“Concentrics” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many Mayflorists
As part of my ongoing “Jigsaw Gens” series, I profile the various American generations (and “microgenerations”) identified by historians.
In This Installment
Featured Generation: “Concentrics” (aka Mayflorists, Firecrackers, Tobacco Pipes, Feral Ghosts, Half-Reformers)
Who they are: The generation who came-of-age during and after English colonists established (and soon disappeared from) Roanoke Colony, as their adulthoods spanned the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth — with their senior citizen years witnessing New England’s adoption of the Half-Way Covenant
When they were born: Approximately between 1577–1588
Key Members
Enforcers: Massasoit, Governor John Carver of Plymouth Colony, Nanepashemet, Myles Standish, George Yeardley, Francis Wyatt, Richard Treat, Edmund Rossingham, George Percy, Josiah Standish, Wepitanock, Captain Thomas Graves of Northampton County, Francis West, Admiral John Smith of Jamestown, Captain Samuel Mathews of Newport News
Debaters: Squanto, Thomas Hooker, Uncas, John Lothropp, Peter Bulkley, Thomas Morton of Plymouth, John Billington, Richard Pace, Francis Cooke, Nemattanew, William Farrar, Reverend John Wilson of Boston, George Calvert (1st Baron Baltimore)
Scholars: John Winthrop of Boston, Christopher Levett, John Cotton, Nathaniel Ward, Martin Pring, Francis Higginson, Richard Saltonstall, Samuel Fuller, Alexander Whitaker, Richard Buck, Jonas Michaelius
Creators: John Rolfe, Virginia Dare, Stephen Hopkins, Tantamous, Edward Tilley, Kiliaen van Rensselaer of Rensselaerswyck, Isaac Allerton, Thomas Weston, Degory Priest, Richard Warren, Christopher Martin, John Newcomen, William White, Thomas Tinker, Robert Cushman, William Hutchinson of Rhode Island, John Ayer, William Arnold of Pawtuxet
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “Turnip Squeezers” (1572–1576)
Prominent “Turnip Squeezers”: Thomas Dudley, John Pory, Samuel Argall, William Strachey, Thomas West (3rd Baron De La Warr), William Mullins, John Crackston, Henry Woodhouse, Tomocomo, Edward Fuller, James Rosier, Governor John Harvey of Virginia
Subsequent Microgeneration: “Starving Timers” (1589–1593)
Prominent “Starving Timers”: Anne Hutchinson, Samoset, Temperance Flowerdew, William Bradford, Eunice Cole, Thomas Mayhew, Samuel Gorton, John Howland, Theophilus Eaton, Richard Bellingham, Charles Chauncey, John Doane, William Bassett, Samuel Skelton, Roger Conant, John Wheelwright, Increase Nowell, Susanna White, Nicholas Easton, William Pynchon, John Turner of Plymouth, Anthony Fisher, Walter Chiles, George Phillips of Watertown, Samuel Phillips of Andover, Edward Convers, John Utie, Thomas Gardiner, Pecksuot, William Vassall, Captain Samuel Jordan of James City County, Governor John West of Virginia
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