Mary Chilton Winslow (née Chilton, b. 1607 – d. c. 1679) was a Pilgrim and purportedly the first European woman to step ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
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Biography
Mary Chilton was baptized on May 31, 1607 in Sandwich, Kent, England and was the daughter of the Mayflower passenger, James Chilton. Mary Chilton's mother's name has been listed as "Susannah, possibly Furner" in many places. The mother is listed by William Bradford as "Mrs. Chilton" or "James Chilton's wife"--he may have never known her given name. At the age of thirteen, Mary Chilton accompanied her parents on the voyage to Plymouth. Her father, age sixty-four, was the oldest passenger on the Mayflower.
Her father died on December 18, 1620, while the Mayflower was anchored in Provincetown Harbor, and her mother died six weeks later on January 21, 1621, shortly after arriving at Plymouth. Both died of "the first infection of the disease" reported by Governor William Bradford in 1650. Chilton was given three shares in the land division of 1623, one for herself and one each for her deceased parents. Her property was situated between those of Standish and John Howland.
She was one of eleven minor girls on the Mayflower, nine of whom survived the first year at Plymouth Rock and would have been present at the time of the famous First Thanksgiving in 1621. In contrast, only four of the 14 adult women survived the first year.