Brown-Crocker

The following letter from Rev. Edward C. Towne to John Winslow, of Brooklyn, is interesting and suggestive, as relating to the time of and circumstances attending his arrival at Plymouth. Mr. Towne had previously published a letter in theNew York Tribune, enforcing the discrimination that should be made between the Pilgrims and Puritans, in studies of colonial history.

John Winslow ,
Dear Sir :
It gives me pleasure to answer your note of May 6th. Of Gov. Edward Winslow's four brothers - John, born April, 1597 ; Kenelm, born April, 1599 ; Gilbert, born October 1600 ; and Josiah, born February 1605 ; Kenelm and Josiah “ arrived at Plymouth before 1632, and both settled at Marshfield" ( Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrins, p. 275 ). Kenelm died at Salem , 1672, but it was while on a visit there. He was from first to last one of the Pilgrims, within the limits of the Old Colony. The exact date of his arrival from England is not known. If he came in 1629, in Puritan company, and perhaps made some stay at Salom before proceeding to Plymouth, it would still be consistent with his being an original Pilgrim with the Mayflower people and their delayed companions. Only about one-third of the Pilgrim Church of Leyden came over at first, and in 1629 a long hindered portion of the original number came by way.of Salem, in Puritan company, and proceeded thence to Plymouth. The Puritan ships, spoken of in my note to the Tribune - the Talbot, George, and Lion-were directly followed by three more - the Pilgrim , Four Sisters, and the Mayflower (the same that in 1620 came to Plymouth). It was in the Talbot and the Mayflower that 35 of the Leyden people smuggled themselves over. Gilbert had come with Edward in the Mayflower, 1620, and John the next year in the Fortune, with the second detachment of original Pilgrims. It is likely that Kenelm followed in their track, however he may have taken advantage of Puritan company. Possibly he came in the Mayflower itself, in 1629, when it formed part of the Puritan Expedition . The next year also the old Mayflower was one of the fleet which brought over Winthrop and his large company, and your ancestor may have taken advantage of that opportunity. But however he came, it was as a Pilgrim to join the Old Colony. Either he, or his son Kenelm , got a tract of land in Rhode Island, where many of his descendants lived, and still live.
Of the two ships of 1629 which brought Pilgrims, it must have been the Mayflower rather than the Talbot on which your ancestor came ; for the original record states that " some servants " of the Pilgrim company were sent in the Talbot, “ but these ( The Pilgrims,] come in the Mayflower . " No doubt your ancestor made a point, if he had a chance to do so, of coming over in the original Pilgrim ship. The probability is very great also that he took advantage of the first good opportunity, that of 1629, and that he proceeded directly to Plymouth, and was not even transiently & resident at Salem. His name does not appear in the lists of freemen within the limits of the Puritan Colony. In Bradford it is mentioned that in 1631 , Edward Winslow sent from London by the White Angel his brother Josiah, and that then began his employment with the Plymouth people. As Josiah was six years younger than Kenelm , it may be presumed that the latter had already come over, and that Josiah was taken as the only brother left. This leaves it almost certain, with the previous probabilities, that it was by the Mayflower, in 1629, that your ancestor came over to join the Plymouth pilgrims. He came to Marshfield on account, doubtless, of his brother Edward's estate, and as Edward was a good deal engaged with Puritans as well as Pilgrims, in the agencies which he undertook in England, it is likely that Kenelm had more or less business and acquaintance among the Puritans, and that in this way he was on a visit to Sal m at the time of his death.

When I next see the Whitmans of Plymouth who are descendants of Edward Winslow, I will make further inquiry, and will also look at one or two books which I have not at hand here. It is not likely, however, that any thing can be added to the probable conclusion that your ancestor, though not at first, yet came in the Mayflower.

The Mayflower here was not the same ship that brought the original Pilgrims in 1620, it was a different ship by the same name that came in 1629. Please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower#Second_Mayflower