Elizabeth Tilley

Introduction to the Elizabeth Tilley Letter Series

Elizabeth Tilley was only a young girl when she crossed the wide and storm-tossed Atlantic aboard the Mayflower in 1620. History remembers her as the quiet daughter of John Tilley and Joan Hurst, one of the few children who survived that bitter first winter and later stood among those present at the harvest feast we now call the First Thanksgiving. Yet the true heart of her life—her hopes, fears, and the tender friendships she carried with her—has long been hidden between the lines of surviving records.

The letters that follow are historical fiction, lovingly grounded in documented events yet imagined to fill the silences that history left behind. In these pages, Elizabeth writes to her dear friend Mercy, a companion left behind in England, sharing the small truths of her days: the cold breath of the new land, the ache of missing home, the wonder of God’s provision, and the growing courage that shapes her into the woman she would become. Though no letters of hers survive, these fictional writings honor the real girl whose quiet endurance helped build a new world.

As you open each wax-sealed envelope, may you hear Elizabeth’s voice—gentle, observant, and filled with the steadfast hope of a young Pilgrim who learned to carry both sorrow and gratitude in the same small hands. Through these imagined letters, her story steps softly into the present, inviting you to walk beside her across the distance of four centuries.