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Peregrine White
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peregrine White (November 20, 1620-July 20, 1704) was the first English child born to the Pilgrims in the New World. He was born in Provincetown Harbor to William and Susanna White, before the passengers of the Mayflower had decided where they would settle. His name means "one who journeys to foreign lands," or, more simply, it is a French and Middle English word for "pilgrim." Soon after the landing, his father died, and his mother remarried to Edward Winslow. It was the first wedding in the New World. Winslow later adopted Peregrine and made him an heir.
White's name appears frequently in the records of the colonists. Though he was an esteemed member of the community as the first white child born in New England, he appears to have had a dissolute youth, and was brought before the local court for "fornication before marriage" with his future wife Sarah. He later became a citizen of the settlement of Marshfield, Massachusetts, and held some minor civil and military offices.
White died in 1704 at the age of eighty-three.