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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