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Plymouth: Its History and
People
(Source:
http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/index.htm)
PLYMOUTH
Plymouth is a town in southeastern Massachusetts, on
Plymouth Bay, about 34 miles southeast of Boston. The
seat of Plymouth County, it was the site of the first
permanent European settlement in New England; it is now a
fishing and tourist center with ship-related industries
and cranberry-packing houses.
Plymouth Rock, a tourist attraction, is on the shore
under a granite canopy; recreations of Plimoth Plantation
and the Mayflower are also there. The pilgrims founded
Plymouth on Dec. 21, 1620, establishing a settlement that
became the seat of Plymouth Colony in 1633 and a part of
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.
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PILGRIMS
The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded (1620)
Plymouth Colony in New England. In the first years of the
17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke
away from the Church of England because they felt that it
had not completed the work of the Reformation.
They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible.
Most of these Separatists were farmers, poorly educated
and without social or political standing. One of the
Separatist congregations was led by William Brewster and
the Rev. Richard Clifton in the village of Scrooby in
Nottinghamshire. The Scrooby group emigrated to Amsterdam
in 1608 to escape harassment and religious persecution.
The next year they moved to Leiden, where, enjoying full
religious freedom, they remained for almost 12 years. In
1617, discouraged by economic difficulties, the pervasive
Dutch influence on their children, and their inability to
secure civil autonomy, the congregation voted to emigrate
to America.
Through the Brewster family's friendship with Sir Edwin
Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, the congregation
secured two patents authorizing them to settle in the
northern part of the company's jurisdiction. Unable to
finance the costs of the emigration with their own meager
resources, they negotiated a financial agreement with
Thomas Weston, a prominent London iron merchant.
Fewer than half of the group's members elected to leave
Leiden. A small ship, the Speedwell, carried them to
Southampton, England, where they were to join another
group of Separatists and pick up a second ship. After
some delays and disputes, the voyagers regrouped at
Plymouth aboard the 180-ton Mayflower. It began its
historic voyage on Sept. 16, 1620, with about 102
passengers--fewer than half of them from Leiden.
After a 65-day journey, the Pilgrims sighted Cape Cod on
November 19. Unable to reach the land they had contracted
for, they anchored (November 21) at the site of
Provincetown. Because they had no legal right to settle
in the region, they drew up the Mayflower Compact,
creating their own government.
The settlers soon discovered Plymouth Harbor, on the
western side of Cape Cod Bay and made their historic
landing on December 21; the main body of settlers
followed on December 26. The term Pilgrim was first used
by William Bradford to describe the Leiden Separatists
who were leaving Holland. The Mayflower's passengers were
first described as the Pilgrim Fathers in 1799.
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JOHN ALDEN
John Alden, b. 1599?, d. Sept. 12, 1687, was one of the
Pilgrim Fathers who came to America in the Mayflower,
signed the Mayflower Compact, and founded Plymouth Colony
in 1620. Thereafter he held various public offices,
including that of deputy governor of Massachusetts
(1664-65, 1667). The unfounded details of his wooing of
fellow Pilgrim Priscilla Mullens (or Molines)--whom he
did marry--were the subject of the Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow poem "The Courtship of Miles
Standish."
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WILLIAM BRADFORD
William Bradford was one of the leaders of the pilgrims
who established Plymouth Colony. He was its governor for
more than 30 years. His History of Plymouth Plantation,
1620-1647, first printed in full in 1856, is a minor
classic, reflecting the unusual qualities of the man and
the values of the small group of English separatists who
became known as Pilgrims.
Bradford was born in March 1590 in Austerfield,
Yorkshire, the son of a yeoman farmer. He was
self-taught. As a young man, he joined Puritan groups
that met illegally in nearby Scrooby and was a member of
that congregation when it separated from the Church of
England in 1606. Bradford was among the 125 Scrooby
separatists who sought (1608) religious sanctuary in
Holland.
When the congregation decided (1617) to seek refuge in
America, Bradford took major responsibility for arranging
the details of the emigration. The term Pilgrim is
derived from his description of himself and his
coreligionists as they left Holland (July 22, 1620) for
Southampton, where they joined another group of English
separatists on the Mayflower.
Bradford was one of about a dozen original Scrooby church
members who sailed for America on the Mayflower. When
John Carver, Plymouth Colony's first governor, died
suddenly in April 1621, Bradford was unanimously elected
to replace him. He was reelected 30 times.
In 1640, Bradford and the group of original settlers
known as the "old comers" turned over to the
colony the proprietary rights to its lands, which had
been granted (1630) to him by the Warwick Patent and then
shared by him with the old comers.
During the period of his governorship, and especially
during the first few years, Bradford provided the strong,
steady leadership that kept the tiny community alive. He
strove to sustain the religious ideals of the founders
and to keep the colony's settlements compact and separate
from the larger neighboring colonies. Bradford died on
May 9 or 19, 1657.
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WILLIAM BREWSTER
William Brewster, b. 1567, d. Apr. 10, 1644, was a leader
of the PILGRIMS, who established Plymouth Colony. In
England he studied briefly at Cambridge, the only Pilgrim
Father to have some university training. A member of the
local gentry in Scrooby, Yorkshire, he helped organize a
separatist religious congregation in 1606 and financed
its move to Holland in 1608.
His influence was instrumental in winning the approval of
the Virginia Company for the proposal to resettle the
congregation in America, and he was one of the few
original Scrooby separatists who sailed on the Mayflower
in 1620.
As the church's ruling elder in Leyden and then in
Plymouth, Brewster shared with William Bradford and
Edward Winslow in the leadership of the Pilgrim
enterprise.
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JOHN CARVER
John Carver, b. c. 1576, d. Apr. 5, 1621, one of the
Pilgrim Fathers, was the first governor of Plymouth
Colony. A wealthy merchant, he helped arrange the
Pilgrims' emigration to America in 1620, chartering the
Mayflower. He was governor for less than a year before
his death.
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MYLES STANDISH
Myles Standish, b. c.1584, d. Oct. 3, 1656, an
English-born professional soldier, was hired by the
Pilgrims as military advisor for their Plymouth colony in
America; eventually he became a full member as well as a
valued leader of the community.
Arriving on the Mayflower with the first settlers, he
initially concentrated on colonial defense and Indian
relations. Later, Standish represented (1625-26) Plymouth
in England; he also served for many years as one of the
governor's assistants and as the colony's treasurer
(1644-49).
Standish was one of the founders (1632) of the town of
Duxbury, Mass. Although one of the most influential
figures in colonial New England, he is best remembered
through US poet Henry Longfellow's 'The Courtship of
Miles Standish' 1863.
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THE WINSLOW BROTHERS
Five Winslow Brothers came from England to Plymouth
Colony between 1620 and 1633. Edward, the oldest of the
five, had left England for Holland in order to freely
practice his religion.
He was one of the 102 Pilgrims who came to America on the
Mayflower in 1620. He was soon joined by his brothers:
John (1621), Kenelm (1633) and Josiah (1631). Gilbert,
who had arrived with Edward on the Mayflower, returned to
England.
In the 1630s, the brothers and their wives settled in
Marshfield and started families. All of the Brothers were
active in their communities. Edward was one of Plymouth
Colony's most trusted representatives.
He was sent to negotiate with the local Native People,
the Wamponag. He also sailed to England several times
times on colony business, bringing back the first cattle
in 1624.
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THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT
"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are
underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign
Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France
and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith.
Having undertaken for the Glory of
God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the
Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the
first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by
these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of
God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves
together into a civil Body Politick, for our better
Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends
aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and
frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be
thought most meet and convenient for the General good of
the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience.In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed
our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the
Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England,
France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the
fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."
There followed the signatures of 41 of the 102
passengers, 37 of whom were members of the
"Separatists" who were fleeing religious
persecution in Europe. This compact established the first
basis in the new world for written laws. Half the colony
failed to survive the first winter, but the remainder
lived on and prospered.
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THE MAYFLOWER
The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist
Puritans, later known as pilgrims, to Plymouth, Mass., in
1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had
been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John Carver,
a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden,
Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for
the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at
Southampton with a passenger list that included English
Separatists, hired help (among them Myles Standish, a
professional soldier, and John Alden, a cooper), and
other colonists who were to be taken along at the
insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to
finance the expedition.
In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated
the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620,
with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders
William Bradford and William Brewster aboard the 60-ton
Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying
a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton
on August 15, but they were twice forced back by
dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of
Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were
regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the
historic voyage began.
This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37
of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to
the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two
persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea,
and another, Peregrine White, was born as the ship lay at
anchor off Cape Cod. The ship came in sight of Cape Cod
on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been
granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a
planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River.
The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at
Provincetown on November 21.
That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a
"plantation covenant" modeled after a
Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to
establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary
government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement
was thought necessary because there were rumors that some
of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers,"
among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they
landed in a place other than that specified in the land
grant they had received from the London Company. The
compact became the basis of government in the Plymouth
Colony. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John
Carver their first governor.
After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area,
the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on
Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and
part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave
the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land,
the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible
winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The
Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived
back in England on May 16.
William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's
voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it
describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was
constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information
about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage.
This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the
ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft
(19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam,and a hold 11 ft (3.4
m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower, the
Mayflower II, wasbuilt in 1957 by England as a gift to
America and sailed from Plymouth, England, to
Plymouth,Mass., where it is now on view. This is the only
time that Mayflower II has sailed accross theAtlantic.
For nearly 38 years, this recreation of the Pilgrim's
famous vessel has been little more than afloating museum
confined to its pier near Plymouth Rock rarely leaving
the dock, and when ithas, it has mainly reached its
destination by tug.Modeled faithfuly after the slow
andcumbersome 17th-century merchant vessels that sailed
the waters between England andEurope, the Mayflower II
lacks the most modern conveniences including an engine.
It is hard tosteer and has an unsettling habit of rolling
with sea.
In 1964 the ship went on a brief sail, and crews unfurled
her sails briefly in 1990 and 1991, afterthe
square-rigged ship went through major renovations to make
her more seaworthy. In 1992, theMayflower II won approval
to carry passengers after congress passed special
legislation toloosen some of the Coast Guards strict
certification guidelines. In 1992, the Mayflower II led
aprocession of the Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal.
In the end of that year, it left on a 4 month tour to
Florida, however the ship was usually towed and very
little sailing actually tookplace. The Plimoth Plantation
which runs the Mayflower II as part of its living history
exhibit hasadded radios, navigational equipment, electric
bilge pumps and lifevests.
On July, 23, 1995, The Mayflower set sail again to
commemorate the 375th anniversary of the original
Mayflower's arrival to the new World.
~~~~~~~~
Bibliography:
Bradford, William, Of Plymouth
Plantation:1620-1647, ed. by Samuel E. Morison (1952);
Caffrey, Kate, The Mayflower (1974);
Colloms, Brenda, The Mayflower Pilgrims (1977);
Dexter, Morton, The Story of the Pilgrims (1990);
Harris, John, Saga of the Pilgrims (1990);
Dillon, Francis, The Pilgrims (1975);
Gill, Crispin, Mayflower Remembered: A History of the
Plymouth Pilgrims (1970);
Harris, J., Saga of the Pilgrims (1990);
Notson, A.W., and R.C., eds., Stepping Stones: The
Pilgrim's Own Story (1987);
Plooij, D., Pilgrim Fathers from a Dutch Point of View
(1932; repr. 1970);
Smith, Bradford, Bradford of Plymouth (1951);
Usher, R. G., Pilgrims and Their History (1918);
Willison, G. F., The Pilgrim Reader (1953) and Saints and
Strangers:
Pilgrim Fathers, rev. ed. (1965); Langdon, G. D., Jr.,
Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620-1691
(1966);
Morison, S. E., Plymouth Colony Beachhead (1986);
Stratton, E. A., Plymouth Colony (1987); Sherwood, M. B.,
Pilgrim (1982).
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