See:
Carver, Clifford Nickels, Litt. B. The Carver Family of New England: Robert Carver of
Marshfield and his Descendants, Privately Printed, 1935, p.23:
"In Leyden the Carvers [John & Catherine] lived first on Widdleberg, and, after
1617, on Middelgracet. And here it appears that the nephew Robert Carver, joined John
Carver, for in one of the Leyden records, Robert Carver is referred to as the grandson of
Katharine Carver (the wife of James Carver and mother of Isaac and John). In the
Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, compiled by Little, the statement
is made that Isaac Carver, father of Robert and brother of John died at Leyden which leads
one to believe he too had followed his brother there."
The Carvers of Plymouth:
There is no documentary proof that James and Catherine (_____) Carver were the parents of
Isaac and John Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. James Carver was a
yeoman of Doncaster, Yorkshire. The parish where John Carver was baptized was only seven
miles from Austerfield which is next to Bentley where the early English homes of the
Brewster and Bradford families were located. It is possible that the father's name was
Robert, not James. Charles Edward Banks in English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim
Fathers identified John Carver as the son of Robert Carver and gives his baptism at
Duncaster, County York [sic], on 9 September 1565. The NEHGR, Vol. 67, p. 382 (October
1913) has two baptismal records which bear out this statement: "1564 Sept. 9 John, s.
of Robert Caruer" and "1567 March 27 Wilim s. of Robte Caruer." These
entries were copied from the parish register of Duncaster, County York [sic] and were
found in a manuscript volume in the Library of the New !
England Historic Genealogical Society (the Somerby Manuscript volumes containing extracts
from various English Parish registers.
There were then three Carvers born about the same period:
ISAAC CARVER of Boston, Lincolnshire, the father of Robert from whom most American Carvers
descend. Died at Leyden, Holland.
JOHN CARVE(U)R Bpt. 9 Sept 1564/65, Doncaster, Yorkshire; D [died] 5 Apr 1621, Plymouth
Colony; M [married] MRS. CATHERINE (WHITE) LEGGATT ca 1600 - (one child, born in Holland,
was buried there)
WILIM CAR(V)UER Bpt. 27 March 1567, Doncaster Parish Register.
Governor John Carver and Isaac Carver were brothers, and both apparently went to Leyden as
Separatists. Gov. John came to America on the Mayflower; Isaac stayed in Leyden and
apparently died there. Gov. John and his wife had no issue that survived beyond infancy,
so no one descends from Gov. John Carver and his wife, Catherine White Leggatt. John died
of sunstroke on 5 April 1621, New Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Date of death from New England Historic and Genealogical Record as being from William
Bradford's pocketbook quoted by Clifford Nickels Carver in The Carver Family of New
England, p. 44.
Catherine White Leggatt Carver died shortly thereafter on 16 May 1621, New Plymouth,
Massachusetts. William Bradford (the second governor after John) said she "died of a
broken heart."
Again:
Date of death from New England Historic and Genealogical Record as being from William
Bradford's pocketbook quoted by Clifford Nickels Carver in The Carver Family of New
England, 1935, p. 44.
Robert was the son of Isaac Carver (the name of Isaac's wife is unknown). When Robert
came to America is unknown because no ship's passenger list survives with his name on
it. He was first listed in official records in 1638 at Marshfield, Massachusetts.
Robert Carver is my ancestor.
Best Wishes,
Bev Anderson