On 16 September 1620, the ship Mayflower departed Plymouth, England for the New World, carrying 102 passengers. Two months earlier, the Speedwell had left Leiden, where the English separatists had lived for more than 10 years. The Speedwell took on water and had to be taken out of service, so its passengers and cargo were transferred to the Mayflower.
The Mayflower Compact, signed on 11 November 1620 by the Pilgrims at Cape Cod, set up their new colony as a "civil body politic," that is, not a theocratic or religious government. It's true that only a few years later, they were undertaking punitive measures for what they considered ungodly behavior, from chopping down a Maypole in 1627 to beating and imprisoning Quakers in the 1650s, but it appears that their original intent was to form a secular government for both the Saints and the Strangers, the commercial investors on their expedition. They had already endured government oppression and prison terms for their religious practices and desired peace and security.
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| Mayflower Compact: https://ia802306.us.archive.org/0/items/mayflowercompact00bow/mayflowercompact00bow.pdf |
“A ship comes into the harbor. Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are;
and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”
-- Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford,
in his book, "History of Plymouth Plantation."
I had several ancestors who risked their lives on the Mayflower, some of whom died in the first winter of scurvy or other nutrition-related pestilence while others survived and raised families in Plymouth, Sandwich, and Barnstable. Early in 1631, after a perilous winter passage on the Atlantic, John Robinson's youngest son Isaac arrived in Boston on a desperately needed food-relief ship (with lemons to cure Boston's scurvy) and settled in Plymouth Colony. He had numerous children, who also had large families, and nearly 400 years later, here I am with the Robinson surname, both common--and special because of the legacy of principled compassion of Rev. John Robinson.
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Christy K Robinson, 12 generations removed from Rev. John Robinson, is the author of five-star nonfiction and fiction historical books, (click the colored title):
We Shall Be Changed (2010)
Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)
Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)
The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)
Effigy Hunter (2015)
And author of these sites:
Discovering
Love (inspiration and service)
Rooting
for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer
(17th century culture and history of England and New England)
Editornado
[ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews.
Cartoons.)
Facebook comments:
ReplyDeleteDwayne Scarbrough: What an outstanding article from a lovely blog. I had 2 great-grandfathers sign The Compact. Edward Fuller, a Pilgrim and follower of Rev. Robinson, and Edward Doty, a Stranger and indentured servant to Stephen Hopkins.
Ken Horn: My ancestor William White signed, as well as Edward Winslow, my step-ancestor who later married White's widow, Susanna. William didn't survive that harsh first winter.
My two great-grandparents who sailed with the Mayflower, one signed the Compact, John Howland, the other was Elizabeth Tilley, who married John Howland, in 1627, after both her parents had died in the early part of 1621. The are my 9th great-grandparents.
ReplyDeleteAs an Attorney, I was impressed with the content of the Compact. The very first written governing document of the one day to become the United States. As a very young child my Paternal grandmother took all the generational children to Plymouth Rock, and told us the story of the Mayflower. My paternal Great-grandmother's middle name was Lovell, use as one of the names of each of five generations. Great family pride in the heritage of the family.
ReplyDeleteMy great grandfather,Thomas Rogers, signed the Compact, sadly died in the first winter but his son Joseph who was too young to sign lived on, helped to get Duxbury founded, ran a ferry across the Jones River and drilled the militia in Nauset which became Eastham and carried our surname. God bless them all.
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