MAYFLOWER 400 Commemorating

400 YEARS OF THE MAYFLOWER

September 2020 represents 400 years since the Mayflower departed Britain for America, and here in Lincolnshire, that deserves recognition...

Words: Rob Davis.

I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED that history is not about the past. It’s about the future. We simply glance back at the past to shape the coming years.

September sees the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims leaving Britain for the New World. It’s believed that there are now 35 million descendants of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew, making the anniversary first and foremost an issue of being able to trace the heritage of a significant number of people.

Secondly, themes of religious tolerance and the necessity of defending freedom and democracy are no less relevant today.

Thirdly as we move towards a truly completely globalised society, a historic illustration of how immigration and the impacts around the integration of two disparate cultures, is something we should continue to learn from 400 years later.

The importance and the contemporary relevance of the famous voyage will be commemorated in 2020 thanks to a special partnership, Mayflower 400, of which Mark Howell is the Director of Communications.

“Mayflower 400 is a partnership of 14 UK destinations which recognises the impact of the Mayflower’s journey and colonisation on Native American communities and addresses themes of migration, tolerance, freedom and democracy that have such contemporary relevance, as well as the long-standing relationship between the UK and the US.”

As well as partnering with Lincolnshire towns such as Boston, Immingham, Gainsborough and Nottinghamshire’s Scrooby, Plymouth, Southampton and eight other UK destinations, Mayflower 400 is also working with Leiden in the Netherlands and the United States of America and the Wampanoag Nation.

The programme will now continue into 2021 as a result of the current pandemic

and see community, creative, educational and capital investment which aims to bring communities together, boost the creative, cultural and tourism sectors and reflect a more accurate story around the history of this journey than has been the case with previous commemorations.

Nearly 130 years after Columbus discovered the Americas, both Spain and Portugal had already established colonies there. 1606 saw King James I grant charters to the Plymouth Company and London Company to establish permanent settlements in the region. This was reorganised as the Plymouth Council for New England following corruption, with a New England Charter of 1629.

Following the English Reformation around a century earlier, a group of religious separatists remained unhappy with the English church and sought escape from Boston to Holland. Betrayed by the captain of their chartered ship, they were all imprisoned in the town’s Guildhall.

Finally freed, they made a second attempt to flee persecution and this time departed from Immingham alongside separatists from Scrooby in Nottinghamshire led by William Brewster and a group from Gainsborough who would worship in secret at the town’s Old Hall under John Smyth. The group departed Lincolnshire and arrived in Leiden, Holland, remaining there for 12 years.

“Leiden was a city of free-thinkers, relative religious tolerance, and a long tradition of offering shelter to the dispossessed,” says Mark.

“Many worked in the textile industry and similar trades – but it was hard work and a challenging life. Eventually the time in a foreign land took its toll and the group started to plan a journey to start again.”

From 1617 they planned to leave and eventually settled on Virginia in America. This area of America was an attractive destination because several colonies had already settled there. However, they also felt that they should not settle too near to them and end up with a similar environment to which they originally fled.”

The Separatists worked with their counterparts in England to fund and organise the journey – which had to make commercial sense. They negotiated with merchants in London and convinced them that funding their journey would see a return on investment thanks to the goods they would be able to send back to England. They also needed permission to land in Virginia and establish a colony.

A ship called the Speedwell would carry the Leiden group to America while another ship called the Mayflower was hired to take passengers who weren’t necessarily travelling for religious, but rather, commercial reasons.

Speedwell set sail from Holland on 22nd July 1620 for a rendezvous with Mayflower prior to the two vessels travelling across the Atlantic via Southampton. On 15th August, just off the coast of Southampton, the Speedwell vessel developed a leak and needed to be repaired in Dartmouth.

The second attempt at leaving England saw the ships 300 miles from Land’s End before Speedwell once again proved she was

THE PILGRIMS’ JOURNEY The Timeline...

1533: King Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony following his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, breaking away from the Catholic Church and beginning The English Reformation. Autumn 1607: Unhappy with the English church, a group of religious separatists plan to defy the authority of the church and escape from Boston, Lincolnshire, for Holland but are caught in the attempt and held and tried at Boston Guildhall. Spring 1608: The Scrooby Separatists finally manage to escape from Immingham Creek, Immingham, Lincolnshire. August 1608: The group arrives in Leiden, where they live for 12 years.

1st August 1620: After making an agreement with the Virginia Company to travel to the New World and create a new community, the Leiden Separatists set sail in the Speedwell for England to meet the Mayflower. August 1620: The Separatists who remained in England board the Mayflower ship in Southwark, London including Captain Christopher Jones and his crew. August 1620: The Mayflower arrives in Southampton, later joined by the Speedwell. It is thought this is where John Alden, a merchant, and William Brewster boarded the ship. 15th August 1620: The Mayflower and Speedwell depart Southampton, planning to sail to Virginia. 23rd August 1620: The two ships arrive in Dartmouth after the Speedwell begins to take on water. August 1620: The Speedwell continues to take on water so both ships turn back to Plymouth. 16th September 1620: The Mayflower departs Plymouth alone, after the Speedwell is deemed unfit for travel, with up to 30 crew and 102 passengers on board. 19th November 1620: The Pilgrims sight the tip of Cape Cod. 21st November 1620: Mayflower Compact is signed upon arrival in Provincetown or ‘Cape Harbour.’ 26th December 1620: After 66 days at sea, the Mayflower finally arrives in what is today, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

NB: In 1620 the Mayflower set sail from the New World. The official anniversary date used by the Mayflower 400 partners to mark the 400th anniversary is 16th September 2020. Some recognise the anniversary on the 6th September which was the date in the Julian calendar used by the Pilgrims. The Julian calendar is around 10 days behind the Gregorian calendar that we use today.

deemed not seaworthy. The vessels returned to Plymouth. The 30-strong crew and 102 passengers had already spent six weeks at sea and were already supposed to be in America. Finally the group left Plymouth in 1620 in the Mayflower and arrived 66 days later after enduring winter storms and seasickness.

In early November 1620 the group reached Cape Cod and spent a month exploring the region, trying to decide where to settle. The group was unaware that it was near the Native American Wampanoag people’s settlement of Patuxet.

The group’s smaller vessel - its shallop - was dismantled during the voyage and had been damaged upon reassembly, hindering exploration of the area in and round Provincetown, Duxbury, Plymouth and Nausett.

The natives were cautious of the newcomers and having already agreed upon The Mayflower Compact - a realpolitik - among themselves, the Mayflower passengers had to make peace with the native Wampanoag and Pokanokets, without whose help they would have struggled to survive.

The travellers settled in the area between Duxbury and Plymouth, an area known today as the Plymouth Rock landing. Construction of new homes were Recreating completed in January 1621 and by spring, Mayflower

A recreation of the Mayflower was completed in 1956. The original ship was a Dutch cargo fluyt and was 110ft long, had four decks and was owned by Christopher Jones.

Top: Visitors at Immingham Museum. Above: Scrooby Manor was home to William Brewster, one of the Pilgrims who journeyed on the Mayflower to New England.

Left: Plymouth Plantation is a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1947. It attempts to replicate the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English colonists who became known as the Pilgrims.

William Bradford followed John Carver as the settlement’s governor, with the Pilgrims signing a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe in March 1621.

By October that year the settlers would hold their first Thanksgiving feast to celebrate a successful first harvest thanks to the help of the Wampanoag.

‘Boston: The Pilgrims and the Thread to America’ is a new exhibition being hosted by town’s Guildhall when it reopens, and will run into 2021, whilst Gainsborough’s Old Hall and Immingham Museum & Heritage Centre both have displays detailing the towns’ respective role in the story of the Pilgrims.

n More information about Mayflower 400 celebrations post-Covid-19 can be found at www.mayflower400uk.org.

The Pilgrim Fathers’ LOCAL LEGACY

n Scrooby, Nottinghamshire: The leading religious Separatists (who later became known as ‘Pilgrims’) were originally from the Bassetlaw area of Nottinghamshire, where their beliefs were shaped. The group were seen as dangerous religious outlaws and so they were forced to worship in secret. Among them was William Brewster who was brought up in Scrooby and later became the leader of the colonists’ community.

n Boston: One night in the autumn of 1607, a determined group of men, women and children secretly met a boat on the edge of ‘The Wash’ at Scotia Creek, Fishtoft, near Boston. They planned to defy the authority of the English church and escape across the North Sea to Holland to live in religious freedom. The group were betrayed and stripped of their belongings and hope, they were brought by boat to Boston and held and tried at the Guildhall, home to the local law court and cells.

n Gainsborough: Some of the Separatists are thought to have worshipped clandestinely at Gainsborough Old Hall with the permission of its owner, merchant William Hickman; they later escaped to Holland from the town’s riverside. The Hall is regarded as one of the best-preserved medieval manor houses in Britain. Their preacher, John Smyth, was a strong influence on the Mayflower Pilgrims and is considered to have been a founder of the Baptist denomination.

n Immingham: The year following the trial of the Scrooby congregation at Boston’s Guildhall, the Pilgrims made another attempt to escape, securing the services of a Dutch boat which set sail from Immingham Creek. Near to St Andrew’s Church is a memorial to those who made the journey, organised by the Anglo-American Society.