John Carver

John Carver († 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts ) was an English Pilgrim leader and the first governor of the New England colony Plymouth ( Plymouth Colony ).

Family

Carver was a wealthy London merchant, England but left in 1607 or 1608 because of political persecution and went to Leiden in the Netherlands, where he was a member of the separatist Kongregationalistengemeinde, which was led by Pastor John Robinson. There Carver married in 1609 Marie de Lanno, who died in 1616. Carver married a year later, Katherine ( White ) Legatt. They had two children, but both already died in Leiden.

Mayflower

1617 started some members of the congregation in Leiden, among them John Carver and Robert Cushman, the planning, to establish a colony in America. The negotiations for the procurement of means were performed only with the Virginia Company. A year later the negotiations but was taken up with a group of London merchants to Thomas Weston. Carver hired the Mayflower and stood out in September 1620 by suffering with 101 other colonists in the lake.

In the New World

On November 11, 1620 Carver was one of the authors and signatories of the Mayflower Treaty. On the same day he was appointed governor of future Plymouth Colony for the first one-year term. He was instrumental in that today's Plymouth was chosen as a settlement site and that in 1621 an alliance with Chief Massasoit was closed by the Wampanoag tribe.

The settlement was deficient organized. About half of the original 102 colonists died in winter 1621 from the effects of cold and lack of food, including Carver. His wife died a few weeks later. As Governor, he was followed for 30 legislatures William Bradford.

So Carver lived just half a year in America. His greatest contribution to the success of the company were the negotiations and preparations in London and Southampton, on behalf of the community in Leiden before departure 1620.