When the Mayflower landed near what would become Plymouth Colony on November 11, 1620, among the passengers were William and Dorothy Bradford. William would later become governor of the colony. They left their son, John, about three or four years old, behind in Leiden.
It had been a rough crossing, and the new colonists were tired and sick when they arrived. It was probably scurvy, but also perhaps pneumonia. More than half the new colonists died that first winter, men, women, and children. Among the women was Mary Allerton, who died in childbirth along with her newborn. Three of the four More children died, one of whom, Jasper, died on December 6. He was about the same age as little John Bradford, and his death may have triggered feelings of despair for Dorothy, his mother.
The next day, December 7, Dorothy Bradford fell overboard while the Mayflower was at anchor and drowned. Governor Bradford later wrote of the event: “William Bradford his wife died soon after their arrival.” There was no further explanation and her passing is still debated today – was it an accident or a suicide? It is not hard to imagine that a mother separated from her child, facing a bleak future, surrounded by illness and death, might have taken her own life.
John Bradford would eventually make it to Plymouth Colony and be reunited with his father sometime after 1627. He married twice, but had no children. William Bradford remarried to Alice Southworth and they had three children.
womenofplymouthcolony.com 