 The ship carrying William Arnold and his group sailed from England to New England in 1635 , with some brief particulars of the voyage given by his son Benedict in the family record : " Memorandom my father and his family Sett Sayle ffrom Dartmouth in Old England , the first of May , friday & c . Arrived In New England June 24o Ano 1635 " The name of the ship on which this group sailed was not recorded , nor has it been identified since . Governor Winthrop recorded that in the six @-@ week period beginning 4 June 1635 , fifteen ships had arrived in the Massachusetts Bay area , but he gave the names of only two of them . The ship on which the Arnolds sailed was not the Plain Joan , as stated in some accounts , which vessel carried a Thomas Arnold from England to Virginia . There is no known record of any event that took place at sea , only the length of the trip . The journey to America was less than two months in duration and ended on William Arnold 's 48th birthday . 
