This Fact Negatives The Pleasant Fiction Of Mrs. Austin's "Standish Of Standish" (P. 104), That Britteridge Was One Of Those Employed In Cutting Sedge On Shore On Friday, January 12.

Poor Britteridge died December 21, three weeks earlier.

He signed the Compact, and hence may be accounted of age at the landing at Cape Cod.

Richard Clarke appears only as one of the passengers and as dying before the end of March. He signed the Compact, and hence was doubtless twenty-one or over.

Richard Gardiner, we know from Bradford, "became a seaman and died in England or at sea." He was evidently a young man, but of his age or antecedents nothing appears. He signed the Compact, and hence was at least twenty-one years old.

John Alderton (sometimes spelled Allerton), we are told by Bradford, - as elsewhere noted, - "was hired, but was reputed one of the company, but was to go back, being a seaman and so, presumably, unmindful of the voyages, for the help of others." Whether Bradford intended by the latter clause to indicate that he had left his family behind, and came "to spy out the land," and, if satisfied, to return for them, or was to return for the counsel and assistance of Robinson and the rest, who were to follow, is not clear, but the latter view has most to support it. We learn his occupation, but can only infer that he was a young man over twenty-one from the above and the fact that he signed the Compact.

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