• He was the first Governor of Plymouth Colony.1759, p 118

• “Of singular piety, and rare for humilitie”
First appears in Leyden records as connected with church, 1616; negotiations with merchant adventurers and purchasing of supplies, 1617-20; deacon, c. 1617-21; died of sunstroke while toiling in cornfields.2105, p 438

• A Leiden Separatist and the first governor of Plymouth Colony, John Carver was one of the organizers of the voyage on the Mayflower which resulted in the settlement of Plymouth.
A footnote on the same page refers to a comment in Hubbard’s History, that Carver was “a gentleman of singular piety, rare humility, and great condescendancy; one also of a public spirit, as well as of a public purse, having disbursed the greatest part of that considerable estate God had given him, for the carrying on the interest of the company.”2114, p 259

• November 11, 1620
Signing of “The Compact”
The covenant was first signed by those who had the right or had assumed the privilege of using the title of “Mr.” — then pronounced “master” and often written so. Relatively the aristocrats of the company, there were twelve of this group, with Saints and Strangers equally represented.
John Carver, the most substantial and respectable among them, signed first. He was followed by Bradford, Winslow, Brewster, and Allerton. Then came Standish, Alden, Deacon Fuller, Christopher Martin, William Mullins, William White, Richard Warren, and Stephen Hopkins. Next, the “goodmen” were asked to sign. (Note: after these 12 signed, John Howland was the 13th to sign.) Only twenty-seven responded; several either declined or were ailing. Lastly, no doubt with the hope that it might make them take their prescribed loyalty more seriously, a few of the servants were invited or commanded to sign — Edward Dotey, Edward Leister, and two others [George Soule and John Howland]. The women were excluded, of course, for they were not free agents, being the legal chattels and servants of their lords — indentured for life, as it were.2105, p 143

• John Carver (before 1584 – 1621) was a passenger on the historic 1620 voyage to America of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Carver was a Leiden Separatist instrumental in organizing the Mayflower voyage which resulted in the creation of New Plymouth Colony. He most likely wrote the Mayflower Compact, was its first signer and was the first governor of Plymouth Colony.
• He married first, sometime before February 8, 1609, Mary de Lannoy. She was a French Walloon (Huguenot) of L’Escluse, France. She may have been related to Philip de Lannoy (Delano), also Huguenot, who came to Plymouth on the Fortune in November 1621. Mary died soon after the death of her child in July 1609. John and Mary Carver buried a child at St. Pancras in Leiden on July 10, 1609.
• Carver married secondly sometime before May 22, 1615, Katherine (White) Leggatt, widow of George Leggatt and eldest daughter of eight children of Alexander White and his wife Eleanor of Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire. Mayflower genealogist Robert S. Wakefield spells her name as Catherine, but seventeenth century documents use Katherine. Alexander White was a wealthy land-owner who, when he died about 1595, owned 160 acres of land in the Sturton area. Sturton is noted as the birthplace of historic Separatist Leiden pastor John Robinson, husband of Katherine’s sister Bridget. Katherine was a witness to the 1617 betrothal of Robert Cushman, he soon being the chief agent for the Leideners in London and associated with her husband in Mayflower voyage preparations. It is believed she died probably sometime in May 1621, some 5–6 weeks after her husband’s death.
• In April 1621, after working in his field on a hot day, Governor Carver complained of a pain in his head. He returned to his house to lie down and soon fell into a coma. Within a few days, not long after April 5, 1621, he was dead. William Bradford was “chosen” to replace him, but as he was still recovering from illness, Isaac Allerton was chosen to be his Assistant.
• Bradford ((Ford) 1.216) wrote in April 1621 “whilst we were bussie about their seed, their (Gov. John Carver) came out of his field very sick, it being a hot day” he complained greatly of his head, and lay downe, and within a few howers his senses failed, so as he never spake more till he dyed, which was within a few days after…he was buried in the best manner they could, with some vollies of shott by all that bore armes; and his wife, being a weak (frail or depressed), dyed within five or six weeks after him.”
• After all the secret burials that were performed all winter, the settlers wished to bury the governor with as much ceremony as they could possible – “with some volleys of shot by all that bore arms.” Carver’s wife Katherine, in possible grief over her husband’s death and in weak condition already, died about five weeks later. John Howland, the Carver’s only surviving male servant, was left without a master or mistress and in addition to being a free man, may have inherited some of Carver’s estate. This may have helped make Howland the prominent Plymouth citizen he later became.
• John Carver was buried at Coles Hill Burial Ground in Plymouth. The burial place of his wife Katherine is not recorded but may have been where her husband was buried. Their names are memorialized on the Pilgrim Memorial Tomb on Coles Hill in Plymouth as “John Carver and Katherine his wife.”2108

• The Mayflower launched with 102 passengers, of whom 37 were members of the separatist Leiden congregation seeking freedom of worship in the New World. There was a crew of 25-30 headed by Captain Christopher Jones. One baby was born during the trip and named Oceanus Hopkins. Another, Peregrine (meaning “wanderer”) White, was born on the Mayflower in America on November 20, before the settlement at Plymouth. About half of these emigrants died in the first winter. Many Americans can trace their ancestry back to one or more of these individuals who, ‘Saints’ and ‘Strangers’ together, would become known as the Pilgrims.2110, p 1

• See source for Map of Origins of the Pilgrims in England2165