Robert Carter

Robert Carter came on the Mayflower as a servant, or apprentice, to the William Mullins family.  Nothing has been conclusively discovered about his English origins, although presumably he came from the Carter family seen living in and around Guildford and Dorking, co. Surrey, where his master William Mullins came from.

Robert Carter was old enough to require William Mullins to purchase a share of the Pilgrims’ joint-stock company (i.e. over age 16), but he was too young to have signed the Mayflower Compact (i.e. under age 21). This would put his birth somewhere between 1600-1604. William Mullins, in his will of 21 February 1620/1, requests that John Carver and "Master Williamson" (likely a pseudonym for William Brewster) look after Robert Carter because he "hath not so approved himself as I would he should have done," a comment that would similarly imply he was an older teenager upon whom such a judgement could be cast. 

Robert Carter died sometime the first winter, in late February or March 1621.