Among the members of the Scrooby Church, afterwards associated with the
settlement of Plymouth, it may be possible to number George Morton, William
Butten, and the Southworths and Carpenters. The baptism of a George Morton
is recorded in the registry of the Austerfield Church, under date of Feb.
12, 1598. It does not seem probable that this could have been the George
Morton who was the father of the Secretary Nathaniel Morton, and who came to
New England in the "Ann" in 1623, for his marriage-record exists in Leyden
under date of 1612, in which he is described as George Morton, of York, in
England, merchant. It is possible, however, that at the time of his baptism
he may have been somewhat advanced in childhood, and that he may have left
his native place to settle in York, the place from which he afterwards
hailed. The baptism of William Butten, son of Robert Butten, is also
recorded in the Austerfield registry, under date of Sept. 12, 1589, and that
of William, son of William Wright, under date of March 10, 1589. Butten was
probably the servant of Samuel Fuller, who started in the " Mayflower," and
was drowned on the passage. It is not improbable that Wright was the William
Wright who came to New England in the " Fortune" in 1621, and that both
Butten and Wright were members of the Scrooby Church. The Carpenters and
Southworths are so intimately connected by marriage with different members
of the Pilgrim Colony that we find it difficult to eliminate them from the
band of worshipers at Scrooby. George Morton, William Wright, Samuel Fuller,
and Edward Southworth all married daughters of Alexander Carpenter, while
Richard Cooper, another early settler of Plymouth, married the widow of
William Wright; and Governor Bradford, after the loss of his first wife,
married the widow of Edward Southworth. There is a tradition, too, that
Bradford in early manhood had become attached to Alice (Carpenter)
Southworth before her first marriage, but was opposed by her
HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH. 65
friends. The fact that after the loss of his wife, who was drowned in Cape
Cod harbor, he proposed to her anew by letter soon after she became a widow,
reinforces the tradition, and so mingles the Bradford and Carpenter families
as to strengthen the probability of their common local origin and residence.