10/24/2026
This silver w**e cup belonged to Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford. Another English Separatist who had lived in Leiden but never came to Plymouth also owned a silver cup, documented in her last will and testament 383 years ago. It was a late afternoon in the “Engelse Poort” neighborhood of Leiden, October 28, 1643, when Bridget Robinson met with a small group to witness and notarize the signing of her will. She is identified in the document as the daughter of Alexander [White] and the widow of Reverend John Robinson, “of blessed memory, when living pastor of the English congregation within this city.” Rev. Robinson had died years earlier on March 1, 1625, when Bridget was close to 50 years old. Although the plan had been for the Robinsons to follow the congregation to New Plymouth, the beloved pastor’s unexpected death changed everything. Bridget stayed in Leiden among the remnants of the English Separatist congregation, with those who did not depart for New England. Her surviving children eventually scattered. Son John established a medical practice in England. Son Isaac crossed the Atlantic in 1631, settled in Scituate and later Cape Cod, and became an innkeeper. In her will, Bridget Robinson focused on her grandchildren and children, though mindful of which children had already received support from their father’s estate. John was not to receive anything further because he had already been given family land and goods in England. Bridget advanced “forty guilders of XL groots Flemish a piece” to son Isaac and to daughter Fear, “in equalization and adjustment" an equal sum to that which her namesake daughter Bridget already “has enjoyed…out of the legacy of her father.” Daughters Bridget and Fear were to share their mother’s clothing “both linen and woolen,” except for a long cloak and skirt of black cloth set aside for Isaac’s wife – Bridget did not neglect her daughter-in-law! She may have also been intent on “equalization” when she gave Fear her silver cup and all of her furniture and household goods that had been bought or made within the last four years up to the time of her own death – and included a clause that Fear’s word on what was to be included under this description would be accepted without challenge.
Bridget White Robinson died sometime after her will was signed on October 28, 1643. Whether or not her silver cup still survives is unknown. A transcription of the will is on our website. https://www.pilgrimhall.org/will-of-bridget-robinson-1643/
Governor William Bradford's silver cup does survive and is today jointly owned and exhibited by Pilgrim Hall Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, https://www.facebook.com/americanhistory/
