Mary Hyanno

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brookefamily/hyannomary.htm

Mary Hyanno, known as "Litttle Dove", is said to have married early Plymouth settler Augustine Bearse. Mary was the daughter of John Hyanno, who was born in 1595 at the Mattachee Village at what is now Barnstable, Massachusetts, and Mary No-Pee, who was born at Gays Head on Martha's Vineyard and was the daughter of No-Took-Seet. John was the son of Iyannough, the sachem of the Mattachee village of Wampanoags of Cape Cod, and Princess Canonicus. He died after 1680 on Cape Cod. Princess Canonicus was the daughter of Canochet (Chief) Canonicus and Posh-Pw. Canochet Canonicus was the son of Wessonsuoum and Keshechoo. Wessonsuoum was the son of Chief Tashtassuck, who was born before 1520.

Mary Hyanno is said to have been of fair complexion and red hair. The Wampanoags were often referred to as "white Indians" due to their light skin and are thought by some to have descended from Viking explorers. This assertion is very controversial. There indeed was an Iyannough, and Hyannis, Massachusetts is named for him.

The Bearse/Hyanno marriage entered the written record via a document filed in the 1930's by Franklin Ele-watum Bearse, a Scaticoke and Eastern Indian, in an attempt to obtain benefits as an Indian from the State of Connecticut. Mr. Bearse's claims are analyzed in a article by Jacobus entitled "Austin Bearse and His Alleged Indian Connectionis" in THE AMERICAN GENEALOGIST published about 1936. Mr. Jacobus does not accept the Franklin Bearse story and endeavored to disprove it. Among other things he points out that all we really know about Augustine Bearse is that he was listed as age "20 in the shipping list of the Confidence of London, which sailed from Southampton the last of April 1638. Most of the passengers on this ship came in family groups, and a large number of these families settled in Essex County, Mass. The name Augustine is, be it noted, a Christian name, in good usage in England. There is no evidence whatever that any of the passengers on this ship were deported criminals. There is no evidence whatever that Austin was sent to Barnstable as a prinsoner. On the contrary, he came to Barnstable with the first company in 1639; he became a member of Mr. Lothrop's church, 29 Apr. 1643, and he is the first person named on the present record of those who joined the church after its removal to Barnstable. He was proposed to be admitted a freeman, 3 June 1652, and was admitted 3 May following. He was called Goodman in the records, bespeaking his good standing. He was a grand juror in 1653 and 1662, and a surveyor of highways in 1674. --- To suppose that a Gypsy, a deported criminal, and the husband of an Indian, would have enjoyed such standing in a Puritan community is absurd. In explanation of his marriage to an Indian, the story is told that he was a Gypsy and hence the Puritan girls would not consider him in marriage; yet his children married into the best families of Barnstable and Yarmouth."

However, family traditions of the Hyanno marriage exist to this day in other branches of the Bearse family. These traditions do not appear to have been derived from Franklin Bearse.

In our family lore, Earle White was told by his parents that he was 1/64th Indian. If in fact they were referring to Mary Hyanno they were off by two generations.