Father: William Fuller
Mother: *****

Spouse: Alice *****

Child-1: William
          2: Thomas - b: ~1485 - Redenhall Par., Co. Norfolk, England
                           bur: 27/Jun/1558
          3: Alice - b: ~1487 - Redenhall Par., Co. Norfolk, England
          4: Robert - b: ~1489 - Redenhall Par., Co. Norfolk, England
                           d: ~Dec/1550
          5: John - b: ~1491 - Redenhall Par., Co. Norfolk, England

Biographical Details:

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, ancestors of the Fuller family had probably lived in Redenhall Parish for several centuries.  Accordingly, they likely descend from the various groups of settlers that populated the island of Great Britain over the last three or four millenia.  Of course, the origin of any aboriginal people is lost to history and the first identifiable inhabitants of the eastern part of the island are various Celtic tribes, e.g., Iceni, Trinovantes, etc., which were recorded by the Romans in the first century.  Subsequently, the region was settled in the fifth century by the Angles (hence, the name East Anglia) and later suffered greatly in the Viking invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries.  It was only in the eleventh century that wars and invasions came to an end.  Afterward, East Anglia became an important source of wool for medieval Europe, as well as Britain.  Within this context, it is believed that the name Redenhall derives from the name of Rada, a landholder mentioned in the Domesday Book.¹  The present village of Redenhall lies about twenty miles south of the city of Norwich, twenty-five miles east of Thetford, just to the northeast of the town of Harleston and immediately north of the Waveney River, which forms the boundary between the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.  This is the locality in which John Fuller would have been born near the middle of the fifteenth century.  It has been reported that John Fuller's will was proved on May 17, 1511, which, if true, would suggest that he died a few days or weeks earlier.  Furthermore, this would be clearly consistent with his birth about the year 1460, but nothing definite is known.  Of course, he was probably a yeoman farmer and, as such, lived the simple life of the common people.  Five children have been attributed to him and Alice, his putative wife.  All of these are thought to have been born between 1482 and 1492, but there does not seem to be any specific evidence for this beyond tradition.

1. William Hyslop Fuller, Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower, C. B. Fiske & Co., Palmer, MA, 1908: pg. 21.
     "Redenhall Parish, as described by Candler, 'is about 4 miles long by 1 1-4 miles wide.  At present, practically the whole parish is enclosed and cultivated.  The Waveney River is close at hand and its curves and reaches, bordered by timbered meadows, osier (sic) grounds and reed beds, backed by bluffs of gravel, possess a peculiar beauty scarcely matched by any stream in these counties.'
     The name Redenhall is from the name Rada, which was the name of the owner of a tract of about 700 acres, as given in the Doomsday Book, which is a record of a survey of the lands of the entire kingdom, made about the year 1085, with an estimate of their value, and an enumeration of the various classes of landholders.  This record indicates that Rada had about forty subordinate tenants, or tillers of the soil.  Three hundred years ago then, the Pilgrims reached Holland; about 600 years ago Redenhall Church was begun, and about 900 years ago 'Rada held Redenhall.'"
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