Talk:Mary Chilton
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[edit] First person ashore at Plymouth?
This is a highly dubious claim. It is, frankly, downright illogical that a woman, let alone a child, would have been part of the first landing party on December 17, 1620. Making a landing on an unknown land (when only a few days earlier a skirmish with native americans forced them to relocate from Cape Cod to Plymouth) with a 13 year old child along with them simply would not have happened. The first landing party at Cape Cod was lead by Bradford, Edward Winslow, and Standish. It is likely that these three lead the first party at Plymouth.
Legends tend to have some basis in fact. Legends tend to grow in order to fill in the blanks of events. It is highly unlikely that the blanks about the first landing party would have been filled in with a 13 year old child being the first person ashore, for all the reasons previously stated.
What is logical is that Mary Chilton was the first woman ashore at Plymouth, most likely on December 21, 1620. While there are no first person accounts of this (hence legend), it seems likely that this is the proper reading of the legend. It is very unlikely that they would have risked the life of a 13 year old girl on the actual first landing.Bgrin (talk) 15:13, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
