Leslie Mahler, FASG, wrote a short article on a clue to the English origins of Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton at Mayflower Quarterly 75:54-56. The gist of the article is an entry in guild records that show an Isaac Allerton, son of Bartholomew Allerton of Ipswich, Suffolk, being apprenticed as a tailor in 1607. This is deemed a clue. We know that the Mayflower passenger was called a tailor in Leiden records in 1615, and he named his eldest son Bartholomew, so why is this just a clue? Isaac Allerton deposed on 26 September 1639 as being aged about 53, hence born ca. 1586. If so, he would have been apprenticed at age 21--far too late for the custom of the time.
What to do with this record? This is where genealogy becomes more of an art than a science. We have two choices: (1) this record does belong to the Mayflower passenger. If so, then one of the two following statements must be true: (i) He was the oldest apprentice ever in late 16th/early 17th century England; or (ii) he severely misstated his age in 1639. A case can be made that he married in 1611 in Leiden, and if 21, he was born in 1590 and thus 17 at apprenticeship. Still later than the usual 14 others were.
(2) This is not the Mayflower passenger, but another man, very likely closely related. Possibly this is a first cousin, also named Isaac, born ca. 1593. The Bartholomew in the record is the brother of the Mayflower passenger's father. This clears up the age, the naming pattern and the place being associated with the Allertons.
So this remains only a clue because we need a further document to be discovered that throws more light on the situation.
Thanks for pointing this out to me. I have Isaac Allerton as the first ancestor I used to apply for membership in the Mayflower Society, and this issue of the Quarterly was right next to my computer! Great Clue!
Posted by: Heather Rojo | 09/25/2009 at 05:01 PM