Family Tree Briggs » Degory Priest (1582-1621)

Personal data Degory Priest 

• He was born on August 11, 1582 in London, England.Sources 1, 3
• He died on January 11, 1621 in Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, he was 38 years old.Sources 1, 3
• He is buried in Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.Source 1
• A child of Hugh Priest and Agnes Wood

Household of Degory Priest

He is married to Sarah Allerton.

They got married on November 4, 1611 at Leyden, Sud Holland, Netherlands, he was 29 years old.Source 3

Child(ren):

1. Mary Priest  1613-1689 
2. Sarah Priest  

Notes about Degory Priest

It is thought that Degory Priest may be the "Digorius Prust" baptized in Hartland Co., Devonshire, England on 11 August 1582, the son of Peter Prust. In April 1619 in Leyden, Degory Priest stated in a record that he was 40 years old, making him born about 1579. He married Sarah (Allerton) Vincent (see immediately below), 4 November 1611, Leyden, Holland. She was a sister of the famous Isaac Allerton, also a Mayflower passenger. Both are stated as being of London in their marriage record. They had two daughters in Leyden.

Very little is known about Degory Priest. Since he was married in Holland in 1611, it is clear that he was a religious Separatist very early on, and was an early member of the Pilgrims' Leyden congregation. He was a hatter in Leyden and may have been a hatter in London (2?). Degory became a citizen of Leyden in 1615. Many of the pilgrims similarly became citizens as that was a prerequisite for entrance into the guilds (2?).

He came to America on the Mayflower, leaving behind his wife and two daughters. Almost half of the original Mayflower group died in the first year and Degory was among them, dying on 1 January 1621. He had survived long enough to be one of the signers of the famous Mayflower Compact, often thought of as America's first written constitution. Bradford's contemporary history says that many of the passengers "dyed soon after their arrival, in the generall sickness that befell. But Digerie [sic] Priest had his wife and children sent hither afterwards, she being Mr. Allerton's sister".

Biographical Summary

Degory Priest deposed that he was 40 years old in a document signed in Leiden in April 1619; this would place his birth at about 1579 in England. On 4 November 1611, he was married to Sarah (Allerton) Vincent, the widow of John Vincent, and the sister of Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton; Isaac Allerton was married to his wife Mary Norris on the same date.

It has been suggested that Degory Priest of the Mayflower may have been the Degorius Prust, baptized 11 August 1582 in Hartland, Devon, England, the son of Peter Prust. However, given that the baptism appears to be about 3 years too late, and the fact that none of the Leiden Separatists are known to have come from Devonshire, I doubt this baptism belongs to the Mayflower passenger. Degory Priest was one of the earliest to have arrived in Leiden, so it is more reasonable to suspect he is from the Nottinghamshire/Yorkshire region, the Sandwich/Canterbury region, the London/Middlesex region, or the Norfolk region: all of the early Separatists in Leiden appear to have come from one of these centers.

Degory and wife Sarah had two children, Mary and Sarah. Degory came alone on the Mayflower, planning to bring wife and children later after the colony was better established. His death the first winter ended those plans. His wife remarried to Godbert Godbertson in Leiden, and they had a son Samuel together. Godbert, his wife Sarah, their son Samuel, and his step-children Mary and Sarah Priest all came on the ship Anne to Plymouth in 1623.

A 1620 Mayflower passenger, Degory Priest was in Leiden records as from London, a hatmaker, who married Sarah (Allerton) Vincent, sister of Isaac Allerton, at Leiden 4 November 1611, and he [p.342] was age forty in 1619 (Dexter, p. 630). He died at Plymouth 1 January 1620/21, leaving his widow and two daughters, who had come over from Leiden to Plymouth in 1623. See John G. Hunt, "Origin of Digory Priest, Early Settler in Plymouth, New England," NEHGR 111:320, for a clue as to his origin, but it should be kept in mind that the name is not as unique as it may seem, at least in the Devonshire area. His daughters Mary and Sarah are given below. His widow married Cuthbert Cuthburtson.

A daughter of Degory Priest, q.v., Mary Priest arrived with her mother on the Anne in 1623, and she later married Phineas Pratt, q.v. (MD 4:94).

A daughter of Degory Priest, q.v., Sarah Priest arrived with her mother on the Anne in 1623, and she later married John Coombs, q.v., (MD 4:96).

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Degory Priest?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Degory Priest

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children