Samuel Fuller (1580-1633)

Samuel and his brother Edward were passengers of the 1620 Mayflower and early settlers of Plymouth Colony.

Samuel Fuller (baptised 1580 – died 1633) was an English doctor and church deacon. He is remembered as one of the Separatist Pilgrims who together formed the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth Rock.

Vital Statistics

 * Son of Robert Fuller and Sara Dunkhorn. Robert was a butcher in the Norwich area.
 * Birth?
 * 1580-Jan-20 : Baptism - at Redenhall Parish, Harleston, Norfolk, England.
 * Married First - Alice Glascock
 * 1613 - Married Second - Agnes (Anna) Carpenter - 1613
 * 1617 - Married Third - Bridget Lee
 * 1620 - Trip to Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower
 * 1633 - Died during the Plymouth Colony Smallpox plague of 1633.

Biography
Initially Samuel learned the trade of a say-weaver [2], one who makes cloth for tablecloths and bedding.

In 1604 the Puritan minister John Robinson left his position at Cambridge to become pastor of St. Andrew's Church in Norwich. In the face of persecution from King James I, Robinson left Norwich and soon made his way to the village of Scrooby. Samuel Fuller went to Scrooby as well at this time, presumably influenced by Robinson. In 1609 the Separatist congregation at Scrooby escaped to Holland and made their way to the city of Leiden, where they could worship as they pleased. Fuller went with them to Leiden and became a deacon in their congregation.

Fuller's first wife Alice Glascock having died, he took as his second wife Agnes "Anna" Carpenter in 1613. Anna gave birth to a child but it died in infancy and was buried in Leiden. Anna died soon after and in 1617 Fuller took a third wife, Bridget Lee. All of his wives were Englishwomen.

Although some historians and genealogists have proposed that it was in Leiden that Fuller acquired training in medicine, possibly while attending lectures at Leiden University, historian Norman Gevitz has found no evidence to support any conclusion other than that of Fuller having done so only once in Plymouth. Gevitz considers the contentions that Fuller was the "Mayflower physician" and played any role as a healer during the "General Sickness" after the Pilgrims' arrival nothing more than "myths".

Fuller took his apprentice and servant William Butten with him and sailed to North America. He left his wife behind in Plymouth to care for his young child, which later died in Plymouth. Samuel Fuller's brother Edward Fuller joined him, along with Edward's wife Ann. The settlers founded a colony in North America and named it Plymouth, after the city they had set out from. In 1623 Bridget Fuller took passage on a ship named the Anne and came to Plymouth. Four years later they had a son they named Samuel, who became the Reverend Samuel Fuller of Middleboro.

Upon arrival in the New World, Samuel had been signer of the Mayflower Compact along with the other adult male settlers, and had also been elected Plymouth's doctor. He is known to have been involved in the responses to epidemics in Salem (then Neumkeag) (1629), Charlestown, and, in 1633, Plymouth itself. The latter, perhaps smallpox, killed Fuller and at least twenty others. In his last will and testament he forgave the indigent of doctor's fees yet owed, and bought gloves for many of the colonists. Some of his letters are preserved in a collection called William Bradford's Letterbook. He was survived by his wife and son as well as several children entrusted to his care upon the death of their parents.