Other Events:

• Occupation: Governor of Martha’s Vineyard
• Great Migration Study Project: Y
• Immigrant?: Y
• Baptism: 1 Apr 1593, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England
• Migration: 1632

Notes:

s/o Mathew MAYHEW & Alice BARTER
m1 1620 —?— (?— bef 1635
ch: Thomas (~1620—?)
m2 1634 Jane GALLION PAINE (1602— aft 1666) w Thomas PAINE, London merchant
ch: Hannah (1635—?) m Thomas DOGGETT
Bethiah (1636— by 1678) m1 Thomas HARLOCK, m2 Richard WAY
Mary (1640—?)
Martha (~1641—?) m Thomas TUPPER
——
Thomas Mayhew Sr, known even to this day on Martha's Vineyard as "The Governor", immigrated to Massachusetts in 1631/2 as an agent for a London merchant. He quickly entered into prominence in the political and business life of the 'boom' years of Puritan immigration, the 1630's. In the 1640's he acquired the title to Martha's Vineyard and followed an advance settlement of that island by his son by several years. There he established a minor 'fiefdom' of his own, ruling the island with singular authority and nepotism. Following the death of his son Thomas in 1657, he continued the missionary work to the Indians begun by Thomas, establishing the basis for 5 generations of missionary work to the natives. He also entrenched his political authority on the Island when the lands of Martha's Vineyard were transferred to the Duke of York in 1663 by petitioning the Duke and once again being granted sole authority on the island. Surviving, at the age of 81, a rebellion against his autocratic rule by over half the population of the island in 1673, he left firmly established family control of Martha's Vineyard to his grandson, Matthew Mayhew.
——
The likelihood that Thomas Mayhew came to New England in 1632 raises an interesting possibility, based on an Admiralty suit of that year. In the case of Mason v. Gibbs, two sailors testified that the Lyon's Whelp sailed from England in January 1631/2 and arrived at the Isles of Shoals in May 1632, and carried as its only passengers "a man and his wife, their two daughters and their man," and one of the sailors added that this nameless family "were embarked for New England on behalf of Matthew Craddock" [English Adventurers 37-38]. Thomas Mayhew is known to have come to New England as Matthew Craddock's steward [Martha's Vineyard Hist 1:117-26].

Thomas married Jane GALLANT in 1634 in Wantage, Berkshire, England. Jane was born on 15 Nov 1602 in Wantage, Berkshire, England; died on 15 May 1666 in Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts; was buried in Tisbury Village Cemetery, Tisbury, Dukes, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Hannah MAYHEW was born on 15 Apr 1635 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 7 Feb 1723 in Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts; was buried in unknown.
2. Martha MAYHEW was born in 1641 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 15 Nov 1717 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.