Edward Southworth was a silk worker in Leyden, Holland. He was recorded there as having come from England without any mention from which town or city. He was one of the Pilgrim exiles who formed the church in Leyden, Holland, led by Rev. John Robinson. We do know that Edward, his wife, and two young sons did not go to America in 1620 with the Leyden group, but we do not know why. Edward must have died shortly thereafter as, in 1623, his widow, Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, sailed to America on the ship Anne. She traveled possibly at the request of and with the intent to marry Gov. Bradford, whose wife, Dorothy, had drowned in Cape Cod Bay. Alice and Gov. William Bradford were married in August of that year. Alice had left her two sons, Constant and Thomas Southworth, in England probably under the care of relatives. In 1628, these two sons, when they were 13 and 12 years old respectively, emigrated with their mother's sister, Julia, to Plymouth, MA, and joined their mother and her new family.

Edward and his wife Alice (Carpenter) Southworth had two sons, both born in Leyden, Holland:

• Constant, b. 1615; m. Elizabeth Collier.
• Thomas, b. 1616; m. Elizabeth Reyner.

Alice (Carpenter) Southworth Bradford had three children by her second husband, William Bradford:

• William, b. 17 June 1624 in Plymouth; d. 20 Feb. 1704; m. Mary (Atwood) Holmes.
• Mercy, b. before 1627; m. Benjamin Vermayes.
• Joseph, b. 1630; d. 10 July 1715; m. in Hingham, MA, Jael Hart.

Both Constant and his brother, Thomas, were prominent citizens of the Plymouth Colony. Constant was admitted freeman in 1637, held several offices in the Plymouth government, including, from 1659 to 1678, the office of Colony Treasurer and for several years, the office of Deputy for Duxbury, MA. He owned considerable land in Duxbury "whereon standeth his dwelling house one Barn and one Grist mill," as well as land in Tiverton and Little Compton, RI.

Constant and his wife Elizabeth (Collier) Southworth had eight children, all born in Duxbury, MA, dates of birth not known with certainty:

• Mercy, b. ca. 1638; m. Samuel Freeman.
• Edward, b. ca. 1644; m. Mary Pabodie.
• Alice, b. ca. 1646; m. Col. Benjamin Church.
• Nathaniel, b. ca. 1648; m. Desire Gray.
• Mary, b. ca. 1650; m. David Alden.
• Elizabeth, year of birth unknown; m. Lt. William Fobes.
• Priscilla, year of birth unknown; m. (1) Samuel Talbot; m. (2) John Irish.
• William, b. ca. 1659; m. Rebecca Pabodie.

Edward Southworth lived in Duxbury, MA, where he inherited his father's homestead and mill. He was a deputy to the General Court for Duxbury, served on "Commoners Jury" in 1673, and was constable in 1677. He received several grants of land and often was employed by the town running ranges and in settling bounds.

Edward and his wife Mary (Pabodie) Southworth had seven children recorded as being born in Duxbury, MA. We have added another daughter with the name of Elizabeth whose birth has not been found in the town records. Our reasons for doing so are contained in the following statement and footnote taken from Eugene A. Stratton, C.G., "The Descendants of Edmund Weston Revisited" published in The National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 71, pp. 45-46: "Records show that he (Samuel Weston) married at Duxbury 14 March 1716/7 Elizabeth Southworth, daughter of Edward Southworth and his wife Mary Pabodie ... who died at Duxbury 19 August 1750. She could not have been the Elizabeth Southworth born in 1672, as claimed by the Southworth Genealogy, who probably died early, but could be a subsequent sister of the same name." Footnote 37, p. 58: "Duxbury VR, p. 332 gives the marriage and p. 436 gives her death. See also Samuel G. Webber, A Genealogy of the Southworths (Boston, 1905), p. 36. Duxbury VR, p. 166 shows the birth of an Elizabeth to Edward and Mary Southworth in November 1672, and the Southworth Genealogy calls this one the wife of Samuel Weston, and gives their children. While it is merely unlikely that Samuel would have married a woman 18 years his senior, it is next to impossible for a 58 year-old woman to have a child. However, her father's will in 1719 makes it clear that it was his daughter Elizabeth who married Samuel Weston, and the sister's will in 1761 makes it appear that she named the younger Elnathan (Samuel's and Elizabeth (Southworth) Weston's fifth child born in 1727) as her executor because he was a blood nephew, and thus that it was the same Elizabeth who married to Samuel in 1717 when Elnathan was born. The preponderance of evidence would thus indicate that the Elizabeth born in 1672 must have died early, and her parents must have named another, unrecorded, daughter Elizabeth many years after the birth, and perhaps just a short while after the death, of the first Elizabeth."

• Elizabeth, b. Nov. 1672; probably died young.
• Thomas, b. 1674; m. Sarah Alden.
• Constant, b. date unknown; m. Rebecca Simmons.
• Mercy, b. ca. 1680; m. Micah Soule.
• Benjamin, b. 1680; m. Rebecca Delano.
• John, b. 1687; unmarried.
• Priscilla, b. 1693; unmarried.
• Elizabeth, b. probably in Duxbury, MA, ca. 1690; m. Samuel Weston.