Also see: The ships Anne and Little James
In the spring of 1623 about 90 passengers embarked in two small ships sailing from London to Plymouth Colony for the purpose of providing settlers and other colony support. These were the 140-ton supply ship Anne and the smaller, new 44-ton pinnace Little James which had been outfitted for military service. They were financed by Thomas Weston's investment group, the Merchant Adventurers, also those who financed Mayflower in 1620 and Fortune in 1621. After a three-month voyage, Anne arrived in Plymouth, per Bradford, on July 10, 1623 and Little James a week or ten days later. After this voyage Anne was to return to its regular cargo shipping work and Little James was to remain in the colony for fishing, cargo and military service. Anne's master was William Peirce and Little James had two young men in charge – Master John Bridges, master mariner, and a novice captain, Emmanuel Altham, a Merchant Adventurer.[1][2][3][4]
Of the 90-odd passengers, there were about 60 men, women and children total in both ships, many being former English Separatist residents of Leiden, Holland, and with about 30 others being part of an independent emigrant group led by John Oldham. This later group had been promised a separate living situation in Plymouth apart from the main settlement.[5]
There are no separate passenger lists for each ship, as those that sailed in these ships were grouped together in records under Anne when the official land division was made in 1623 with assignment of acreage lots by name. But author Charles Banks did identify at least four men, three with families, who were passengers on Little James. These totaled about 14 persons. Banks also states that it is possible Little James had more passengers, but due to size it could not accommodate many. Additionally, eight wives accompanied their husbands on these two ships, along with twelve children most brought over by their parents of at least two of whom were Patience and Fear Brewster, daughters of William and Mary Brewster, who had arrived on the Mayflower.[6]
In the contingent on board Anne were about 15 persons associated in some way with Mayflower passengers who had come over in 1620. Some joined husbands or future husbands: Hester Cooke, Bridget Fuller, Alice (Carpenter) Southworth who married William Bradford, Elizabeth Warren and Barbara Standish. Another had been the spouse of a now-deceased Pilgrim – Sarah Priest Cuthbertson. There were other passengers who married Mayflower passengers after arrival: Fear Brewster/Isaac Allerton, Mary Becket/George Soule, Christian Penn/Francis Eaton & Francis Billington, Experience Mitchell/Jane Cooke, Nicholas Snow/Constance Hopkins, Sarah Warren/John Cooke, Robert Bartlett/Mary Warren. And there were Mary and Sarah Priest, the daughters of the deceased Pilgrim Degory Priest, who had arrived from Leiden and later married Phineas Pratt and John Coombs respectively.
Bradford states that some of the new settlers were useful persons and became “good members to the body”, some being the wives and children of men there already, some since the Fortune came over in 1621. But Bradford also related about those unfit for such a hardship settlement: “And some were so bad, as they were faine to be at charge to send them home again next year.” And the state of the passengers is relayed in an apologetic letter sent by Robert Cushman, former Leiden agent in London, to Bradford: “… It greeveth me to see so weake a company sent you, and yet had I not been here they had been weaker…Shuch and shuch came without my constente: but the importunitie of their freinds got promise of our Treasurer in my absence.”[7]
From these statements it can be learned the reason that so many of the first arrivals disappeared from Plymouth after a few years of experiencing that hardship existence. Many of the emigrants on the Anne and Little James would eventually be sent back to England as unfit for the task of living and working in a harsh colonial environment.[7][8]