Seventeenth-century women had few choices or rights. Most went from the homes of their fathers to the homes of their husbands. Pity the woman who had neither looking after her. I have somewhere in my family genealogy files the will of my great-great-grandfather. He left a double portion to his first-born son and split the rest among his other sons, leaving nothing to my great-grandmother and her sister. He assumed, as did most men in that era that his daughters would have husbands to provide for them. It was also assumed a first-born son would look after younger siblings should they need assistance.

Husbands of the Mayflower

My great-great-grandfather wrote that will a couple hundred years after the Mayflower voyage, but things hadn’t changed all that much in the way society was structured. Men decided. Women, for the most part, complied. The $5 theological term for this is ‘Complementarianism.’ It means, according to some interpretations of scripture, God ordains men to be overseers of women and children, with rigid roles assigned to each.

I’ve heard presentations from Biblical scholars with a working knowledge of both the culture and languages of the first-century church. The English word “submit” in scripture is translated from Latin, which was originally translated from Greek. It has a double meaning. One meaning relates to military rank. Subordinates are expected to follow orders from superiors with no questions asked. But another meaning, and I highly suspect the understanding among first-century Christians, has more to do with team work. It’s more like a couple dancing or rowing a canoe. Those activities require mutual cooperation, working together to make it around the dance floor or across the lake.

Our Mayflower people no doubt had a more hierarchical understanding of family life. Should a woman have any property or assets of her own, perhaps an inheritance from her father or income from her labors, those became her husband’s property upon marriage.

To Go or Not to Go

When it came time to decide who was going on the Mayflower voyage, it was up to the husbands to decide what was best for their families. Some brought their wives with them. Some brought their children or left some behind in the care of family or friends. Others left their wives behind, fearing the little woman would be too frail to endure the rigors of the adventure.

All the wives aboard the Mayflower had husbands who essentially said, “Pack. You’re going.” Three of those women were well into pregnancies.

The Survivors

Elizabeth Hopkins should get two medals of honor. She was one of the four alive a year after the Mayflower arrived and she was one of the three women to deliver a baby on the ship. She traveled with Stephen Hopkins, his children from a previous marriage (Constance and Giles), and her own daughter, Damaris. Stephen’s first wife, Mary, died while Stephen was on an expedition with others to go to the new Jamestown colony. He and others got shipwrecked, built a new ship from the wreckage, and eventually made it to Jamestown. While there, he learned his wife Mary had died. Elizabeth was born circa 1585 in England and married Stephen on 19 February 1617/18 (depending on which calendar system you use). As the Mayflower made its way across the broad expanse of the Atlantic she went into labor and delivered a son they named Oceanus. The child survived his birth but did not live more than a couple of years beyond that.

Susanna White has bragging rights for surviving, delivering a baby while on board, and being the first bride in the new Plimoth Plantation settlement. She married William White circa 1614 in Amsterdam, where the future Pilgrims lived in exile from 1608 to 1620. She traveled with William and their son, Resolved. Her son Peregrine was born while the ship was anchored off the shore of modern Provincetown. He lived to adulthood, married, and has numerous descendants. William died the first winter, as did Elizabeth Winslow. Edward Winslow and Susanna married on 12 May 1621. They had four children who lived and another who died young. Susanna lived to at least 1654.

Eleanor Billington, one of the four still alive a year later and the only one of the four who didn’t start the journey with the Separatists coming from Leiden in Holland. She sailed with her husband John and sons John and Francis. The Billington family has the dubious reputation of being the troublemakers in the community. Francis, probably a teenager on the voyage, nearly caused a fire when he shot off his father’s gun and sent sparks into a nearby gun barrel. Once off the ship, he wandered off, climbed a tree, and spotted a body of water. The pond is still known as Billington’s Sea four centuries later. Her husband was executed for murder. Later, she was sentenced to sit in the stock and suffer a whipping for slander against John Doane. After John died, Eleanor married Gregory Armstrong circa 1638. Her death date is not known, but she was still alive as of 1642.

Mary Brewster was the fourth woman to survive and likely the oldest or certainly among the oldest women on the ship. Genealogists have not yet confirmed her maiden name. She married William in Scrooby, England, circa 1591. She and William had five children and at least one recorded stillborn baby. She sailed with Elder William Brewster, who was designated the community’s spiritual leader once they left Holland. Their pastor, John Robinson, stayed behind with the rest of the Separatist community in Leiden. They brought their two younger sons, Love and Wrestling, with them. They left behind Jonathan, by then a young adult, and their two daughters Patience and Fear. Mary was among the few who didn’t become gravely ill during the first brutal winter. She stayed busy nursing others back to health and comforting those whose parents, children, or spouses died during those first perilous months.

Mary assumed responsibility for two of William’s orphaned young cousins when they lived in Leiden. Those children did not sail with them. On the ship, she assumed responsibility for two of the four abandoned More children foisted on the passengers at the last minute. Once Mr. More realized the children were not his biological children but rather the result of his wife’s long-standing affair with a neighbor, he paid to have them shipped off on the Mayflower.

Mary lived to be reunited with Jonathan and her daughters and see them all married. She also met a couple of her grandchildren before she died in April 1627 at an estimated age of 58 long years.

To Be Continued

I’ll have more about the other fourteen Mayflower wives next week. Meanwhile, Mary Brewster’s Love Life: Matriarch of the Mayflower delves into their stories in much more detail. It is a historical account of what Mary and the other wives may have experienced. It is a fictional diary. If she left an actual diary behind, I’ve never read anything about it. The book is a combination of her fictional diary, and her account of her amazing life told to one of her daughters once they were reunited two years after Mary left them behind with friends in Leiden.

Most of my books are available wherever you get your books, including libraries. I share a portion of profits with various non-profits.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life: Paperback, hardback and Ebook. Bookshop.org
Mayflower Chronicles: Paper, audio, Ebook. Bookshop.org
Asunder: Paper. HowWiseThen.com
A Ready Hope: Paper, Ebook. Rowman & Littlefield
40 Day Journey with Kathleen Norris: Paper. Augsburg Fortress
God in the Raging Waters. Paper. Amazon.com 
Married & Mobile. Paper. HowWiseThen.com

The post Mayflower Wives appeared first on How Wise Then.

William and Mary Brewster are my great x 12 grandparents. While doing research for the two historical novels I wrote with them as the main characters, I spent as much time in the 16th and 17th centuries as I did in the 21st one. The more I learned about them the more I concluded they were truly an amazing couple. Now both Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures and Mary Brewster’s Love Life: Matriarch of the Mayflower are published and available in print and eBook formats. Mayflower Chronicles is also available in audiobook format.  

I am in awe of the Brewsters and the others who made the dangerous journeys from their peaceful Scrooby village in Northern England to Leiden, and on to the Mayflower.

Most people pick up the Pilgrim story with the arrival of the Mayflower in Cape Cod in 1620 and drop the story after what is widely claimed to be the first Thanksgiving. The story starts much earlier than 1620 and has repercussions that are still unfolding today. In recent years the descendants of those whose land and way of life were devastated by the arrival of thousands of Europeans have been more organized and vocal in telling us the rest of the story. We need to listen. However, for this blog, let me introduce you to this remarkable couple.

William at Peterhouse, Cambridge University

William was the only Mayflower passenger with any college education. He studied briefly at Peterhouse in Cambridge University but did not graduate. Historians do not know why, but I suspect he returned home to help his father as his mother was nearing the end of her life.

William and Mary married at St. James (Later renamed St. Wilfred) in Scrooby. We do not know with any certainty which family Mary comes from; though genealogists and historians have been trying to figure that out for years. One popular theory (it is only a theory) is that she was the daughter of Thomas Wentworth, who was the Bailiff and Postmaster at Scrooby until his death.

William’s father assumed that position after Thomas Wentworth died. When the senior William Brewster died, our Pilgrim William Brewster, Jr. assumed the role.

Before taking over his father’s role at Scrooby Manor, young William was a secretary or administrative assistant to William Davison, who was in diplomatic service to Queen Elizabeth I. She appointed him to her Privy Council. He served Her Majesty as Ambassador to the Netherlands and was named her Secretary of State. Pilgrim Brewster accompanied Davison on many of his court visits trips to the Netherlands on her behalf.

Mother Mary Brewster

William and Mary had five children, and one stillborn infant. Jonathan, Patience, and Fear were born while they lived in Scrooby. Fear’s rather unusual name is based on their commitment to rely on their fear of the Lord rather than the dictates of the Established Church. By the time Fear was born, her parents were deeply involved in the highly controversial Separatist movement. The term ‘fear’ does not mean to be afraid, though their defiance of the Established Church was certainly cause for fear. Rather the term means to be in awe or wonder at the mysterious ways in which God provides.

Two more sons were born after they emigrated to Leiden in Holland. Love was so named because the Separatists in Leiden felt such close kinship with one another they were as one large extended family. Wrestling’s name may be because when he was born, the Leiden community was contemplating migrating to the New World. Such a move was obviously very bold and precarious. They wrestled with the possibility for several years before committing to take their chances.

William the Underground Printer

The decision to take their chances in the New World was solidified when Dutch authorities, under directives from King James, confiscated Brewster’s printing business. Like Martin Luther a century earlier, Brewster printed pamphlets and books that criticized the Established Church. Others smuggled them back to England. Authorities eventually traced them to Brewster’s garret workshop on the top floor of his home in Leiden.

To avoid arrest, William hid for most of the year before the families going to the New World boarded the ship for the voyage. The majority of the passengers were strangers to their close-knit congregational friends. They referred to them as Strangers. The Adventurers, businessmen who financed the trip, insisted they join the Leiden folks. Given their extreme devotion to their religious convictions, they were sometimes called the Saints. Together they made up the English settlers who established Plimoth Plantation on the site of a deserted native village Patuxet along Cape Cod Bay.

Mary said goodbye to her three older children – Jonathan, Patience, and Fear – when she left Holland. She traveled to Southampton with her two younger sons to meet up with William and the other settlers. She and William were eventually reunited with three older children – Jonathan a year later; and the daughters two years later. By the 1600s European ships crossed the Atlantic frequently.

In addition to her own two young sons, Mary assumed responsibility for two of the four More children sent on the journey. History is unclear why these children were sent; one theory being their parents separated and the father didn’t want them to have access to his estate. Again, only a theory.

Survival of the Fittest

As more and more passengers died from extreme hardships, Mary assumed responsibility for newly orphaned children and young adults.  Being one of the older women in the group, she functioned basically as the colony Matriarch. History has recorded very little about her life, in spite of the major role she must have played nursing the sick, raising orphaned children, feeding family and friends, and other chores necessary for survival in the strange new world,

Mary Brewster was one of only five adult women to survive the first winter. She was one of four still alive for what we consider the “First Thanksgiving.” It really wasn’t, since many cultures set aside a time to give thanks for a successful harvest. But there was a three-day feast in the fall of 1621 and the local Indigenous people were in attendance. Mary died on April 17, 1627, the day after the birth of a granddaughter, also named Mary. William died peacefully in his own bed and surrounded by his family and friends on April 10, 1644.

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies, Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster by Mary B. Sherwood (Great Oak Press of Virginia, Falls Church, Virginia), and William Brewster: The Making of a Pilgrim by Sue Allan.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the Brewsters and some of the story behind our traditional Thanksgiving. Share it with a friend or sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen. I will not sell your information.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary BrewsterAmazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
BarnesandNoble/MaryBrewster
Autographed copies are available on my website.

The post Elder William and Mary Brewster appeared first on How Wise Then.

Armistice Day 2018 marked the 100^th anniversary of a day set aside to honor all those who have fought in wars. President Eisenhower, himself a veteran, changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans, living or deceased. It is now recognized on November 11. The first Armistice Day was set aside to commemorate the signing of the 1918 WWI Armistice. The hope that war would be the end of wars obviously has happened.

Longing and Hoping for Peace

We wait for world leaders to use what finite influence they have on other leaders waging war on neighbors. It feels hopeless. The images of small children and vulnerable adults watching the total annihilation of what was once their homes are heart-wrenching. Words don’t seem to matter. Relief workers are stymied trying to deliver much-needed medical supplies and the essentials of life. I have no useful observations to make. However, I have found solace in the thoughts of others and have gathered them together here for us to ponder as the conflicts continue to tear apart communities and countries.

Winston Churchill

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

George Santayana

Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

Albert Einstein

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Also: Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Ernest Hemingway

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.

Bertrand Russell

War does not determine who is right – only who is left.

Mahatma Gandi

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

George Orwell

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Also:  The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Hate multiplies hate, violence multiples violence, and toughness multiples toughness in a descending spiral of destruction . . .the chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Isaiah 2:4

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 

Signs of Hope

I do see signs of hope. When I went to vote early, the woman assisting told me they’d processed over 4,000 people the day before. Voter turnout is growing, which tells me more of us are tuning in and paying attention. Slowly but surely I am seeing an increasing diversity among our elected leaders.

Armistice Day. A day of hope. Perhaps we can yet learn from the past and work together, in spite of our differences, for a more peaceful future. I hope we can create and sustain communities that promote justice, embrace mercy, and truly let people worship in their own way. May we turn our weapons of war into tools for construction and cultivation.

To all who have served or have lost loved ones who have served, may we never forget the sacrifices you have made for us all.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Share it with a friend or sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen. I will not sell your information.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary BrewsterAmazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
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Autographed copies are available on my website.

PS: For the month of December I’m offering a special two for $35 sale for these two historical novels. See details at HowWiseThen.com.

The post Armistice Day appeared first on How Wise Then.

Since last Monday was our annual Labor Day holiday, this seems a good time to reflect on some of the labor arrangements in the earliest days of what became the United States. Less than half, only 41 of the 102 passengers on the famous 1620 Mayflower voyage, were seeking a place to establish their own first-century style Christian community. These Separatist religious rebels had a vision and a plan, but lacked the funding to sail away to a new future. They sold what possessions they could and then sold themselves into indentured servanthood for a period of seven years.

The rest of the Mayflower passengers consisted of merchants, craftsmen, skilled workers, other indentured servants, and several orphaned children. The religious refugees referred to them as strangers, and strangers they were to the Separatists at the start of the voyage. The Investors from the Virginia Company had the financial wherewithal to finance the trip. Reluctantly, the Separatists agreed to a contract with them that secured financial backing in exchange for receiving the profits from their labor for a period of seven years. To boost their profits, the stockholders insisted the Separatists accept the strangers into their close-knit community as part of the deal.

Delayed Financial Gratification

Each adult male was granted a share in the joint-stock company. After seven years, the accumulated earnings were to be divided among the shareholders. During the seven-year indentured servant period, settlers were required to work in common, with each settler contributing everything to a typical store and withdrawing from it to meet their own needs and those of their families.  One-fifth – or about twenty – of the Mayflower passengers came as indentured servants. Most of the others were members of the Established Church of England (Anglican). Ironically, this was the very institution the Separatists had emigrated to Holland to escape a decade earlier.

When the Mayflower crew finally spotted land after two months at sea, they discovered they’d arrived north of the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company. Some among the group immediately decided their commitment as indentured servants was null and void. They believed they could now do as they pleased. To avoid chaos and conflicts before they even started establishing their new settlement, they worked out the details of the Mayflower Compact. Every adult male either signed it or had his mark, or “X,” witnessed on the document before anyone left the ship.

Those who came as indentured servants owed whatever they could grow, make, hunt, or fish to the community and the benefactors back in England. The labor was grueling, as were the living conditions. Half the indentured servants died within the first months in the new location. The other half of the non-indentured new arrivals were also in graves by the spring of 1621.

Send More Workers

The remaining few dozen colonists were desperate for help to establish a stable, long-lasting Colony. Several previous attempts to establish English settlements along the East Coast had failed. To avoid becoming another failed colony, the settlers sent appeals back to England, Scotland, and Ireland, requesting more assistance.

In the ensuing years, hundreds of others joined them. For most, their passage was paid for by their future masters. Between the arrival of the Mayflower and the Revolutionary War, it is estimated that as many as four out of five new immigrants came initially as indentured servants. They came believing they’d get food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their labor. For people in the British Isles contending with grinding poverty and few prospects for a better future, this was an appealing deal. Men who accepted the offer could anticipate finishing their term of service and then getting their own land and financial compensation for their work. There was also the hope they might participate in local government once they were freemen.

Managing Indentured Servants

Early Plymouth law governed the fate of these indentured servants. When still more labor was needed, the Natives were sometimes forced into slavery. Europeans intentionally destroyed Native crops and means of supporting themselves. According to numerous cases recorded in the Plymouth Court Records, governing these indentured servants was a complex process.

After their period of indentured work, they would become free citizens of the Plymouth Colony. Colonial officials sought to ensure that they would be law-abiding and God-fearing citizens who would contribute to the well-being of the Colony after completing their service.

The servant’s master was responsible for the servant until the term of the contract was completed, and the length of the agreement could not be shortened. Thus, servants typically became adjunct members of their master’s household. This protected the Colony from assuming responsibility for those who, for whatever reasons, could no longer be productive members of the master’s household. Occasionally, the Court ruled the community, not the master, was responsible for a servant who was sick or mistreated. That may have laid a foundation for a future welfare system in the Colonies.

Immigration Issues Are Ancient History

Migration has been a part of the human experience for as long as humans have existed. Clear back in Genesis, God instructs Abram (Abraham) to pack up all his belongings and head out to a place he’s never been before, to receive the blessing God has in store for him. Famine, floods, wars, droughts, persecution – all these factors motivate an individual or a whole population of people to strike out for a new place. People immigrate from and to every continent, sometimes fleeing trouble, and at other times migrating in search of a fresh start.

Most immigrants make incredible sacrifices for the chance of finding something better. In the early 1600s, immigrants sold themselves into bondage to get to the New World. It was a price they were willing to pay to establish their own community based on their understanding of what the earliest Christian communities were like. Today, immigrants come eager to scrub floors, clear tables, wash dishes, cut lawns, pick crops, and work long hours at hard labor for low wages – hoping to create a better world for themselves and their children.

We set aside one Monday a year to pay tribute to the people whose labor literally built this country. For nearly two centuries, the majority of these laborers came as indentured servants.

Some information for this blog came from Plymouth Colony Archive Project and the Constitutional Rights Foundation. If you enjoyed this blog, you may also enjoy reading about Child Labor.

Thank you for stopping by to read about some of the earliest days of labor in our country’s history. If you got this blog from a friend, you can get your own FREE subscription at HowWiseThen.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary Brewster
Amazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
BarnesandNoble/MaryBrewster
Autographed copies are available on my website.

The post Labor Day in 1620 appeared first on How Wise Then.

St. Wilfrid, Scrooby, England

Photo by Luke Anderson

A note on the St. Wilfrid website reads: “The church has a strong connection with the Pilgrim Fathers (and Mothers!) being the church where William Brewster was expelled from before his journey to the New World with his fellow Separatists.”

Photo from my 2017 Research Trip

This is perhaps where William and Mary Brewster were married and their first three children were baptized. In their day, it was called St. James and is a very short walk away from Scrooby Manor, where they lived before fleeing to Holland in 1608.

Numerous gravestones in the cemetery outside bear the name “Brewster.” The ones who sailed on the Mayflower are buried in Massachusetts. Elder William Brewster has a plaque in his honor that reads:

Photo by Luke Anderson

“St. Wilrid’s church, Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, where William  Brewster was baptized (c. 1566). He became a Separatist and was the Elder and Spiritual Leader of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, New England, until his death in 1643-44. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants (U.S.A., 1897) Waldo Morgan Allen – Governor General on their first Pilgrimage – 152, by Planes – to the Netherlands and England September 22 – October 6, 1955 – 335 years after the sailing of the Mayflower”

Scrooby Manor

Photo from my 2017 Research Trip

When William Brewster first began exploring the Separatist movement in England, he and Mary lived at Scrooby Manor. He was the bailiff and postmaster, as his father had been before him. The first three Brewster children were born while they lived here. When the pastor of a nearby Church of England was removed from his pulpit for challenging the edicts of King James, the Brewsters hosted illegal worship services at the Manor. That was what ultimately forced them to flee to the Netherlands for security in 1608. They started their pilgrimage to Plymouth, MA, from Leiden in 1620.

Leave, or Else

William Brewster, along with several other Separatist leaders from the Scrooby area, spent a few nights in jail in the Boston, England, Guildhouse. A group of about a hundred tried to leave England in the fall of 1607. The shipmaster they hired betrayed them for the cash awards given to those who turned in non-conformists.

Boston England Guildhouse

The women and children were free to walk all the way back across northern England without their husbands to wait and wonder what would happen to them. They’d already given away or sold most of their things and were dependent on the sympathy and charity of friends and neighbors. The men were released after a short stint in jail. They returned to plan their second escape effort. That one succeeded. They arrived in Amsterdam over the summer of 1608, leaving in smaller groups to avoid undue attention from others seeking awards for turning them in.

A Time to Rest

Today, St. Pieterskerk in Leiden is no longer a church, but rather a combination tribute to its part in the Pilgrim story and a venue for concerts and lectures. Murals, plaques, and displays in and around the church tell the story of how this church helped newly arrived English refugees settle into the community. Though the Separatists did not worship here, their highly esteemed and beloved leader, Pastor John Robinson, is buried here. An alley connects the back of the church to the home where the Brewster family lived.

Thank you for taking a few moments of your time to read along today. If you like what you’ve read, please share this with a friend. Or, if you’d like to join this growing online community, head over to HowWiseThen to sign up for your FREE subscription. I won’t sell your information. You decide if you prefer a monthly newsletter or weekly articles about whatever is swirling around in my mind that week. I’m often as surprised as you are by what I decide to write about.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary Brewster
Amazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
BarnesandNoble/MaryBrewster Autographed copies available at my website.

The post The Brewster Trail appeared first on How Wise Then.

A 17th-century wife had essentially only two choices. She could go along with her husband’s plans willingly or begrudgingly. Mary Brewster chose love over resentment, though her husband’s commitment to take this enormous risk put her and their children in danger on several occasions. It meant leaving a relatively secure and comfortable life in tranquil rural northern England to join the ranks of the desperate refugees, fleeing for safety across the North Sea.

Counting the Cost

Thinking the worst of her troubles were behind her, she settled into a new daily routine along the canals of the beautiful Leiden, just south of Amsterdam. All went well for a while. Her family grew by two additional sons. She was surrounded by women who made daily chores pleasant as they did them together. William occupied himself with reading and teaching English to international students at the new Leiden University. Their faith community grew and thrived under the capable leadership of Pastor John Robinson.

Then William started a publishing business. He decided to veer away from his original intent to translate various religious-themed books into English. Instead, he ventured into something much more bold and ultimately life-threatening. He not only published and illegally smuggled into England books critical of King James. Mary became essentially a single mother whose husband stayed out of sight and out of her reach as he spent a year dodging the king’s men, determined to find him and return him to England to face the consequences.

Excerpt from Mary Brewster’s Love Live

William managed to avoid capture. The Separatists found financial backing for their trip. After two failed efforts to leave, the Mayflower at last set sail in September 1620. After months away from land, they finally heard two wonderful words. Enjoy this excerpt from Mary’s story about that moment:

Then I heard a sailor from high up on the mast call out two of the most glorious words I ever heard. “Land Ho! Land on the horizon! Land Ho!” 

“Land!” A spontaneous cry of delight erupted everywhere, all over the ship. A chorus of cheers and laughter sounded out as we repeated land again and again. It was as sweet a sound as I ever heard. The younger folks even grabbed one another with hooked elbows and began dancing! It was a sight I shall never forget. I had not sufficiently appreciated what a blessing it is to have solid ground beneath me. I was oddly surprised that the sailors seemed as thrilled to sight land as we landlubbers were. I suppose the near sinking of the ship from the broken beam in that massive storm had them all wanting a respite from the ocean. 

Many of us were already on the upper deck, preparing for what bit of dignity we could offer the Button boy. His corpse was already wrapped in a sheet and at rest on the board, balanced on the edge of the rail. Master Jones insisted it was his place to say something over the body before releasing it to the sea. 

In all the commotion and excitement, someone, whether on purpose or not, pushed the recently departed Button lad over the rail to his final resting place. When I heard about it, I was stunned. Such a sad life for the little boy, to die so far away from family and so close to our destination. He should have had a proper burial. But what was done was done. William quietly offered a prayer of commendation for the dead once Master Jones turned to tend to other matters. He did not want to incur any more of the crusty man’s wrath. 

We continued slowly sailing toward the coast. 

I strained to see land for myself, but all I saw was darkness gradually pushing the last of the daylight over the horizon, out of sight. Waves slapped against the ship, and the sound made my eyelids grow heavy. By the time the first stars peeked through the clouds, my longing for sleep overcame my eagerness to see land. 

That night, we all went to sleep dreaming of waking up to the sight of a coastline. 

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The companion story told from the perspective of one of the four women to survive the first winter will be available soon in print and eBook.

The post Mary Brewster’s Love Life appeared first on How Wise Then.

As I do this, I’m also thinking about the Pilgrims who were doing this back in November and December of 1620. However, they were searching for a home from the confines of the Mayflower, not the comfort of a guest room. After 66 grueling days cramped together in a small, stinky ship, they finally anchored off the coast of modern Provincetown. Their search for a home was far from finished.

Land, land Everywhere

Several challenges confronted them. Many were sick from the absence of adequate, decent food and the presence of cold, wet, weather and inadequate shelter. Then there was shipmaster Christopher Jones and his surly crew. They wanted these pesky passengers off the Mayflower asap so they could return to merry old England, their home. Searching for the best location to build their new settlement was limited to what they could explore on foot until they reassembled their shallop. They’d taken it apart to fit in the storage space available on the Mayflower. It took two weeks to reassemble.

Captain Myles Standish led the first team of sixteen men on a chilly march along the northern “arm” of Cape Cod. Wearing armor and carrying weapons, they explored along the coastline but found no place they deemed suitable to establish the new settlement. They did find a grave, a European-style cast iron kettle, a stash of corn, and other evidence that the area was or had been occupied. They also spotted a few Natives in the distance, who quickly disappeared. After a ten-mile hike in search of them, they gave up seeing them again.

If at First You Don’t Succeed

Exhausted, cold, and hungry, they returned to the ship to regroup. Next, twenty-four of the men set out in their reassembled shallop. This time Master Jones, and nine of his crew accompanied them with the ship’s longboat. They planned to spend two days exploring along the interior coastline.  Still, they found no place deemed suitable. However, they did experience a shower of arrows shot by Natives they could hear, but not see. For a few terrifying minutes, Natives shot arrows at them fast and furious to send a clear “go away” message. They went as far as back to the ship to organize another exploration voyage.

Meanwhile, back on the ship, Sea Master Jones’ impatience increased as the supplies of eatable food decreased. He wrote in his ship log: “Sunday, 26 November: At anchor, Cape Cod harbor. Third Sunday here. Master notified planters that they must find a permanent location and that he would keep sufficient supplies for the ship’s company and their return.”

The voyage had taken much longer than anticipated. The weather hampered finding a place to establish a settlement. The ship was their only protection from the harsh winter setting in. While Master Jones and the others were exploring, those left back on the ship were clearing six inches of snow off the deck.

Third Times the Charm

A third exploration party headed out in the shallop, determined to find a place to build a settlement. Led again by Captain Standish, the team included ten passengers and six Mayflower crew. Among them was the ship’s second mate Robert Coppin who’d been to the area on a previous voyage, and the future Governor William Bradford. 

Before they left, they went to shore to bury young Jasper More, one of four children foisted on the passengers because his mother’s husband refused to accept responsibility for the children he was certain were not actually his biological offspring.

On their third search-for-home trip, they found a lovely place across Cape Cod Bay. It was teeming with fish and other seafood, had a clear freshwater brook, and a level area between the beach and a hill. The good news of their discovery was overshadowed by the news that awaited them. Dorothy Bradford fell overboard and drowned while William Bradford was away exploring.

Making Themselves at Home

Later they learned the reason such an ideal place was available was that a couple of years earlier, a plague had wiped out everyone who lived there. The few who survived the pandemic left, leaving it deserted. Today we know this place as Plymouth. They called it Plimoth Plantation. The Natives knew it as Patuxet.

Finally, at the end of December, having started their journey from Southampton, England, in July, they were ready to build their new homes. I’m looking for my new home via the internet, studying photos and videos of available places. These brave souls established their new homes by first felling the lumber to make the planks to build the Common House and a few cottages.

Every family took in someone who traveled alone or was now orphaned or widowed due to the high death count between anchoring and the first spring. Half of them didn’t live through that first frigid winter. However, the surviving ones, through hard work, grit, and determination, carved out a community for themselves and a permanent place in history.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures tells more of the harrowing story of how a small group of Separatists braved the unknown to migrate twice to unfamiliar places in search of a better life. It also tells the largely overlooked story of how two cultures were forced to decide how to deal with each other.  There’s much more to the story than you learned in school. I’d love to speak to your book club or organization about this fascinating history. Contact me at HowWiseThen to make arrangements. Sign up to receive free weekly blogs and/or a monthly newsletter. Please consider sharing this article with a friend.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and their interactions with the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website or BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Searching for Home appeared first on How Wise Then.

The Natives who gathered with the English settlers in the fall of 1622 thought they were coming to their aid. Only a few months earlier, in March 1622, the two communities had worked out the terms of a treaty. It stipulated that if either party were in trouble, the other would come to help. When the Natives heard the English shooting off their guns as part of their celebration, they thought they were being attacked. When they learned the English were having their own thanksgiving ceremony, they left to get more food and returned to help them celebrate.

Fall 1620

In November of 1620, the Mayflower was still at sea, where it had been sailing since September. Some of the passengers had been on the ship since July. The start of the cross-Atlantic journey was delayed three times to repair leaks in the companion ship, the Speedwell. The third time turned out not to be the charm, but rather the conclusion of attempts to make the Speedwell seaworthy.

Finally, on September 6 – or 16 – depending on which calendar you prefer – the Mayflower was at sea at last. There was no thanksgiving celebration that fall as there was no harvest, or crops, or a place identified where crops might be planted. Their first fall in the New (to them) World, the Pilgrims reached into the bottom of their food barrels in search of anything to eat.

Other Thanksgiving Traditions

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures, my historical novel about the events leading up to our traditional Thanksgiving, is now two years old. I’d be happy to speak to your book club or organization about this fascinating history. Contact me at HowWiseThen to make arrangements. You can sign up to receive weekly blogs and/or a monthly newsletter there as well. If you enjoyed this article, share it with a friend.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and their interactions with the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website or BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Thanksgiving History appeared first on How Wise Then.

At that time, Leiden was a significant industrial community of around 15,000 and growing. Within 30 years after the Pilgrims left for North America, in 1650, Leiden was a city of 55,000. Leiden, also spelled Leyden, is about 10 miles northeast of the Hague, 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam, and 200 miles across the North Sea from London, England. The city is laced with nearly 17 miles of canals, second in number only to Amsterdam. Eighty-eight bridges cross the canals, many of them suitable only for pedestrians.

Immigrant Refugees

Leiden, in the 1600s, was a major industrial center for the textile industry. Many of the English Separatist refugees worked in textile mills or at home weaving for one of the mills. Children sorted and combed wool and did other textile-related menial jobs.

The Separatist immigrants came to Leiden a few decades after England had befriended the area against Spanish efforts to assimilate the region. England aided the Dutch, soundly defeating the Spanish Armada in the naval showdown of 1588. A decade earlier, the Spaniards laid siege to Leiden. For a terrifying period of several months (October 31, 1573 through March 21, 1574) the Dutch made heroic efforts to keep the Spaniards at bay. When the siege finally ended, William, the Prince of Orange, allegedly offered the people a choice. He would either exempt them from taxes for several years or establish a university. They chose the university, and the University of Leiden was established in 1574.

University of Leiden

The University provided William Brewster with a means of income. He taught English to university students through their mutual familiarity with Latin. Separatist Pastor John Robinson took classes there, making friends among the university faculty. Brewster was familiar with Leiden from his earlier trip there in 1584 as a staff assistant to William Davison, the former Secretary of State and Ambassador for Queen Elizabeth I.

The Dutch, grateful for England’s support, hosted Davison and Brewster at a variety of special events.  England befriended the Dutch in a typical European monarch game of chess, with each monarch trying to gain and maintain power and stability by absorbing neighboring nations. England wanted to secure the loyalty of the Dutch to keep Spain away from England.

Thanks to the University, Leiden became one of Europe’s most prominent scientific centers, a position is has held for over four centuries. Students from all over the world come to study there. One of them,  Dr. Jeremy Bangs, has devoted his life to researching the influence of Leiden on the American Pilgrims.  He founded the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum in a small 14th-century house near the city center. There he collects and displays manuscripts and other memorabilia germane to the Pilgrim story.

Life in Leiden

As is the case for many modern immigrants, the plight of the Scrooby area Separatist immigrants was desperate. They arrived with few resources, most unable to communicate in Dutch, and were unfamiliar with city life. They banned together, doubling up families, taking whatever menial work they could find, and banning together to worship and encourage one another.

Eventually, they were able to purchase a home with sufficient land to build a series of small homes for their members. The community was so congenial that when Brewster had another child, they named their son Love. Though life was safer in Leiden than in England, it was also hard. Children were picking up ideas and practices from their Dutch peers that bothered their parents.

William Brewster’s decision to start publishing and distributing documents critical of King James stirred the anger of the king. Though the Dutch were tolerant, they were in no position to go against the wishes of the King of England. So when King James sent his men to find and arrest Brewster, William went into hiding, and their Separatist community more seriously considered setting up their own colony in the New World.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Leiden made extensive plans to participate in the 2020 400th anniversary, plans which were scuttled because of the pandemic. However, forward-thinking planners put together a virtual four-hour Leiden tour with stops at places significant to the Pilgrim story.

This month is the second anniversary of the release of my historical novel about the story behind the Mayflower voyage. I’d be happy to speak to your book club or organization about this fascinating history. Contact me at HowWiseThen to make arrangements. You can sign up to receive weekly blogs and/or a monthly newsletter there as well. If you’ve enjoyed this article, share it with a friend.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and their interactions with the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website or BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Leiden appeared first on How Wise Then.

According to a Legacies of History article, the village’s population when the Pilgrims were leaving England was between 150 to 200 people. Today it has a population of less than 500. It is located on the River Ryton, near the confluence with the River Idle, in north Nottinghamshire. Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame is not far away. The nearest town with guest accommodations is Doncaster, about twelve miles further north along the Great North Road (today England A1).

Scrooby: Small but Significant

St. James (St. Wilfrid) – Scrooby, England

St. James (later renamed St. Wilfrid) was a congregation of the Established Church of England, formed by King Henry VIII, when the Pope denied him a divorce from his first wife. The church was in the diocese of the Archbishop of York, located a mere 50 miles or so to the north of Scrooby.

Today Scrooby Manor is a private home.

Scrooby Manor was a huge estate during Pilgrim days and also the property of the Archbishop of York. The Old North Road connected London to the south with Edinburgh to the north. Official church and royal messengers frequently traveled the route with important news and documents. Scrooby is about halfway between the two cities, making the Manor a popular rest stop.

Pilgrim Elder William Brewster and his family lived in and managed Scrooby Manor. William spent part of his childhood there when his father became the bailiff and manager of the Manor. Pilgrim Brewster assumed those duties when he returned to Scrooby from his studies at Cambridge University and his father died.

Brewster and All Saints in Babworth

Young Brewster was enthralled with the Separatist ideas discussed at Cambridge University during his brief studies there. Some of his classmates became significant leaders in the English non-conformist movement at the turn of the 17th century. Two groups of non-conformists evolved. Puritans fought to further purify the church from Roman Catholic theology and traditions. Separatists wanted to leave the Established Church to practice their faith more in line with the earliest Christian communities.

Non-conformist clergy served several Scrooby area congregations. Brewster preferred to worship at All Saints, where Separatist sympathizer Pastor Richard Clyfton preached sermons that appealed to him. Starting around 1600, Brewster walked across the lane in Scrooby from the Manor to St. James and kept walking to hear Pastor Clyfton preach seven miles away in Babworth.

All Saints is still a worshipping congregation today. In the early 1900s, their Rector, Frank Wilberforce, encouraged them to claim and celebrate the congregation’s role in the Pilgrim story. Frank Wilberforce’s great grandfather was William Wilberforce, who led the English movement to abolish slavery.

Conform or Leave

Life for non-conformists was relatively calm until Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, and King James became monarch of England in addition to being King of Scotland. The new position included serving as head of the Established Church. He and his bishops took a dim view of both the Puritans and Separatists. The king had absolutely no interest in further reforming the Established Church. In 1604 over a thousand clergy appealed to his majesty to permit a few changes. He refused and instead ordered that any clergy who defied him should be removed from their pulpits. Richard Clyfton was one of those pastors.

All Saints is where Brewster met William Bradford, the future Governor of the Plymouth settlement. At the time, Bradford was a young man, only a few years older than William’s son Jonathan. Tensions mounted year by year as the 16th century wound down. Messengers regularly brought news to Scrooby Manor about non-conformists arrested, tortured, and executed. Some of them were friends William knew from his days at Cambridge. Separatist pastors began to lead their people to emigrate to the more tolerant Lowlands (The Netherlands).

The Separatists at Scrooby

Archbishop of York – Edwin Sandy’s

Elder William Brewster befriended Pastors Richard Clyfton and John Robinson. When Pastor Clyfton lost his position in Babworth for defying the king’s edicts, William invited the All Saints congregation to worship at the Manor. Soon a new, underground congregation formed with Clyfton as pastor, Robinson as teacher, and Brewster as the ruling Elder.

St. James, a few yards away from the Manor, remained part of the Established Church. The underground congregation met in the property owned by the Archbishop of York, one of the most influential men in England. They held secret services only a few yards from a congregation in his diocese. What could possibly go wrong with that plan? It turns out, quite a bit.

Their decision to form an underground congregation at the Manor was as dangerous as it was daring. Scrooby Manor occasionally provided rest to monarchs, bishops, and other high-ranking authorities who would readily arrest, and likely execute, anyone caught at the Scrooby underground worship services.

Leaving England

By 1607 their situation was life-threatening. Reports of heretics caught and executed became more frequent. It was time to prepare to leave England. Brewster resigned his post as bailiff at the manor, making him and his family homeless. About fifty  Separatists, led by Pastors Clyfton and Robinson, and Elder Brewster, made the arrangements to leave. Betrayed in their first attempt to leave, they returned to Scrooby, where they were dependent on the charity of sympathetic friends and neighbors.  They successfully left their beloved homeland in 1608 to live in exile in the Lowlands.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and their interactions with the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website or BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Leaving England appeared first on How Wise Then.