Individual Details

Constance was 13-years-old when she sailed to the New World aboard the Mayflower with her father, step-mother, and siblings.

Caleb Johnson on his Mayflower History site writes: "While much attention is focused on the men who came on the Mayflower, few people realize and take note that there were eleven girls on board, ranging in ages from less than a year old up to about sixteen or seventeen. William Bradford wrote that one of the Pilgrim's primary concerns was that the "weak bodies" of the women and girls would not be able to handle such a long voyage at sea, and the harsh life involved in establishing a new colony. For this reason, many girls were left behind, to be sent for later after the Colony had been established. As it would turn out, however, the girls had the strongest bodies of them all. No girls died on the Mayflower's voyage, but one man and one boy did. And the terrible first winter, twenty-five men (50%) and eight boys (36%) got sick and died, compared to only two girls (16%).

"Constance would have been old enough to help her step-mother with the cooking, sewing, and laundering--but there really was little "women's work" to do on the Mayflower and much of the day was spent simply trying to pass time. The voyage was long--sixty six days--and there were many storms which shook the ship violently and forced everyone to stay below deck in cramped quarters; sea sickness was a continuous problem, and would have affected many of the girls.

"On November 13, 1620, just four days after the Mayflower sighted land, the women were allowed on shore for the first time, to do the much-needed laundry. Constance would have come ashore near the tip of Cape Cod and helped her step-mother do the wash. She was probably one of the first European females to set foot in New England since Freydis, the sister of Leif Ericsson. Freydis was in America from about 1002 to 1006 AD, on an expedition from Greenland that she herself organized and financed--nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus."

A children's book, Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth by Patricia Clapp, is the imaginary journal of Constance Hopkins from the time she sails on the Mayflower until her wedding five years later. Although a work of fiction, the book sticks quite closely to the facts of day-to-day life in Plymouth Colony.

Constance married Nicholas Snow in 1627, and they settled at Eastham. She died in October, 1677, having had twelve children. Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts has a beaver hat on display which they believe once belonged to Constancem and one her descendants, Robert Treat Paine, would become one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

• 

Birth	Abt 1605	England
Christen	11 May 1606	Hursley, Hampshire, England
Marriage	Bef 1627	Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts - Nicholas SNOW
Marriage	1627	Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts - Nicholas SNOW
Death	Oct 1677	Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Miscellaneous		"Mayflower" Descendant No. 18,429

Spouse	Nicholas SNOW (1601 - 1676)
Child	Mark Snow (1628 - 1694)
Child	Mary SNOW (1630 - 1704)
Child	Sarah Snow (1632 - 1697)
Child	Joseph Snow (1634 - 1722)
Child	Stephen SNOW (1636 - 1705)
Child	John Snow (1638 - 1692)
Child	Elizabeth Snow (1640 - 1678)
Child	Jabez Snow (1642 - 1690)
Child	Ruth Snow (1644 - 1716)
Child	Constance Snow (1646 - )
Child	Hannah Snow (1651 - )
Child	Rebecca Snow ( - )

Father	Stephen HOPKINS (1579 - 1644)
Mother	Mary [--?--] ( - )
Sibling	Elizabeth Hopkins ( - )
Sibling	Giles HOPKINS ( - 1690)

Notes