Most people who have written about John Barrows who arrived at Salem in 1637 have used the port examination record for him which is reprinted at The New England Historical & Genealogical Register 14 (1860):327. It is listed that the following people went to New England on the Mary Anne, master William Goose. "10 May 1637, John Borowe of Yarmouth, cooper, aged 28 years, and Anne his wife aged 40 years is desirous to pass to Salem in New England, there to inhabit." I've previously pointed out that it was uncommon for a man to have a wife 12 years his senior at that particular time and place. Now, I know why.
In Charles Banks's book, Planters of the Commonwealth (originally published 1930, reprinted many times, 1997), p. 182, the same list appears for the passengers of the Mary Anne. However, this time John Burrowe's age is given as 48 and his wife Anne as 40. At the very least, one of the transcriptions is wrong. The original record needs to be viewed. The age of 48 works much better and explains so much more than the age of 28. A man of 48 would have a wife about 40 years old. This also explains why they disappear from the records--they simply died. And of course, a 48 year old is completely and utterly excluded as the same man to be the person who later showed up in Plymouth (whose will was written in 1691 when that man would be 102; his last child would have been born at age 96).
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