September 10, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on Richard Guy Migliori Jr., a direct descendant of Mayflower passenger Elder William Brewster. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” featuring Richard Guy Migliori Jr. of Newport, Rhode Island, a direct descendant of Mayflower passenger Elder William Brewster, the spiritual leader of Plymouth Colony. Researching your family history often begins with tracing a single last name back through generations.
In this photo we see (left to right): Christopher John Migliori sitting on the lap of his grandmother Philomena Beatrice (Mare) Benjamin; Richard Guy Migliori Jr. sitting on the lap of his grandfather Cleo Seiler Benjamin Sr.; and the boys’ parents Jean (Benjamin) Migliori and Richard Guy Migliori Sr. The two boys are 13th-generation descendants of Mayflower passenger Elder William Brewster.
In these two photos, we see (left to right): Richard visiting Plymouth, Massachusetts, near Plymouth Rock; and Richard walking toward the National Monument to the Forefathers located at 72 Allerton Steet in Plymouth.
Besides Brewster, Richard is also descended from notable Pilgrims who shaped the early colonies, including Gov. Thomas Prence, Edmund Freeman, Austin Bearse, Deacon John Hall, Zachariah Paddock, and John Benjamin.
Lineage:
- William Brewster and his wife Mary
- Patience Brewster and Governor Thomas Prence
- Mercy Prence and John Freeman
- John Freeman and Sarah Merrick
- Mercy Freeman and Chillingsworth Foster
- Mary Foster and David Paddock; a direct descendant of Deacon John Hall and Priscilla Bearse; daughter of Austin Bearse and Mary “Little Dove” Hyanno, purported to be an Indian princess of the Wampanoag Tribe
- David Burr Paddock and Miriam Belden
- Elizabeth Paddock and Elijah Benjamin
- Charles Benjamin and Amanda Waters
- Marvin H. Benjamin and Florence Abigail Thurston
- Ben B. Benjamin and Delia Bridget Conway
- Cleo Seiler Benjamin Sr. and Philomena Beatrice Mare
- Jean Benjamin and Richard Guy Migliori Sr.
- Richard Guy Migliori Jr. and Christie Louise Beebe; married 2nd June Chester
The Elder Brewster Spring
“And there is a very sweet brooke that runnes under the hillside,
And many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunke.”
—Mourt’s Relation
I found some clips about the Elder Brewster Spring while searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives.
Here is one from the Baltimore American, published in 1911 when the federal government bought the old Brewster property.
This article reports:
Spring the Pilgrims Used
Water at Plymouth Still Flowing on Land Sold to Government
Plymouth, Mass., February 24. – A parcel of land which was originally a part of the tract allotted to Elder William Brewster when Plymouth Colony was first established, but which more recently has been the site of the First Baptist Church, was today formally transferred to the federal government as the site for a new federal building. A check for $22,000 was given in payment. On the rear of the land there still flows the “Elder Brewster Spring,” which, from the time of the Pilgrims down to the present day, has furnished pure water for inhabitants of the town.
According to The Brewster Genealogy:
The water of the Elder Brewster Spring at Plymouth, Mass., has been brought to a drinking fountain, built of field stone, standing on the ancient land allotted to Elder Brewster and where he built his home, on First Street, now Leyden Street, in 1621. This fountain was erected about 1895. It is marked “The Original Elder Brewster Spring,” and bears the quaint invitation: “Drink here and quench your thirst. From this spring, Pilgrims drank first.”
Here is a photo card taken in 1905 that appeared on many postcards back in the day. The cobblestone fountain was shaped to imitate an old Pilgrim chair.
Noted in the 1922 Plymouth Town Annual Report:
“The pump at Elder Brewster Spring has been in operation during the past season, as usual, and the cost for operation was $138.54 for power, and $25.00 for attendance.” (p. 36)
Freeman Line
Edmund (or Edmond) Freeman and his family set sail from Plymouth, England, on 4 June 1635 aboard the Abigail, commanded by Captain Hackwell, and arrived in Boston about 8 October 1635.
The early Freeman line is featured in a Barnstable Patriot newspaper article, sourcing the work of Amos Otis published in Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families.
Edmund Freeman was one of the first settlers of Sandwich, Massachusetts, and was “a prominent man of good business habits, liberal in politics, and tolerant in his religious opinions.”
The article goes on to say of Edmund:
In his intercourse with his neighbors and associates, he was affable and obliging, and to his kindred and intimate friends, he was ever kind and affectionate. He rested from his labors at Sandwich in 1682, at the ripe old age of 92 years. His wife died Feb. 14, 1676, aged 76. She was buried on a rising ground on his own farm. He was then 86 and had lived 59 years in the marriage state. Some little time after her decease he summoned together his sons and his grandsons, [and] they placed a large flat rock resembling a pillion over the grave of the wife. He then placed another, resembling in shape a saddle, beside it; and addressing his sons, he said: “when I die, place my body under that stone, your mother and I have travelled many long years together in this world, and I desire that our bodies rest here till the resurrection, and I charge you to keep this spot sacred, and that you enjoin it upon your children and your children’s children, that they never desecrate this spot.”
A substantial wall was built around these simple but suggestive monuments, and his descendants to this day with pious hands protect them from desecration. Many of them regard this spot as their Mecca, which it is their duty to visit at least once in their lives.
Below are photos from the Edmund Freeman Saddle & Pillion Burial Ground, located on Wilson Road in Sandwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.
The inscription on Edmund’s gravestone reads:
Edmond Freeman. Born in England 1590. Died in Sandwich 1682. A Founder of the Town of Sandwich in 1637. Assistant to Governor Bradford 1640-1647.
The inscription on Elizabeth’s gravestone reads:
Elizabeth, Wife of Edmond Freeman. Born in England 1600. Died in Sandwich 1675-6.
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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