He died December 4/14, 1620, and was the first person to die after the Mayflower arrived in America. He was not a signatory of the Mayflower Compact. William was an indentured servant which may indicate that his father died while he was young and his mother may not have been able to care for him financially. He was a 'youth,' as noted by William Bradford and a servant of Samuel Fuller, a longtime member of the Leiden, Holland church and a doctor for the colonists. Bradford recorded: 'in all this voyage there died one of the passengers, which was William Butten, a youth, servant to Samuel Fuller, when they drew near the coast'. He was believed to have been sick for much of the two-month voyage. He was the first Mayflower passenger to die, dying at sea November 6/16, just three days before the coast of New England was sighted. The five persons and their dates of death were: William Butten (Button), November 6 Edward Thompson (Thomson), December 14 Jasper More, December 16 Dorothy Bradford, December 17 James Chilton, December 19.īrief history of the passengers who died at sea By about mid-December 1620, it was decided that the company would settle at the location which was named Plymouth and eventually all on Mayflower moved ashore where more deaths continued. These shipboard deaths are the first deaths of the Mayflower company and were just a precursor of many more deaths to come. The deaths of those persons are unique in history as they occurred either at sea just before reaching Cape Cod or while the Mayflower was at anchor at the Cape Cod harbor for several weeks in what would later be called Provincetown Harbor. Those passengers were followed by a larger number who perished in the bitter first winter of 1620-21. There were five Mayflower passengers who died at sea in November/December 1620.

Provincetown, Massachusetts memorial to Pilgrims who died on board the Mayflower in November/December 1620

Pilgrims mayflower