THE data which I have been collecting for "The Mayflower Genealogies", during the last eighteen years, from the original records of Plymouth Colony, of Plymouth County, of Bristol County, and from town, church, cemetery and other contemporary records, long since proved that the printed accounts of the Washburn family of Duxbury, Bridgewater and Plymouth were very incomplete and inaccurate, and I have spent a great deal of time in the effort to supply the omissions and correct the errors.

   The results already obtained will be a great surprise to the descendants of John and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Washburn of Bridgewater, and to the descendants of John and Lydia (Billington) Washburn of Plymouth.

   John Washburn of Bridgewater had two wives.   He married, in 1645, Elizabeth Mitchell³ (Jane² Cooke, Francis¹).   He married, second, between 1684 and 1686, Elizabeth (——— ) Packard, widow of Samuel¹ Packard of Bridgewater.   As all of John's children were by the first wife, the discovery of a second wife does not affect any claim of descent from Francis¹ Cooke of the Mayflower.

   John Washburn of Plymouth, who married Lydia⁴ Billington (Isaac³, Francis², John¹), was the nephew of the preceding John, and was the son of Philip Washburn of Duxbury and Bridgewater, formerly supposed to have left no children.   The other children of Philip were Margery Washburn who married Josiah Leonard in 1699, Mary Washburn who married Daniel Pratt in 1706, and Elizabeth Washburn who married Joseph Amory before 1702.   The mother of these four children was Elizabeth² Irish (John¹) of Duxbury, who died before her husband.

   The evidence which establishes the correctness of the fore-