Isaac Allerton was a passenger on the Mayflower, a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and one of the founders of Plymouth Colony during early Colonial America.
Despite being among the first to settle in Plymouth and surviving that first winter, he would eventually be removed from the colony.
After his removal, he would become a successful businessman in Connecticut.
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Life Prior to the Mayflower
Isaac was probably in London, England, around 1586, and by 1611, was living in Leiden
In Leiden in 1611, Allerton stated he was from London.
Also living in Leiden in 1611 was Allerton's sister, Sarah (Allerton) Vincent, a widow prior to 1611 of John Vincent. Isaac and his wife, Mary, and Sarah and her second husband, Degory Priest, had a double wedding in Leiden on November 4, 1611.
In the records of the time, Sarah is noted to have been "of London." Also in Leiden at this time was John Allerton, who may well have been a relative of Isaac's or Isaac's brother, but this has never been proven for certain.
Allerton became betrothed to Mary Norris in Leiden by October 7, 1611.
He lived in Pieterskerkhof near St. Peter's Church. In 1614, he became a citizen of Leiden. While in Leiden in 1619, Allerton worked as a tailor; John Hooke, who would travel with Allerton on the Mayflower, was his apprentice.
The Sail to America
Isaac and his family came to America aboard the infamous Mayflower. Among his family was his apprentice, John Hooke.
His wife's name was Mary, and the two of them brought their three children along for the voyage.
The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, in September of 1620 with 102 passengers. These passengers would have to endure cramped conditions, germ-filled living quarters, insufficient rations, and terrible wet conditions inside the cabin due to the ship being unable to keep water out.
The voyage would not be a peaceful one, and most of the crew had to focus on keeping the ship maintained to just get to their destination. The women and children would be affected the most, and along the journey, two people would die.
Arrival
Allerton and his family arrived at the beginning of the New England winter. They were unaware of the conditions they would be forced to endure for the next 3-4 months.
Their original destination was supposed to be the colony of Virginia, where Jamestown had been founded 15 years prior. The winter ocean was too difficult for the ragged ship to sail, and the Pilgrims decided to anchor on Cape Cod hook.
After landing, Isaac Allerton would sign the Mayflower Compact along with other men.
William Bradford's Record of Isaac Allerton
Much of what we know about the colony and Isaac Allerton is recorded by William Bradford.
Here is what Bradford said about the Allerton family:
Mr. Allerton's wife died with the first and his servant, John Hooke. His son Bartle is married in England, but I know not how many children he hath. His daughter Remember is married at Salem and hath three or four children living. His daughter Mary is married here and hath four children. Himself married again with the daughter of Mr. Brewster and hath one son living by her, but she is long since dead. And he is married again and hath left this place long ago.
At the time Bradford wrote this, Allerton had moved from the colony to Connecticut. He had been married three times, with his two previous wives dying.
He had a child in England who was married, and Bradford mentions his daughters who were married. It seems as though his children may have survived that first winter. In addition, he had a son with his second wife.
Life within the Colony
The first governor that was elected to lead the colony was John Carver. Allerton would serve as Carver's assistant for the first few years of the colony. However, after Carver died, William Bradford took his place.
In 1626, Allerton became involved in the colony's finances. With the dissolving of the Merchant Adventurers, there was a great need for the colonist to pay their debts.
William Bradford, Allerton, and others took on the colony's debt to the Merchant Adventurers with the provision that they are given a monopoly in the fur trade.
Isaac Allerton traveled to London in 1626 to negotiate a new agreement with the Merchant Adventurers group, which had given much money for the trip and the maintenance of the colony.
In the 1627 division of cattle (equal to a census), the Allerton family has listed with wife Fear and children Bartholomew, Remember, Mary, and Sarah.
In 1628, Richard More began to apprentice under Isaac Allerton. More's story was unique in that his putative father placed him and his other siblings on the Mayflower 8 years prior to his apprenticeship without his mother's knowledge. He would have only been 7 years old at the time.
He survived the first winter, but his siblings did not.
Richard worked under Allerton for the usual seven years, during which time he learned to be a sailor, working largely in the fishing and coastal cargo-transport business and in Allerton's business development in Maine.
Allerton returned from England in 1628. He made a payment to the Merchant Adventurers investment group, thus reducing the colony's debt to them. The debt was still a tremendous amount of money, estimated in the thousands of pounds.
He had obtained a land grant at Kennebec, provided by the Council for New England. The Kennebec grant was officially authorized in January 1629, and the Plymouth colonists began to build a fortified trading structure at Cushnoc on the Kennebec River, with Edward Winslow as overseer in charge of the operation.
Allerton was not dealing honestly with the colony and was mixing their money with his from the proceeds of the furs and other goods. As a result of Allerton's mismanagement and Bradford's lack of business skills, the colony's debts were not only not being paid off but, in fact, increased.
Also, Allerton started his own trading post at Kennebec at the same time as the colony was trading there and became a competitor.
As a result, it took many years for the colony to repay its debt to the merchant adventurers, and they only did so by selling off some of their lands.
Allerton also brought some unscrupulous persons from England to the colony. One was John Lyford, intended as a pastor for the Plymouth church, and another was Thomas Morton, his clerk.
Morton was eventually deported twice for his transgressions but came back because William Brewster was his father-in-law.
This pattern of incompetence continued when, upon his return in 1630, it was revealed that Allerton had also failed to bring much-needed supplies.
Plymouth had built trading posts at Pentagoet, and in 1630, Allerton built his own trading post there, putting Edward Ashley in charge.
This man was also disreputable and eventually replaced with another agent in mid-1631 after a Pentagoet local gave a disposition in Plymouth.
Although Allerton had begun honestly handling the colony's business dealings, he wound up enriching himself greatly at the colony's expense and was finally removed from his position.
In September 1631, Allerton moved from Plymouth and settled at Marblehead Neck in Salem Harbor.
Under the year 1631, in colony records, William Bradford wrote
Mr. Allerton doth wholly desert them (the people of Plymouth Colony). Having brought them into the briars, he leaves them to get out as they can … and sets up a trading house behind Penobscot to cut off trade from there also.
By 1633, Allerton had set up yet another trading post in Machias but lost it with the Treaty of Saint-German-en-Laye of 1632, when England ceded most of the Maine coast to France.
Charles La Tour arrived, killing some of Allerton's men and bringing goods and prisoners to Port Royal to be ransomed.
In 1634, more misfortune came to the colony with disease, killing many people. Among them were Allerton's wife Fear, daughter of William Brewster, as well as her sister Patience, wife of Thomas Prence, who would later be governor of the Plymouth Colony.
Banishment from Plymouth
Allerton was finally banished, along with some of his unscrupulous friends from Massachusetts Bay.
He then moved to the New Haven Colony. One of Allerton's contacts in London was William Vassall, who had come to Massachusetts in 1630 but shortly returned to England to fight for the rights of those who had not joined the church in Massachusetts.
In mid-1635, Vassall returned to Massachusetts with his family on the ship Blessing. Vassall's daughter Judith married Resolved White, who was William's eldest son. In 1640, Vassall proposed to Allerton to go to a Caribbean island in which he had an investment in sugar cane.
By the 1640s, Allerton had simultaneous residences in New Haven and in New Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, where he owned property and became influential.
He was appointed to the Eight Men, an early citizens advisory board, in 1643 by then Director of New Netherland Willem Kieft.
By 1646, Allerton lived in New Haven.
He died in February 1658.
Conclusion
Isaac Allerton seemed to start off with good intentions in the original colony. He signed the Mayflower Compact, was an assistant to both of the early governors and was even sent on missions to England to negotiate the debt and get more supplies.
However, something happened to him, and his dealing became shady. He became involved with men with low reputations and soon became embroiled in controversies.
Instead of helping his fellow colonists, he would find himself making money off of them while increasing their debt to England.
After his banishment, he became influential in other colonies that had been founded. There is no record of him being unscrupulous during this time.
It is unfortunate that Allerton took advantage of his fellow colonists when they were so vulnerable.