A small paragraph in a lengthy article about the 50th anniversary party of Stukely Arnold and Louvisa (Lovicy) Lobdell Arnold which contains much family information. Stukely and Lovicy are the parents of my great, great grandfather, Amos Arnold, an early settler of Lyman Township in Ford County, Illinois, located near Roberts, Illinois.
I do not know the exact date of the article and the paper which published it. It is a very yellowed clipping that someone has saved from 1879. It is wrapped neatly in plastic to preserve the information for many years. I think Louise Arnold may have given it to Mom.
First clues in the first line . . . "three brothers bearing the name of Arnold, (direct descendants of one of the four brothers who landed at Plymouth Rock about 1620, coming over in the second vessel that brought colonists from England,) settled in what was then called the town of Plattsburgh," but now belonging to the town of Peru.
The second ship would be the Fortune. It arrived at Cape Cod November of 1621. The info below about the Fortune is from Wikipedia. Also, from the site Mayflower History no Arnold's are listed as passengers on the Fortune. The brothers may have been on the Fortune. It was a smaller ship, and it carried only 35 passengers, mostly young men. Not all the passengers have been identified.
Possibly a family tale. Maybe. I have only found documentation of my ancestor, Thomas Arnold, arriving in 1635 on the Plain Joan in my research.
But there is so much more information in this article to be researched. Next up, who are the 3 Arnold brothers settling in the town of Plattsburgh and when.
WIKIPEDIA
In fall 1621, the Fortune was the second English ship destined for Plymouth Colony in the New World, one year after the voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Financed as the Mayflower was by Thomas Weston and others of the London-based Merchant Adventurers, Fortune was to transport thirty-five settlers to the colony on a ship that was much smaller than Mayflower. The Fortune required two months to prepare for the voyage and once underway, reached Cape Cod on 9 November 1621 and the colony itself in late November. The ship was unexpected by those in the Plymouth colony and although it brought useful settlers, many of whom were young men, it brought no supplies, further straining the limited food resources of the colony. The ship only stayed in the colony for about three weeks, returning to England in December loaded with valuable furs and other goods. But when nearing England, instead of heading to the English Channel, a navigation error caused the ship to sail southeast to the coast of France, where it was overtaken and seized by a French warship.
The Fortune finally arrived back in London in February 1622, over two months after leaving Plymouth, but without its valuable cargo. In the end, Weston lost his total investment in the Fortune voyage making it worthwhile only in providing the Plymouth colony with new settlers, some of whom became notable persons in the history of the colony.[1][2][3]
Preparing for the voyage
At 55 tons displacement, and about one-third the tonnage of the Mayflower, the Fortune was tasked with delivering thirty-five new settlers to Plymouth Colony. Their leader was Robert Cushman who, in 1620, had been the Leiden agent in London for the Mayflower and Speedwell. It is believed that the majority of the passengers of the Fortune were gathered together in London by Thomas Weston and his partner. And although William Bradford stated that there were thirty-five persons on board Fortune, the names of only twenty-eight persons are noted as receiving lots credited to those arriving as noted in the 1623 Division of Land. Eighteen persons are known to have been unmarried, eight married, but emigrating without their families, and as far as can be determined, Mrs. Martha Ford may have been the only woman on the ship. Although it is possible some of the missing seven persons in the passenger count were wives, Bradford does not leave that impression in his account.
Per author Charles Banks, individual records show that sixteen of the passengers can definitely be assigned to London or districts of the city such as Stepney and Southwark. Another three passengers were from Leiden in Holland. Ten more passengers, whose origins cannot be determined, either died early or left the colony as determined by who was listed in the 1627 Division of Cattle, which also doubled as a type of census.[4][5]
Arrival in the New World
The primary reason for problems at their arrival was the unexpected nature of it and the severe lack of food. As Bradford recorded, "...So they were landed, but there was not as much as biscuit-cake or any other victuals for them neither had they any bedding, but some sorry things they had in their cabins, nor pot, nor pan, to dress meat in; nor over many clothes,…" The colony government was not pleased that Weston had unexpectedly sent over new settlers, and without provisions or other goods to support them. But the labor that had come on the Fortune was welcome, being many young men. Per Bradford, the arrivals were "lusty young men, and many of them wild enough."[1][3][6][7]
Passengers
The problem that most concerned the colony was the continuing shortage of food made more severe by the arrival of the Fortune. Weston had not provided any provisions for the settlement on board the Fortune. And instead of making the colony situation stronger, the arrival of thirty-seven more persons to feed with the second severe winter for the colony coming on had put things in what would be a disastrous situation. Bradford calculated that even if their daily rations were reduced to half, their store of corn would only last for six more months. And after having worked tirelessly this year and experiencing extreme hardships since their arrival one year earlier, they now would face another hard winter with a shortage of provisions. Bradford wrote, "They were presently put to half allowance, one as well as another, which began to be hard, but they bore it patiently, under the hope of (future) supply."[7][8]
Although there were thirty-five people on Fortune, only the names of twenty-eight persons are listed as receiving lots in 1623. Eighteen people are known to have been unmarried, eight married but emigrating without their families, and as far as can be determined, Mrs. Martha Ford and Elizabeth Bassett wife of William Bassett were the only women on the ship. Records indicate that sixteen of the passengers were from the London area and three from Leiden. The origins of ten passengers could not be determined.[9][10]
