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Note: [Br�derbund WFT Vol. 1, Ed. 1, Tree #5322, Date of Import: Aug 30, 1998]
BRADFORD OF PLYMOUTH by Bradford Smith 1951, p.192-3:
July 14, 162-, with the arrival of the ship "ANNE": "As the passengers came ashore he (Bradford) could see the shock in their faces. Some wept at what they saw,others wished themselves in England again. But for the old friends from Leyden the pleasure of being together was sufficient. "...Francis Cooke embraced his wife Hester and his three children aged from five to eight, of whom only the oldest remembered him."
[Br�derbund WFT Vol. 4, Ed. 1, Tree #2540, Date of Import: Sep 5, 1998]
HESTER (MAHIEU) COOKE CAME ON THE SHIP NAMED THE "ANNE". HESTER WAS AN OLD FREIND OF PRICILLA ALDEN, FROM LEYDEN, THOUGH HESTER WAS NOT OF ENGLISH BIRTH. HESTER HAVING MADE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF ELIZABETH HOWLAND WHILE ON THE SEA VOYAGE. FRANCIS COOKE HAD A COMFORTABLE HOUSE AWAITING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN WHEN THEY ARRIVED IN AMERICA, AND HESTER NATURALLY QUITE FITTED IN WITH THE NEW COMERS TO THE NEW LAND.
THE WALLOONS WERE A RELIGIOUS SECT, EACH COUNTRY GAVE THEM A DIFFERENT NAME. THEY DENOMINATED THEMSELVES AS GAULOIS; THE DUTCH PLACED THEM AS WALLECKE, AND THE ENGLISH, FROM THEIR LOCATING ON THE RIVER WALL IN HOLLAND, CALLED THEM WALLOONS.
FROM SOUTHERN PROVINCE, BELGIUM
CANTERBURY, ENGLAND
ALTERNATE SPELLING MAHIEN
[Br�derbund WFT Vol. 11, Ed. 1, Tree #3278, Date of Import: Sep 7, 1998]
!MISC: She was admitted to Walloon Church, Leiden June 1, 1603. [NEHGR
143:197] Sister Mary Mahieu m. Jan de Lannoy; sister Jenne Mahieu m(1) Nicola
Cordonne, betrothed to Jan de la Roche from Rheims May 4, 1602. Her witn
were Jene Mahieu stepmother & Antonette Mahieu stepsister; she was from
Armentiers (a village near Lille). Sister Antoinette Mahieu from Houpelyne near Armentiers m(1) Guillaume
de Sint Merty, bethrothed to Guillaume de Renquyre woolcomber from
St. Thomas Apr 27, 1605 & her witns were mother Jenne Mahieu & aunt
Jacquemyne Lamam. Sister Francoise Mahieu was betrothed Apr 22, 1611 to Daniel Cricket
woolcomber from Sandwich, Eng. She was from Bondu (a hamlet near Lille &
Armetiers); Daniel's witn were Laurens Lanse, his master & Jacques Maheiu
an aquaintance. They were m. before magistrates June 10, 1611 suggesting
they belonged to John Robinson's Separatist congregation. Jacques Mahieu & unnamed wife were adm into Leiden Walloon Church June
10, 1590 by letters from Walloon Church in London dtd Apr 30, 1590. [NEHGR 143:195-199] [Br�derbund WFT Vol. 6, Ed. 1, Tree #1255, Date of Import: Sep 16, 1998]
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION;
Hester Mahieu was living in Leyden at the time of her marriage. She also lived in Canterbury, England. Her birth place is unknown but she was identified as a 'Walloon" which was a relogious sect located primarily in Belgium.
Descendants of Hester Maiheu are eligible for membership in the Huegenot Society.
[Br�derbund WFT Vol. 8, Ed. 1, Tree #3415, Date of Import: Oct 16, 1998] Copied from Daughter's of the American Revolution Magazine---
HESTER MAHIEU COOKE / THE FRENCH FLOWER THAT BLOOMED AT PLYMOUTH Today the name of Hester Mahieu Cooke is an honored one in American history. One of our Founding Mothers, Hester arrived in Plymouth the summer of 1623, a young fearful, but courageous and determined woman. She set her roots deep in the alien soil of New England and brought forth generations of proud Americans.
Many of them are people of recognized note and ability. Two of her descendents were Presidents of the United States, William Howard Taft and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Also, Nathaniel Greene, a noted General of the Revolution and Commodore Hazard Perry, the hero of the War of 1812. Literally hundreds of proud people across the United States claim their Huguenot ancestry through Hester Mahieu.
The hardships entailed in establishing a home in a strange land were no new experience for Hester. She had been transplanted from her native France when just a child, first to England, then to Holland. She had grown up hearing and learning three languages and adjusting to three completely different ways of living. Her parents were French Huguenots and among the first of these Protestants to leave France and seek sanctuary in England.
Religious persecution had been the lot of Huguenots long before the Educt of Nantes in 1598 granted them privileges for a few years. Those who could fled from France before that date.
Hester was born about 1585 and it is probably that the Mahieus left for England shortly after her birth. History states that Hester was from Canterbury England, but not born there.
Hester's growing up years were spent in Canterbury and it is believed that the family left there for Holland only a short time before she was married. In 1603 she, here sister and her mother were living on the Wall River in Holland. They moved from Leyden and joined the Walloon Church there on June 1st, 1603.
About 1603 religious persecution was sweeping England and many people who dared to separate from the Anglican church were seeking refuge in Holland. there, these "Separatists" could worship God, each according to the dictates of his own conscience.
One of the first in this group to leave England was Francis Cooke a wool comber from Scrooby, in the county of Nottingham. How or when Francis Cooke first met Hester Mahieu we do not know. It is hardly possible that he knew her in England for Nottingham is over 100 miles north of London while Canterbury is 50 miles in the other direction, east and south of that city. Distances were great in those days. Since Francis did not arrive in Leyden until 1603 and Hester did not move into the city until June of that year it must have been a whirlwind courtship.
Francis was only about 20 years old that year and pretty, petite Hester could not have been much older. Both were strangers in a strange land, which may help to explain the sudden romance. Whatever the reason, the marriage did take place on June 30, 1603 and it proved to be a good one.
The marriage of Francis Cooke at Leyden in 1603 is recorded in the "Kerlelijke Houwelijke." Francis Cooke, woolcomber, unmarried from England accompanies by Raphael Roelandt and Philip DeVeau his acquaintances. TO
Hester Mahieu, unmarried from Canterbury in England accompanied by her mother Jenny Mahieu and her sister Jenny.
Apparently Francis was the first Separatist to migrate to Leyden since neither of his witnesses were Englishmen.
Hester and Francis established their new home in one of the tall houses on the narrow cobblied streets of Leyden, and clost to the beautiful St. Peter's Church. The friendly Dutch people were good neighbors, hospitable, kind and devoted to their homes and gardens. Best of all, they had a wholesome respect for the individual rights of man. There was contentment in the new home and the years slipped by quite happily.
However with the birth of the children, first John, born in 1607 and later two daughters and another son....Frncis began to realize that pleasant as life was among their Dutch friends his children would soon lose their English identity as they learned the Dutch language and associated more and more with the Dutch people. Francis' pastor from Scrooby, John Robinson who had located in Leyden agreed with Francis in his concern and urged him to gurn his gaze toward the new world where it would be possible for him to regain his citizenship as an Englishman. The opportunity for such an exodus did not come until 1620.
NOTE ABOUT SCROOBY MENTIONED ON PAGE 2---
Scrooby, a tiny and inconsequential hamlet lying approsimately in the center of England, almost at the tip of the northern neck of Nottinghamshire. It was an isolated coutryside in the finlands, rather poor and sparsely settled about as unlikely a place as one could imagine for raising a standard of revolt that would have such a profound influence down to our own day. "A meane townlet"---Scrooby was distinguished only by a small stone church, St.Wilfred's.
***************************** When the Separatists living in Leyden learned that a voyage to the new Continent was being organized in London, excitement ran high. While the majority of refugees from England had enjoyed their sojourn in Leyden, many of the, like Francis, did not feel that they could accept Holland as a permanent home.
Francis and Hester were well aware that the journey to a new continent would be a dangerous one, and after careful thought they decided it would be best for Hester and the younger children to remain in Leyden until such time as Francis thought it waise to join him. So,Francis, with his son John (who is given as 12yrs. here--and 8 or 9 other accounts) embarked with other Leyden pilgrims on the ship "Speedwell" which left Lelfhaven, Holland late in July and joined the "MAYFLOWER" at South Hampton, England. The "Speedwell" due to bad leaks was finally abandoned there and some of the passengers including Francis and his son were crowded on the Mayflower.
Hester, left a Leyden with two daughters and a younger son spent the three long years of waiting to a very good advantage. This thrifty housewife knew that household supplies would be invaluable in the new home and she spent the waiting months spinning, weaving, and filling huge chests with precious linens and warm woolens. The conditions in the New World were much worse than anyone had anticipated. The hardships, the tragedies, the terrors of those first years at Plymouth are now well known in history. It is not surprising that Francis counselled his family to await a more settled time. He was a man of mature judgment, and he was an "important man" at Plymouth. The Colony records credit him with owning "one Bible and 4 books, which evidently was considered worthy of note. The same record comments that Francis Cooke was probably better off than either Brewster or Standish who apparently had very little of "this world's goods."
On February 26th of that first difficult winter, Francis and Miles Standish left valuable tools in the woods which were carried off by Indians.--a serious loss and carefully recorded.
Francis became a surveyor at Plymouth. There is no record of his following his former trade as a wool comber. He invested in land around Plymouth and was one of the purchasers of Dartmouth in later years.
In 1623, Hester, with her three young children, Jane, Hester, and Jacob booked passage on the Pilgrim ship "Anne" and arrived at Plymouth in July of that year. The country was still a wilderness and many of the colony were so ragged and emaciated that the new arrivals were "daunted and dismayed" and began to consider the advisability of returning to England.
But not Hester. She had come to stay. She had taken the perilous journey across the Atlantic, well aware of the difficulties that awaited her in the New World.
With the arrival of his family, Francis was allotted four more acres of land and was able to build a house, and it was far more roomy than those first built at Plymouth. It boasted of 2 rooms around a huge fireplace with steep stairs leading to 2 upper rooms. A loft was reached by a rope ladder and was used forstorage. With Hester's bountiful supply of linens and woolens, her silver and pewter, this snug little home must have expressed real luxury by the Pilgrim's standards of 1623.
Hester's name does not appear often in the history of Plymouth. But few women of her day received special comment. While they were sure of their importance of their place in society, sure of the pedestal on which their men placed them, sure, too, that the hand that rocked the cradle was an important one, they went their quiet way holding firmly to their ideals but not concerned with the place that would be theirs in history. Probably Hesterdid not realize how much she accomplished. She was a good housekeeper, thrifty and wise, a faithful wife, a good mother. Such virtues were considered all that could be asked of any woman. That all her children, (another daughter Mary was born at Plymouth, reached maturity in this land so beset by perils of every kind, in itself was no small achievement. Hester is recorded as a "Walloon who holds communion with the church at Plymouth (as she came from a French church) to this day be virtue of communion of churches." Hester's religious faith was not the blaze of fanatic's zeal but the clear, blue flame of quiet conviction.
Hester's life, like that of every Pilgrim mother, was never free from the hardships of pioneer living. She saw the homes of her children burned and their fields ravaged during the terrible King Philip war.
Wolves were a constant menace. No man even went to church without his gun. In fact, he was fined if he was found guilty of such carelessness. The Pilgrim mothers must have spent hours on their knees.
The continuity of the generations was well appreciated when this country was new. The evidence of this is seen in a note found in Governor Bradford's diary in regard to the Cooke family. In 1650 Governor Bradford wrote in his diary.
"Francis Cooke is still living, a very old man and hath seen his children's children have children. After his wife came over (with other children) he hath three still living by her, all married and have five children so that their increase is eight. And his son John, who came over with him is married and hath four children living.
Fortunately history has left an account a little easier to understand. There is a complete list of the families and of all 5 children. Hester's life certainly did bloom at Plymouth. There, surrounded by exactly forty grandchildren whom she was priviledged to see established in homes of their own, she held in her arms countless great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. she must have lived almoost 90 years because she was still living in 1675.
Hester's famous descendant Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a speech to the Daughter's of the American Revolution" said "Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially are descended from immigrants and revolutionists."
It is well for all of us to remember that our Founding Mothers as well as our Founding Fathers deserve to be revered. These are the people whose trials and sacrifices have brought to their descendants the Great blessing of citizenship in America.
Bibliography:
POPE'S PIONEERS OF MASSACHUSETTS MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS
MAYFLOWER GENEALOGIES VOLUME I MAYFLOWER AND HER LOG BY AMES
THE HUGUENOTS BY KLINGBERG FAMILIES OF THE PILGRIMS BY SHAW
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Hester Le Mahieu, Wife of Francis Cooke* It has long been known that Hester le Mahieu, wife of Francis Cooke of the MAYFLOWER, was a Walloon from Canterbury, where the Walloon Church was established in 1547, in the crypt of the Cathedral, by refugees fleeing from persecution in Brabant.
On 5 July 1603 Francis Cooke, woolcarder, from England, was betrothed to Hester le Mahieu, singlewoman, accompanied by her mother and sister, both named Jennie le Mahieu from Canterbury
(Mayflower Descendant,vol.27,p.145sq.).
The records of the Walloon-French Church in Canterbury contain a number of references to the le Mahieus.
On 27 March 1582 Jonas, son of Hercules Landsheare and Clarette Mahieu, was baptized.
On 11 Nov. 1604 Anthony, son of Jean le Mahieu, native of Coulon, near Calais, married Martha Cornart, daughter of the late Noe Carnart, native of Canterbury.
Baptized 29 Sept. 1605 Marye, daughter of Antoine Mahieu. Baptized 18 March 1609 Jane, daughter of Antoine Mahieu. (Registers of the Waloon and Huguenot Church Canterbury, vol. 1, p. 4.) It may be suggested that Hester or Esther was probably a sister of Antoine and daughter of Jean le Mahieu from Coulon.
*Excerpted from "Genealogical Research in New England", by G. Andrews Moriarty, Vol. 107 (Jan. 1953), pp. 59-67.
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