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.

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.

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.

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.

Before the Mayflower sailed in 1620, the English Separatists, living as exiles in Holland, appointed Deacon John Carver as their governor for the voyage. According to genealogist/historian Caleb Johnson, the future Pilgrim Governor John Carver earned that role through his relentless efforts to make the trip possible. He was baptized 12 March 1580/81 at Great Bealings, Suffolk, England.

Carver’s Earlier Life

Carver’s father died when he was only nine years old. When he turned 21, he claimed his father’s inheritance and, apparently, became a successful businessman. He brought considerable wealth with him to Holland. In England he’d been active in a manor court, acting as juror several times in the early 1600s, but sold all his property in 1608. He joined the Leiden fellowship in 1615. Sometime before 1615, he married Katherine (White) Carver in Holland. Her sister, Bridget White Robinson, was married to the Separatist community’s beloved Pastor Robinson, making Deacon Carver and Pastor Robinson brothers-in-law. Katherine was his second wife. He and his first wife, Martha Rose, had one daughter, Margaret. He and Katherine had only one child. The unnamed child was buried in Leiden in 1617, possibly still born. Infant mortality was high in those days. I do not know anything more about Margaret.

The English Separatists immigrated to Leiden in 1609, after living first in Amsterdam for a year. While their lives were better in Holland than they had been in England, it was not ideal. Life as immigrants was challenging. They wanted to try their fate in the New (to them) World. Such a bold plan required several years of planning and numerous trips between London and Leiden. It also required the sort of political diplomacy that would impress any of today’s slickest politicians.

Carver the Negotiator

Through hard work Carver, Robert Cushman, and others obtained a charter, or patent, granting permission to establish a new settlement in the territory previously claimed by the English Crown with the 1607 establishment of Jamestown. They also secured financing. They first talked with Amsterdam merchants who liked the idea of a colony in North America. However, that meant they would establish a Dutch colony and they wanted to remain English subjects. They also negotiated with Thomas Weston, a London Merchant Adventurer, and that is where they ultimately got their financing. According to Mary B. Sherwood  in Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster, Weston “operated just inside the law on some occasions and outside it on others.”

Carver, Cushman, and others in the Leiden congregation, used their connections with people of influence in England to get the charter. Given that they fled England to escape King James’ searchers, they could not assume English authorities would grant their request. Perhaps King James had bigger problems on his mind and wasn’t paying attention to the Leiden refugees, or maybe he was happy to send them as far away from England as possible. In either case, their patent was granted. By July 1620 they were packing to sail. John and Katherine Carver agreed to go with the first group. Pastor Robinson and Bridget decided to stay in Leiden with the others and join them at soon as possible.

Financial arrangements

Being immigrants, the English Separatists were not eligible to participate in the Guild system that helped Dutch citizens work their way up the economic ladder. Seeking economic progress played as large a role in the decision to migrate to the New (to them) World as religious beliefs, though for the Separatists that was also a major theme. Part of the agreement for the financing for the trip included them working as indentured servants for seven years to repay the Merchant Adventurer investors. They would then own the land they worked, along with the houses they built, and be free to work for themselves. In the original plan between the Merchant Adventurers gave the settlers two days a week to work for themselves and five to work for them.

At the last-minute Western announced two disturbing new “take it or leave it” terms. First, they must work seven days a week for the Adventurers, or go find alternate funding. Additionally, they must accept a group of others to travel with them, bringing the  total number of passengers to 102 men, women and children. Of that number less than 40 came from Leiden. They also took two dogs that have been documented. Recent research suggests, a few other animals, such as perhaps chickens, pigs, and goats, may have also made the crossing with them. Plus a crew of probably a couple dozen sailors. Not knowing these new people, the Leiden community called them “Strangers” and dubbed themselves “Saints.”  At first they harbored mutual distain and suspicions about one another, but several weeks at sea and the daunting challenges they encountered eventually molded them into one more or less cohesive group.

Yet More Challenges

Carver and Cushman did their best to negotiate a better deal for the Leiden group, but in the end, they had to acquiesce or their abandon plans. They’d already sold everything they weren’t taking with them, resigned their jobs, and said their tearful farewells to friends and family. It was too late to turn back. There was yet one more obstacle to overcome before finally sailing off to a new life in a new place. Initially Carver and Cushman arranged for two ships – the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell had to return to port twice to repair leaks. The second time the Captain declared it unfit to sail across the Atlantic. Some of the passengers, including Robert Cushman, returned home. Everyone else, and all the cargo, crowded onto the Mayflower.

The group of “Strangers” appointed their own governor, who often got embroiled in conflicts with the Leiden leaders. When Mayflower Captain Jones spotted land on November 9, 1620 he informed them they were many miles off course. Due to concerns about the winter weather, he announced he would not sail any further. Disappointed, but desperate to have access to land again, they anchored off shore Provincetown on November 11, 1620, instead of their destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.

Looking for a Place to Call Home

Now beyond the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, some considered this chance to strike out on their own. To avoid chaos and conflicts between the “Saints” and “Strangers,”  and to increase the odds of surviving, Pilgrim Governor Carver and others drafted the Mayflower Compact. As Governor, John Carver was probably the first man to sign it. Every adult male signed it or marked it with an “X” to indicate consent to the terms. No women signed since weomen’s rights weren’t even a concept four hundred years ago. They appointed Carver as Governor of their newly established settlement, even before they knew exactly where that settlement would be located.

Carver went on three exploration trips over the next several weeks in search of the best location to build their new community. When Carver and others reported what they found, the ship sailed across Cape Cod Bay to establish Plimoth Plantation. The Governor helped establish Plimoth Plantation on the site of a deserted Patuxet village, across Cape Cod Bay from Provincetown, thus changing the course of Native history and North America forever.

The First Encounter

In the spring of 1621, Massasoit Ousa Mequin, the grand leader of all the area Native tribes, sent two English-speaking representatives to call on the new settlers.  He and his men then called on the settlers to work out the terms of a treaty between the two groups. Shortly after that, Pilgrim Governor John Carver  helped establish their first garden. On a warm afternoon, he fainted, and died shortly after, apparently from heat stroke. His wife, Katherine, died a few weeks later. Perhaps she died from a broken heart, or from the utter despair she may have felt when she assessed her situation as a childless widow in a strange new place, far, far away from her sister and other family.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and much more of the interaction between them and the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
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The Mayflower is arguably one of the more famous ships in nautical history. The fact we know anything about it 400 years after its famous voyage is a nautical miracle. Had it not carried the Pilgrims across the stormy north Atlantic back in 1620, it would have likely faded away with little fanfare. Such was the fate of many other ships of that era, including other ships named Mayflower. Like many similar ships, the Pilgrim Mayflower was intended to haul cargo up and down the European Atlantic coast.

The ship hardly stood out among all the others until Christopher Jones agreed to take a group of passengers to the west edge of the Atlantic. It was his first and only trans-Atlantic crossing. Technically, he was not a captain, but rather the ship’s master. According to Caleb Johnson, in that era, the title “Captain” was reserved for military ships, not cargo or passenger ships. (www.mayflowerhistory.com).

Ship Master Christopher Jones

Master Jones was born in England the late 1500s. He named his first ship Josian, after his wife. When he sold that ship in 1608 he bought the Mayflower, and three other ships. Jones was about fifty years old when the Adventurer Investors who financed the voyage hied him to sail the Mayflower to the New World.

The voyage left two months behind schedule and lasted sixty-six days. The crew sighted land in Cape Cod, about 400 miles north of the intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. Having arrived in the grip of a brutal winter, he and his crew stayed with the passengers several additional months. Once the settlers had built minimal shelter and started gardening, Master Jones sailed the Mayflower back to England.

Shortly after returning to England the Mayflower was stranded along the Thames and eventually sold for scrap lumber. There have been reports that the ship was hauled inland and turned upside down to form a barn. However, Caleb Johnson considers that theory an urban legend that cannot be confirmed.

A Nautical Miracle

We do know from historical accounts that the ship nearly capsized in the frigid North Atlantic. After a decade of hauling cargo up and down the West Coast of Europe the Mayflower was already in questionable condition. Then the passenger count significantly expanded because the companion ship, the Speedwell, had to be abandoned and all the ship’s passengers and cargo crammed into the Mayflower. Failed attempts to repair the Speedwell delayed the journey until late summer, putting the ship at risk crossing during the storm-prone fall and early winter.

Fortunately, the Pilgrims had construction tools onboard they intended to use to build homes in the new land. Some of the crew and passengers used them to repair the beam supporting the main mast when it cracked under the stress of the storm. Though the crew wanted to return to England, the leaders of the passengers convinced Master Jones to keep sailing west.

Miserable Accommodations

The conditions in the tween deck, where the passengers spent the vast majority of the  voyage, were truly horrific. No buffet lines. No ice sculptures. No evening entertainment. The 102 passengers plus the crew of around thirty endured cramped, noisy, and smelly accommodations. The passenger list included two dogs, perhaps a few other animals, several small children, and three pregnant women. All three had their babies while living on the ship. 

One passenger, Stephen Hopkins, had previous experience sailing to the New world. He traveled with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children. She was one of three pregnant women. When her boy was born they named him Oceanus.  

John Clarke, the ship Pilot, also had previous experience sailing to the New World, which proved crucial to their survival. He’d been a ship’s pilot in 1611 on a voyage to Jamestown in Virginia. Clarke stayed at Jamestown, hauling cargo around the Bay for about six weeks, until Spanish explorers took him prisoner. They initially took him to Havana, Cuba and then to Spain, where he was imprisoned five years. Upon his release he returned to England. Clarke made another voyage to Jamestown in 1618, delivering a cargo of cattle. (http://mayflowerhistory.com/crew).

If it had depended on me to come to the New World, under those conditions, my family would still be living in England.

Thank you for taking time to read more about the Mayflower. I hope you’ve found it interesting. If so, share it with a friend. Or you can sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen.

If you enjoy learning more about Mayflower 1620 voyage, you’ll find much more in this book. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eB00k, and audio.
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York, an ancient Roman city, was a major influence in political and religious events in Northern England during the time period when the Separatists gathered for underground worship in the nearby Scrooby Manor. Religious rebels were often imprisoned there for challenging the authorities. York Castle, only fifty miles north of Scrooby, along the Great North Road, will re-open in April 2022 after being closed for repairs.

Author and genealogist Sue Allan is the official historian of Scrooby Manor. She believes several Separatists the Scrooby group must surely have known, were confined in that prison. To the best of my knowledge, none of the future Mayflower passengers were among them; but concerns they could wind up there must have weighed heavily on them. Several of the men and women imprisoned in York came from the neighboring community of Gainsborough. Gervase Nevil, from Scrooby, was also confined there.

Searchers on the Prowl

Fears that church searchers would discover them and hand them over for sentencing and confinement to the York prison were realistic. Such concerns no doubt helped the Scrooby group strengthen their resolve to emigrate to the Lowlands. Their situation was certainly precarious, given they held their unauthorized services in property owned by the Archbishop of York. King James, head of the church, showed no tolerance for people who challenged what he and the bishops decreed should be the way church and government functioned. People who differed with his decrees risked losing their freedom and often their lives

Granddaughter Sarah at the York Castle diorama. 2017

Today the only remaining part of what was once a sprawling medieval castle complex is Clifford’s Tower. It is open to anyone who loves old castles, fascinating history and is willing to climb many steps. In 1068 William the Conqueror built the first rendition of the castle as a base for controlling Northern England.  He built it on a site first used by Roman soldiers in their push north to claim yet more land for the Roman Empire. Some of the original Roman wall around the city still stands near the York Castle.

Conflict and Tragedy

The castle built by William the Conqueror burned to the ground in the 1190 massacre of an estimated 150 Jews. When an angry mob attacked the Jews, they fled to the safety of the castle. This took place in the era of the Crusades. Tempers often flared with deadly consequences against Jewish people, as well as Muslims. Thanks to the twelfth century version of fake news and fear mongering propaganda, the Jews were vilified in part because so many non-Jewish people were deeply in debt to Jewish moneylenders. Nefarious, untrue, rumors circulated that King Richard ordered the massacre of Jews. In March of 1190 the mob set the castle on fire, killing everyone inside.  The full story is found on the British History website and History of York.

The Castle was rebuilt in the thirteenth century and included Clifford’s Tower. When completed the Castle became the site for trials each spring and summer. Prisoners awaiting their trials were kept in dungeons there. By the time the Mayflower Pilgrim story begins, the Castle was in a state of decay, but apparently the prison within it was still in use, as records confirm some of the Separatists were detained there.

Long History

For nearly a thousand years those charged with serious crimes have been confined within the York Castle complex. It wasn’t until 1780 that a new jail was built to detain female prisoners separately from men. Various historical records verify women were imprisoned here long before that. At the dawn of the twentieth century the facility was converted into a military prison, but that closed in 1929. The old Victorian prison was demolished at that time. The remaining facilities, known as the York Crown Court,  continue to be used to dispense justice for the Yorkshire area today.  It is still has holding cells for people accused of serious crimes.

Though the facilities are temporarily closed for tours, as are most public places during the Great Pause of 2020, people can learn more about this intriguing place at York Castle Museum.

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Thank you for taking time to read more about the Pilgrim Journey. I hope this armchair tour of York, England inspires you. If so, share it with a friend. Or you can sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen.

If you enjoy learning more about how events in England prompted the Pilgrims to sail to the New World, you’ll enjoy this book. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eB00k, and audio.
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As you gather with loved ones for this 400th Thanksgiving feast, pause to remember the desperate people who forged a document pledging that they would put the fate of their community above their individual agendas.

A Document of Necessity

The famous Mayflower Compact was born of necessity. When the Mayflower passengers realized they had arrived several hundred miles north of where they intended to go, they faced a crisis. Cape Cod, where they arrived in November 1620, was beyond the northern boundary of the Virginia Company’s charter. That charter granted them permission to establish a colony for King James in the northern part of the Virginia Company, near the mouth of the Hudson River. They did not have a charter or permission to be where they arrived, nearly five months after their initial efforts to leave England.

The Mayflower brought 102 passengers: 50 men, 19 women and 33 young adults and children. Of those, only 41 were Separatists, or religious refugees. The others, known to the Separatists as Strangers, were merchants, craftsmen, indentured servants and orphaned children. The Separatist religious refugees longed to establish a place where they could worship according to their own understanding of Christian community. The others came at the behest of the investors financing the trip to ensure a return on their investment. These two groups, with vastly different agendas, were now stranded beyond the jurisdiction of their charter.

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Their situation was desperate. Supplies were dwindling and anxiety was rising. It was winter and they had no shelter beyond the wretched crowded ship. And now, they were anchored in the wrong place. Challenges erupted as soon they learned they were beyond the boundary of territory of the Virginia Company. Some argued this meant their contract with the Company was no longer valid and they were free to set out on their own. Future Pilgrim governor  William Bradford later wrote, “several strangers made discontented and mutinous speeches.”

The Separatist leaders feared none of them would survive if they didn’t stay together, establish some semblance of order, and appease King James I. The king had granted their charter. Disappointing or disobeying a monarch could mean being abandoned and left totally on their own, cut off from any future help. Worried they might all die if that were to happen, several Separatists crafted a set of rules for self-governance. Today we know it as the Mayflower Compact.

Treading Troubled Waters

Since King James I issued their charter through the Virginia trading company, he could easily withhold sending any future supplies or settlers to help stabilize a fledgling colony. The Separatists knew they had to do something quickly to avert total chaos. We do not know for certain who actually wrote the Mayflower Compact, but the authors likely included William Brewster as the Separatist’s spiritual leader and only one with any college education, young William Bradford who showed outstanding leadership, and John Carver, one of the older Separatists. After they agreed on the wording for the Mayflower Charter, they exerted peer pressure to secure the signatures the adult men on board. According to Bradford’s nephew, Nathaniel Morton in his New England’s Memorial, 41 of the 50 men signed the document. They then appointed John Carver governor of the new settlement.

The original document has been lost, but we know the contents thanks to reports about it in early American documents, including the 1622 Mourt’s Relations, written by Edward Winslow and William Bradford. The English considered themselves loyal subjects to King James, even though some of them wanted to get far away from his influence over how they should worship. Thus they carefully crafted a document that professed loyalty to the King while asserting their right to govern themselves in their new location.

The Impact of the Mayflower Compact

The document they crafted has become an important part of our USA history. It was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. Two centuries later John Quincy Adams claimed the document was “the only instance in human history of that positive, original, social compact.” It is widely accepted that the Mayflower Compact influenced the wording of our Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. It was actually a covenant based on a Puritan church document. It applied only to how they should govern themselves and did not address the sticky reality they did not have a legal right to establish a settlement where they did. They obtained a patent the follow June from the English Council for New England.

Thank you for taking time to read the history of the Mayflower Compact. Why not share it with a friend? Got this from a friend? You can sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen. You can download the first chapter of Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures there.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale or Two Cultures is available in electronic, print, and audio form wherever books are sold in paperback, audio, and E-book formats.

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To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the event, the Sowams Heritage Organization   is hosting a free event Sunday, November 7 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mount Hope Farm in Rhode Island. Without the help of the Natives in the area, it is highly doubtful we’d ever have known about this harvest day of thanks among the English.

The English were so excited to have a successful harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks for surviving and having food going into their second winter. Various illnesses had put forty-five of  the Mayflower passengers in graves the previous winter. As their second winter approached they had shelter and food. It was time to give thanks. As part of their thanksgiving celebration, the men paraded about, shooting off their muskets. The four surviving adult women set about preparing the grant feast .

Natives to the Rescue

When the Natives heard the Englishmen firing muskets, they rushed to the new Plimoth Plantation to see if the English were in trouble. Only a few months earlier, in March of 1621, the great Pokanoket leader, Massasoit Ousa Mequin had called on the new settlers. When he saw them building shelters and planting a garden he was concerned. He’d had experience with earlier Europeans who came to the area to hunt and trade. Some of those encounters gave him reason for great concern about these people who apparently planned to stay.

An earlier English ship master had kidnapped over two dozen native young men, intending to sell them into slavery in Spain. One of them, Tisquantum, dodged the slave auction and wound up in London, where he lived in a trade merchant’s home and learned English. Tisquantum returned to find his home village abandoned, due to a pandemic that swept through the area shortly before the English arrived. On their third exploration trip the English settlers selected that very spot to establish Plimoth Plantation.

Hospitality over Hostility

The pandemic that eradicated Tisquantum’s village claimed the lives of over two-thirds of the Native population in the area. None-the-less, the Pokanokets, along with other Native groups in the area, outnumbered the English. Massasoit Ousa Mequin and his men could have easily overcome the English in their weakened condition. However, the great Massasoit had enemies among other Native groups. He decided a better plan was to befriend the English and solicit their support.

He approached the English to work out the terms of a treaty. That treaty stipulated that if either group was in trouble, the other would come to their aid. Thus, when some of his men heard the muskets, they incorrectly concluded the English were under attack and rushed in to help.

The Famous Feast

When they learned the English were not in danger, but rather joyous about their first successful harvest, the Natives left. They rounded up additional food to contribute to the celebration, and returned with a crowd of nearly ninety of their friends and families, outnumbering the English by nearly two to one.

It must have been quite an event. Communication would have surely been challenging, since only a few Natives spoke passable English and even fewer of the English knew any of the Algonquin language. I suspect there was a lot of pantomime and pointing involved as they tried to communicate with one another. Apparently they figured it out because the feast lasted for three days, with the Natives camping nearby at night and the English retreating to their new modest cottages.

Our Time to Give Thanks

We know all about pandemics as we soon mark our second Thanksgiving dealing with a lethal virus. A kidnapping, pandemic, and treaty set the stage for our modern Thanksgiving tradition. THANK YOU to all of you who have been on the front line for nearly two full years fighting this modern pandemic. May we replicate the Natives’ attitude of hospitality toward today’s desperate immigrants. May we muster the Pilgrims’ faith, trust, and determination to overcome obstacles and pause to give thanks.

Happy 400^th Thanksgiving anniversary one and all.

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