William Brewster, fourth signer of the Mayflower Compact, is our ancestor through his grandson, Wrestling Brewster (#1001) and Elona Shepardson, mother of Arunah Shepardson Abell. Brewster was a leader of the settlers and a diplomat. He was also a wanted man by the King of England. He died in Plymouth at the age of 80 years in 1644. On the Mayflower with him and his wife was his son, Love Brewster (father of Wrestling #1001) though whom we are descended.

William Brewster - Love/Truelove Brewster - Wrestling Brewster - Sarah Brewster m. Caleb Stetson - Elizabeth Stetson m. Silas Cooke - Deborah Cooke m. Zebediah Shepardson - Elona Shepardson (#50) m. Caleb Abell - Arunah Shepherdson Abell - Helen Maria Abell m. Louis Victor Baughman - Helen Abell Baughman m. Charles Henry Conley

Also on the voyage was another ancestor who may have been the most colorful or interesting of the lot. Stephen Hopkins was actually on his second trip to America. He had notorized himself on an earlier expedition to Virginia when he shipwrecked on Bermuda with the company of Sir William Gates. Hopkins engaged in some treasonous activity that was later used by Shakespeare as a story in "The Tempest," but, fortunately for us, our ancestor escaped execution and lived to make the voyage to Plymouth in 1620. His activities may have played an important part (negatively speaking) in the design of the Mayflower Compact.

Stephen Hopkins - Demaris Hopkins m. Caleb Cooke - John Cooke - Silas Cooke - Deborah Cooke m. Zebediah Shepardson (see above #64)

Francis Cooke, grandfather of Caleb Cook (#943), went to Leyden about seven years before the Pilgrims arrived there. There he married Hester Mahieu of Canterbury, England. Cooke sailed on the Mayflower with his eldest child leaving his wife and other children behind to come on the "Anne" in 1623 along with the families of several other Mayflower Pilgrims. He died in his eighties in 1663 a relatively prosperous man.

Francis Cooke - Jacob Cooke - Caleb Cooke - John Cooke - Silas Cooke - Deborah Cooke m. Zebediah Shepardson (see above #64)

The descendants of Daniel Ewing Wight should note that they have a line of descent to these pilgrims through the Wight family via Deborah Cooke.