Peter BROWNE

                   NAME: BROWN aka BROWNE
Research note:  Sailed on the Mayflower.  Som speculation as to the amount and name of additional children.  Only two proven children, Priscilla (from Martha, the widow of Mr Ford), and Rebecca (from Mary, origin and last name unknown).  Further information in notes.  

From MayflowerHistory.com

ANCESTRAL SUMMARY: 
Nothing is known about the ancestry of Peter Browne. The royal lineage that has been published is totally without basis, and no documentary evidence has ever been presented to show who the parents of Peter Browne actually were. 
It has been suggested that Peter Browne may have come from Great Burstead, Billericay, Essex, but that claim is simply based on the fact that there was a Peter Brown taxed there in 1624, and since names tend to run in families maybe he was somehow related. No evidence has ever been shown to suggest the two are related, however. 
Peter Browne is known to have had a brother John, who came to Plymouth and took up residence in Duxbury. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: 
William Bradford wrote in his "increasings and decreasings" section of his journal the following about Peter Browne: "Peter Browne married twice. By his first wife he had two children who are living and both of them married; and the one of them hath two children. By his second wife he had two more. He died about sixteen years since." 
Peter Browne and John Goodman are mentioned in a strange incident recorded in Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. While out gathering thatch for the houses the Pilgrims were building the first winter, Peter and John got lost in the woods when their mastiff chased after a deer and they followed. They spent the night in a tree, thinking they had heard a lion in the forest, and the next day walked a long time until they climbed a high hill and were able to spot Plymouth Harbor and get themselves reoriented. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: 
Peter Browne of the Mayflower did not have any male children. If he had any sons living in 1633, they would have been mentioned in the settlement of his estate. Instead, he gives all his land to his daughters. Several books and other sources have incorrectly given Peter Browne sons, the most common mistake being the claim that Peter Brown of Windsor, Connecticut was a son.