Keep The Holiday Fires Burning
The Story of The Pilgrims
Part 3: The Mayflower

While the Scrooby Separatists were determined to settle in the New World, money was an issue. Such expeditions were expensive; ships prohibitively so.

But they were not without resources. Through a friend named Sir Edwin Sandys, they were able to obtain from the Virginia Company the cash to purchase one ship, the Speedwell, and to hire another, The Mayflower. The Virginia Company also granted them a charter to settle in the Hudson Valley, which was at the northern end of the Virginia Company's holdings.

A group of Separatists set sail from Leyden for England on the Speedwell on July 31, 1620. There, they met the Mayflower and another group of Separatists. Unfortunately, the Speedwell proved to be unseaworthy and unable to make the trip to the New World.

There has been some speculation as to why the Separatists would have attempted to make the trip in the fall, rather than wait for the following spring. The simple fact of the matter was that they were running out of money. Docking fees and the expenses of living away from home were made it necesary to leave immediately.

The Scrooby Separatists decided to send only some of their number on the initial trip - perhaps sixty or seventy. The remainder of the berths on the Mayflower would be taken  by other adventurers who were known to the Separatists as "Strangers."

Left behind was the minister Robinson; instead Brewster was selected as the leader. Also joining them in Plymouth was Miles Standish, a thirty-six year old soldier who, although not a member of the congregation, was apparently in sympathy with the movement..

The Mayflower  left for the New World on September 6, 1620. The trip took 65 days, during which time William Burton, a servant of Deacon Samuel Fuller, died, and a boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born.

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Unfortunately, when they sighted land, it was not the Hudson Valley, but the coast of New England, near Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. They judged that it was too late to continue on to the Hudson Valley, but this created a legal problem because they did not have a charter to settle elsewhere. There also was a problem stemming from the lack of legal authority. Many of the "Strangers  were due to be indentured servants in the New World, and took the deviation in plans to mean that they could operate as they wished.

Further, the "Strangers  among them had no desire to submit to the authority of the more numerous Scrooby Separatists, whom they viewed as religiously suspicious.

To appease the "Strangers,  the Separatists wrote a document which now is called the Mayflower Compact, which outlined a plan of government for the group. It was signed on November 11, 1620 the day on which the Mayflower entered Cape Cod Harbor. All forty one males signed the document, including the indentured servants. John Carver was named the first governor.

It is interesting to note that the government thus drawn up was the same in form as they were authorized by the Virginia Company to institute until something permanent could be done.
Continue to Part 4