Richard More – Mayflower Passenger
Richard More, the only Mayflower passenger to descend from royalty, is buried in The Burying Point, Salem, Massachusetts. His mother, Katherine More, was a descendent of King Malcolm III and David I of Scotland and Edward I of England.
More was born November 13, 1614 in Shipton Parish, Shropshire, England. He was only a child when he traveled on the Mayflower in 1620. He and his three siblings were sent to the New World on the Mayflower, but all but Richard died during the harsh first winter in Plymouth Colony.
Richard’s mother had married her cousin Samuel More. Richard’s father was either Samuel More or Jacob Blakeway, a man with whom Katherine was having an affair. When Samuel discovered the affair, he questioned whether he was the father of the four children, since they seemed to look more like Blakeway. As divorce proceedings got underway, Samuel More gained custody of the four children and made arrangements to have them sent to the New World where they would stand a better chance of avoiding the “great blots and blemishes” that would descend upon them in England. He felt that on the Mayflower and in Plymouth they would be in the hands of “honest and religious people,” who would protect them and provide the proper influence.
Richard married in 1636 and settled in Dubbury. In 1637 he moved to Salem. He worked as a seaman and eventually became a ship captain out of Salem. He died in 1692, the same year as the Salem Witch Trials. His gravestone is the only remaining original Mayflower passenger gravestone.
