Person:Experience Mitchell (1)

Immigrated in 1623 on the Anne from Leiden, Holland. He resided first a Plymouth, before moving to Duxbury by 1639, when he was listed there as a freeman. He was Able to Bear Arms in Duxburrow, August 1643. He was then given liberty to look for land between Bridgewater and the Bay line in 1664. He was eventually granted land on the west side of the Namasskett River, between the Mattapoisett River and Acushena, and at Namassakett, and moved to Bridgewater in the 1680s.

In the 1623 Plymouth land division, George Morton and Experience Mitchell together received eight acres. In 1627 Plymouth cattle division "Experience Michaell" was the tenth person in the first company with Francis Cooke (Plymouth Colony Records 12:6; 12:9)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Francis Cooke, in General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620. (New England - United States: General Society of Mayflower Descendants., Various)
   12:29-37.

   ...Experience Mitchell, born probably about 1602 [assuming he was aged 25 at his marriage in about 1627], died in Bridgewater between 2 June 1685 and 14 May 1689.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Experience Mitchell sketch, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   ORIGIN: Leiden, Holland
   MIGRATION: 1623 on Anne
   FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
   REMOVES: Duxbury by 1639, Bridgewater between 1684 and 1689
   BIRTH: By about 1603 based on estimated date of marriage.
   DEATH: By 14 May 1689 when his inventory was taken.

3.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   3:219-220.

   EXPERIENCE, Plymouth, a youth, came in the Ann, 1623, had been one of the goodly comp. at Leyden, where he left a br. Thomas, who d. there. Perhaps he was under the care of Francis Cook, at least, he is of his comp. in partak. sh. of cattle 1627, and soon aft. m. his d. Jane, was of Duxbury aft. 1631, and long aft. rem. to Bridgewater, there d. 1689, aged above 80 yrs. His ch. were Elizabeth wh. m. 1645, [[vol. 3, p. 220] John Washburn; Thomas; Mary, m. 24 Dec. 1652, James Shaw, and d. 1679; Edward; Sarah; Jacob; John; and Hannah, but the order of b. is uncert. and so may be the mo. for he had sec. w. Mary. Sarah m. John Hayward; and Hannah m. Joseph Hayward, as his third w.

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 "Experience Mitchell's Will and Inventory", in Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
   pp. 4:151, 32:97.

   Will of "Experience Mitchell now living in the Town of Bridgwater", dated 5 Dec 1684, inventory 14 May 1689, proved 4 Sep 1689, mentions son Edward [sole executor]; wife Mary; son John; grandson Experience Mitchell the son of my son John; daughters Mary Shaw Sarah Hayward and Hannah Hayward; grandson Thomas Mitchell; grandaughter mary michell [to be cared for by son Edward and Joseph Bartlett].

5. ↑ Latham, Williams. Epitaphs in old Bridgewater, Massachusetts. (Bridgewater, Massachusetts: Henry T. Pratt, 1882)
   185, 186.

   The adult persons living and dying in this part of old Bridgewater previous to 1703, and probably buried in this yard [Old Grave Yard], so far as is known, were N. Byram, 1688, and his wife, 1698; Robert Latham and wife, 1685-1688; Jonathan Gary, of Heaver, 1695; Experience Mitchell, of Elmwood, 1689; Mercy Harris, wife of Issac Harris, about 1682. No other public place of burial is known to have been used; and we find a very few private burying-grounds in the early settlement of the town, here, or elsewhere, in old Bridgewater.