LAST -- Survivor of the Mayflower, Mary Cushman - Plymouth, MA
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 41° 57.319 W 070° 39.948
19T E 361943 N 4646157
At age 14, Thomas Cushman arrived with his father Robert on the Fortune in 1621 and later became presiding elder of the church for 42 years. Mary, daughter of Isaac Allerton, was a passenger on the Mayflower and was the last of their survivors.
Waymark Code: WMDRQG
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 02/20/2012
Views: 5
THOMAS CHUSHMAN
SON OF ROBERT, DIED . X . DECEMBER, MDCXC:
AGED NEARLY . LXXXIV . YEARS.
FOR MORE THAN . XL11 . YEARS HE WAS
RULING ELDER
OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH,
BY WHOM A TABLET WAS PLACED, TO MARK HIS GRAVE,
ON THIS SPOT,
NOW CONSECRATED ANEW BY A MORE ENDURING MEMORIAL.
MARY ,
WIDOW OF ELDER CUSHMAN AND DAUGHTER OF ISAAC ALLERTON,
DIED . XXVIII . NOVEMBER, MDCXCIX, AGED ABOUT XC - YEARS,
THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE FIRST COMERS IN THE MAYFLOWER.
ROBERT CUSHMAN
FELLOW EXILE WITH THE PILGRIMS IN HOLLAND,
AFTERWORDS THEIR CHIEF AGENT IN ENGLAND.
ARRIVED HERE IX NOVEMBER MDCXX,
WITH THOMAS CUSHMAN HIS SON:
PREACHED . IX DECEMBER,
HIS MEMORABLE SERMON ON THE DANGER OF SELF-LOVE
AND THE SWEETNESS OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP,
RETURNED TO ENGLAND . XIII . DECEMBER,
TO VINDICATE THE ENTERPRISE OF CHRISTIAN EMIGRATION;
AND THERE REMAINED IN THE SERVICE OF THE COLONY
TILL MDCXXV.
WHEN HAVING PREPARED TO MAKE PLYMOUTH
HIS PERMANENT HOME.
.
HE DIED, LAMENTED BY THE FOREFATHERS
AS "THEIR ANCIENT FRIEND, -- WHO WAS
AS THEIR RIGHT HAND WITH THEIR FRIENDS
THE ADVENTURERS, AND FOR DIVERS YEARS
HAD DONE AND AGITATED ALL THEIR BUSINESS WITH THEM TO THEIR GREAT ADVANTAGE."
----------------
"AND YOU MY LOVING FRIENDS, THE ADVENTURERS
TO THIS PLANTATION, AS YOUR CARE HAS BEEN FIRST
TO SETTLE RELIGION HERE BEFORE EITHER PROFIT
OR POPULARITY, SO I PRAY YOU GO ON --------
REJOICE -------- THAT YOU THUS SHALL BE REPAID
AGAIN DOUBLE AND TREBLE IN THIS WORLD,. YEA,
AND THE MEMORY OF THIS ACTION SHALL NEVER DIE"
DEDICATION OF THE SERMON.
ERECTED
BY
THE DECENDENTS OF
ROBERT CHUSHMAN
IN MEMORY OF THEIR PILGRIM ANCESTORS.
XVI . SEPTEMBER, MDCCCLVIII.
Thomas was the son of Robert Cushman who was one of the leading exponents of the emigration to the New World. Due to problems with transportation and illness, he was unable to sail with the
Mayflower in 1620, but followed the next year on the
Fortune with his son Thomas. Robert was an eloquent preacher and inspired the colonists, bu returned to England the following year, leaving 14 year-old Thomas in the care of Governor William Bradley. Robert wrote and spoke in support of the adventure of emigration, but died before he could return to Plymouth, perhaps of the plague.
Thomas worked as a surveyor, among other tasks, and became the presiding elder of the First Parish church, succeeding William Brewster, a position he held for forty-two years until the time of his death.
Mary was the youngest daughter of Isaac Allerton, both passengers on the first voyage of the Mayflower. She and Thomas Cushman were married about 1616 and had eight children, and fifty grandchildren. Today, the name of Cushman is well-known. When Mary died on November 28, 1699, she was the last remaining passenger from the Mayflower.
This larger granite obelisk is one of the most noticeable monuments at the top of Burial Hill, next to the actual site of the first fort and meeting house built by the first Pilgrims from the Mayflower. It also bears plaques honoring the life of Robert Cushman, though he is not buried here.
Burial Hill is the location of many of the early pilgrims, and was in use up until the mid-twentieth century. It has a commanding view of Plymouth and Cape Cod Bay. At the western base is Town Square with several historical buildings - the stone First Parish Church, built in 1899 as the fifth building on this site; the Church of the Pilgrimage, built in 1840 by a group who broke away from the original church in order to preserve the original trinitarian Covenant of 1606 from the increasingly liberal, unitarian, elements in the congregation; and the 1749 Courthouse building, the oldest wooden courthouse and longest used municipal building in the United States.
SOURCES:
American Ancestors
Sail 1620
Wikipedia (not a very useful article)