was outdated. There are several examples, particularly among mariners, of wills having been written before – or during – a voyage, which did not come into play at the time, but were used months or years later as required. Jones happened to have gone on a particularly dangerous voyage just 18 months prior.
So, the assumption is that Jones did not write a will ahead of the famous 1620 transatlantic voyage. A will written at that time would certainly have remained relevant in early 1622 – none of his children are known to have died in that period, and the introduction of youngest son John Jones would not have altered things too much, as Jones already had male heirs. His eldest child was 12-year-old Josian Jones, so no complications through coming of age.
However, this is true of many of the Mayflower‘s crew. Sources such as Mayflower History show that several members of the crew died during the winter, but one of the reasons why information on them is so scarce is that no wills of theirs were brought back to England. In fact, the only will of any passenger known to have been brought back was that of William Mullins – we know the original was written during the voyage (though technically the ‘original’ is, as described within, a copy of the actual original will, written just before the return voyage), so it’s not as if they didn’t have the resources or inclination to write wills.
Also, while perhaps some of the ‘Pilgrims’ had nothing to leave, the crew certainly did, and again there are plenty of examples of mariners writing wills on voyages which amount to “I leave everything to my father” and not much else.
We come to the “query” part of the post, as the reasons for Jones not leaving a will amount to little more than speculation. We could say, for example, that Jones did write a will, but it was not preserved due to having more pressing matters to attend to. We could say that resources may have been scarce, but William Brewster‘s supplies were probably ample enough, and they had enough for the Mullins will in the spring.
Religious tendencies could play a part, especially given the ‘cargo’, but that’s not my strongest suit so I can’t offer anything in depth, though the classic “In the name of God Amen” intro was not necessary – a 16th century one that sticks in my mind began along the lines of “According to the computation of the Church of England [year]”, and one that may be more pertinent is that of John Forber, curate of Harwich, whose 1625 will omits the line entirely, starting with “I John Forber“. A later example would be the Quakers, who wrote wills in their own style. The bottom line is that Jones’ religious beliefs probably didn’t stop him writing a will.
It could have been a matter of superstition, in that Jones intentionally didn’t write one in 1620 fearing he was tempting fate – this could account for other crew members, and also play into the early explanation that he died suddenly, before he could get a will written. Mariners were certainly superstitious, but this one wasn’t commonly among them.
Ultimately, the answer to the title question could be any one of these things, or none of the above. We can say why it is likely or unlikely that any situation may have happened, but not that a situation did happen one way or the other. This, as with all queries, is open to the reader; as the old adage goes, your guess is as good as mine.
Harwicensis 