House of Montague

There is no known record of Peter Montague's birth date. There are only two extant records from which a reasoned estimate of his birth date can be derived. First, is the Virginia Muster Rolls, 20 Jan-7 Feb 1624/5. If it were not for the Virginia Muster Rolls, a census document, miraculously surviving all these centuries, there would be virtually no record in English archives containing dates and names. In this record, Peter is shown to be 21 years old on 4 Feb 1624. It is possible that he anticipated an upcoming birthday within the next couple months and therefore overstated his age at 21 years on that Feb date.

Second, the only other record with an age related date comes from HGPM, 49: "At the age of 18 years Peter emigrated to Virginia, in America." and on p. 52: "He came in the ship "Charles" and landed in Virginia in the month of November, 1621." Unfortunately the compiler of HGPM did not cite sources for these two statements. We are left to assume the compiler had a source and neglected to cite it or he inferred it from sources not revealed. Giving the compiler the benefit of the doubt (there is no reason not to), and using these two documented data points, the possible birth months can be narrowed to one of the nine months between Mar and Nov 1603 (see Table 1). Table 1 fixes Peter's age for these two dates. Then for each fixed age/date, the object is to fill in the age he would have been for each of the set conditions. All ages not agreeing with the ages in the top columns are strikedthrough. Only birth months in which both age columns agree can be considered possible birth months. This analysis, while not producing a conclusive birth month, offers some support for the oft-presented birth year of 1603, and that his birth month was between Mar and Nov. When, or if, additional date-related information is discovered, a third column for the fixed date can be added to the table allowing a further bracketing of the correct birth month.

BIRTH DATE OF PETER MONTAGUE--AN ANALYSIS
	There is no known record of Peter Montague's birth date. There are only two extant records from which a reasoned estimate of his birth date can be derived. First, is the Virginia Muster Rolls, 20 Jan-7 Feb 1624/5. If it were not for the Virginia Muster Rolls, a census document, miraculously surviving all these centuries, there would be virtually no record in English archives containing dates and names. In this record, Peter is shown to be 21 years old on 4 Feb 1624. It is possible that he anticipated an upcoming birthday within the next couple months and therefore overstated his age at 21 years on that Feb date. Second, the only other record with an age related date comes from HGPM, 49: "At the age of 18 years Peter emigrated to Virginia, in America." and on p. 52: "He came in the ship "Charles" and landed in Virginia in the month of November, 1621." Unfortunately the compiler of HGPM did not cite sources for these two statements. We are left to assume the compiler had a source and neglected to cite it or he inferred it from sources not revealed. Giving the compiler the benefit of the doubt (there is no reason not to), and using these two documented data points, the possible birth months can be narrowed to one of the nine months between Mar and Nov 1603 (see Table 1). Table 1 fixes Peter's age for these two dates. Then for each fixed age/date, the object is to fill in the age he would have been for each of the set conditions. All ages not agreeing with the ages in the top columns are strikedthrough. Only birth months in which both age columns agree can be considered possible birth months. This analysis, while not producing a conclusive birth month, offers some support for the oft-presented birth year of 1603, and that his birth month was between Mar and Nov. When, or if, additional date-related information is discovered, a third column for the fixed date can be added to the table allowing a further bracketing of the correct birth month.