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Thomas Weston was baptized on December 21, 1584, at Rugeley, Staffordshire England. He was the son of Ralph Weston and Anne Smith. He was admitted to the Ironmongers Company of London in 1609〔''A genealogical profile of Thomas Weston,'' (a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013) ()〕〔''NEHGS American Ancestors Pilgrim Valley Family Sketch of Thomas Weston''()〕 In 1615 he persuaded Edward Pickering, to become his agent in Holland and together they began to import a variety of nonconformist religious tracts that were seditious. In 1619 he and his agent, Philomen Powell, began importing tons of alum for which they did not pay custom duties. He and some of his associate Merchant Adventurers had been brought before the Privy Council and ordered to cease unlimited trade in the Netherlands. Soon after, he left England〔David Lindsay, ''Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger amongst the Pilgrims'' (New York: St. Martins Press,), p. 27〕 and traveled to Leiden, Holland, where his agent Pickering had married a woman belonging to a Puritan sect called Separatists, which were English men and women in exile due to their religious views, hoping to gain passage to America. Thomas Weston was the London merchant who first became involved with the Leiden Separatists who settled Plymouth colony in 1620. The colony was financed and begun under his direction, but he quit the enterprise in 1622.〔Robert E. Cushman and Franklin P. Cole. ''Robert Cushman of Kent (1577-1625) : Chief Agent of the Plymouth Pilgrims (1617-1625) '' (pub General Society of Mayflower Descendants 2005- 2nd Ed) edited by Judith Swan, p. 110〕〔David Lindsay, ''Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger amongst the Pilgrims'' (St. Martins Press, New York, 2002) pp. 27-28〕〔〔 As agent for the merchant adventurers investment in the ''Mayflower'' voyage, Thomas Weston played an instrumental part in the incident of the More children of Shropshire, who had been taken from their mother’s home in 1616 in a dispute centering on her supposed adultery. The children had been held incommunicado in Shropshire for four years and then brought to Weston and were held at his home in Aldgate, London, for some weeks until the ''Mayflower'' was to sail.〔Charles Edward Banks, ''The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers'' (New York: Grafton Press, 1929), p. 72〕 They were then given over to the custody of three senior Pilgrim officials for the voyage to the New World. Three of the four children died the first bitter winter in Plymouth. Only Richard More survived.〔 == Marriage and children == Thomas Weston married Elizabeth Weaver by October 17, 1623. She was a daughter of Christopher Weaver and Anne Green. He had one child, Elizabeth Weston, born about 1630. She married Roger Conant before January 22, 1661/2, and had two children. He died in June 1672.〔〔 Child of Thomas and Elizabeth Weston: * Elizabeth, born about 1630. She married Roger Conant before January 22, 1661/2. They had two children. Roger Conant died in June 1672.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Weston (merchant adventurer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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