Richard More
Richard More was one of the four More siblings who were sent to the New World by Thomas Weston, after they were taken from their mother for the crime of adultery. Their father, in a nasty divorce which rivals anything today, had them removed and placed in what would now be called foster homes, and then decided that since his own parentage could not be proved they should be sent to Virginia as indentured servants. He arranged for Thomas Weston to make this happen and Weston was happy to oblige. The children were Elinor, age 8 and assigned to Edward Winslow; Jasper, age 7, under the care of John Carver; Richard, age 6 and assigned to William Brewster; and finally Mary, age 4 and also assigned to William Brewster.
The young More sisters and their brother Jasper all died during the winter of 1620-21, the little girls succumbing first while still in the ship. Only 6 year old Richard More survived to go ashore with the colonists in the spring of 1621. He resided with the Brewster family and contributed to the growth of the colony until 1627. His indenture to Brewster had been for seven years. More was then entered into the records of the colony, and went to work for Isaac Allerton, who was building a trade company with merchants and investors. While working for Allerton More made a trip to England in 1635. The following year he married Christian Hunter.
By 1642 More was an experienced sailor and fisherman, and was living in Salem. He sailed regularly to the West Indies, Virginia, England, and Holland on trading voyages, transporting tobacco, wines, and other supplies to and from the English settlements and the European ports. He also bought and sold land in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies and took part in military and naval expeditions against the French. When the English established a law which required all European goods sent to the English settlements must pass through England he began trading more extensively with the North American colonies, a far less lucrative business.
By the 1680s Richard More had acquired fifty years of living off of the sea as a sailor and trader, and had never had a ship lost, an unusual and impressive feat given the largely uncharted American coastline and the dangerous currents often found there. But the implementation of trade laws and taxes by the British had left him practically destitute. In Salem he found himself repeatedly chastised by Church elders for various indiscretions, and finally excommunicated from the Church for the crime of adulterous behavior with another man’s wife.
Richard More was married three times and may have had simultaneous wives in New England and England. During his lifetime he had several encounters with Church and legal authorities for crimes ranging from intoxication to indebtedness. He had six children with Christian Hunter and one in London with his wife there, Elizabeth. The year of his death is debated, his gravestone records it as occurring in 1692, but he is known to have been alive in 1694, and the date on the gravestone wasn’t added until 1901. He was one of the last surviving male passengers to arrive on Mayflower at the time of his death, and quite possibly the last.