Susanna Furner

Female 1564 - 1621  (57 years)


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  • Name Susanna Furner 
    Born 1564  Canterbury, Kent, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died 21 Jan 1621  Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I251962  Little Chute Genealogy
    Last Modified 27 Jun 2015 

    Family James Chilton,   b. cir 1556, Canterbury, Kent, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 08 Dec 1620, at sea Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 64 years) 
    Married cir 1583  Kent County, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Mary Chilton,   b. 31 May 1607, Sandwich, Kent, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 May 1679, Boston, Suffolk Co, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 71 years)
    Last Modified 21 Jul 2022 
    Family ID F97807  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Mrs Chilton
      Birth: 1564 Canterbury, Kent, England
      Death: Jan. 21, 1621 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts
      Burial: Coles Hill Burial Ground Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts
      Like so many women of that time, Mrs. James Chilton's name is sadly unknown. John Hunt suggested she was James Chilton's stepsister, Susanna Furner, but more recent research has proved this to be false. The idea that her name was Susanna apparently dates back to Nahum Mitchell's 1840 book "History of Bridgewater" but he does not document any source for this information. She was most likely married around 1586 based on the baptism of her first child. She had ten children; Isabella (1587), Jane (1589), Joel, Mary, Elizabeth, James, Ingle, Christina (1601), James (1603), and Mary (31 May 1607). On 12 June 1609, Mrs. Chilton was excommunicated from the Church of England for "privately burying a child of Andrew Sharp of St. Mary's parish...which they secretly conveyed to the earth without any notice given to me or my clerk...which act some of them seem now since to dissent calling into question the lawfulness of the king's constitutions in this and other behalfs, affirming these things to be popish ceremonies and of no other force". This incident seems to have prompted the family to immigrate to Leiden and join the Pilgrim Separatists. Mrs. Chilton, her husband James, and daughter Mary all came on the Mayflower. At this time James was about Sixty four years old and Mary was about thirteen. We can assume that Mrs. Chilton must have been much younger than her husband to have had a thirteen year old daughter. She and husband died shortly after arriving to Plymouth, most likely while the Mayflower was still anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. There is a tradition that states that their daughter Mary was the first female to step ashore at Plymouth, upon Plymouth Rock.