THE MAYFLOWER BALL

The Mayflower Ball is the annual ball of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York, held on the first weekend of November: an evening of dinner and dancing, black tie, at which the young women of the Society’s families are presented, lately at the University Club on West 54th Street. It is the Society’s main fundraiser, for its educational programmes for teachers and students, and it is by invitation.

Every member of the Society has proved, generation by generation and in original documents, a line of descent from one of the hundred and two passengers who came over on the Mayflower in 1620.

The First State Society

The Society was founded in New York on 22 December 1894, “becoming the first State Society”. On 12 January 1897 delegates from the societies then in being met at Plymouth, in Massachusetts, and formed the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, of which New York is a part. The General Society now has fifty-four member societies and more than thirty-one thousand members. It calls itself “a non-profit lineage society dedicated to preserving the history of our Mayflower ancestors through education and research”.

Membership is open to anyone who can document direct descent from a passenger of the Mayflower; the line may run through a man or a woman, and the Society’s list of ancestors includes Mary Chilton, Priscilla Mullins and Elizabeth Tilley. In New York an applicant begins with a lineage match, which costs a hundred dollars and takes about eight weeks, then makes a preliminary application, and is given a co-historian to help gather the original documents for each generation. Approval takes about five months, and the General Society gives the final verification.

The Society held its first dinner dance at the Ritz Carlton in 1931. In January 1947 it gave one at the Hotel Pierre, and sent the proceeds to the endowment of the Mayflower House in Plymouth. The first annual Mayflower Ball was held at the Plaza in 1953, and six debutantes were presented.

In 1970 the Society marked at the ball the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Mayflower Compact. The Golden Annual Mayflower Ball was held at the University Club on 7 November 2003, and seven debutantes were presented.

The First Weekend

The ball falls on the first weekend of November. It is the Society’s main fundraising event of the year, and the money goes to its educational outreach for teachers and students.

A young woman is presented on the sponsorship of a member of the Society in good standing, who gives his or her membership number and Mayflower ancestor; the Society’s inquiry form asks after a daughter, a granddaughter or a niece. The presentation is the families’ occasion, and the Society arranges it.

The room changes. The ball the Society counts its seventieth, in November 2024, was held at the Union Club; the seventy-first, in November 2025, at the University Club.

In 2026 the Society’s seventy-second Annual Mayflower Ball, by its own count, is held on Saturday 7 November, from six in the evening to eleven, at the University Club, One West 54th Street.

What to Know

It is held on the first weekend of November, through the evening. The 2027 date has not been announced.

There are no tickets on public sale. The ball is by invitation, and those who wish to attend, to sponsor or otherwise to take part write to the Society directly.

Black tie, as the ball’s listing gives it; the Society publishes no code of its own.

The University Club is at One West 54th Street. The Society names no hotel.

The mistake is to treat it as a ticketed public ball. It is by invitation, and the way in is through the Society.

The Court

The Mayflower Ball is not the Court’s own, and the Court will not pretend it can buy a member a place: the ball is by invitation, and inquiries go to the Society. The Court goes as a supporter of the Society’s work, and the presentation is the families’ affair, not the Court’s. For a member who is invited, the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay in New York for a member coming from out of town, and the table afterward. The Court is at the New York Scottish Ball a week later.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.