Contents:
Wayne County's Lost River Settlements. They Say the Wind Is Red. Sons of the Republic of Texas. Drinnons of Mulberry Gap. Iosco County Historical Society. Gone, but Not Forgotten. Malvine Lucille Bise Zollars. Clarksville and Red River County. Red River County Historical Society. North Ogden Historical Museum.
A Way West, R. McAlister Family History and Genealogy. Gallia County, Ohio Bicentennial. Gallia County Historical Society. Mary Beth Dunhaupt Figgins. The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, Montgomery County Historical Society. Genealogy and the Law in Canada. Editors of Family Tree Magazine. The Land Before Fort Knox. My Family and Other Strangers. The Family of John and Elizabeth Akin.
Tracing Your Servant Ancestors. Tracing Your Ancestors' Parish Records.
Blue Earth County, Minnesota. Blue Earth County Historical Society. Natchez Area Family History Book. The Complete Book of Emigrants, The Soward and Tipsword Families in America: Rebels, Natives, Hunters and Settlers. Pioneer Families of Colonial America: The truce was faltering in the Eighty Years' War , and there was fear over what the attitudes of Spain might be toward them.
Candidate destinations included Guiana on the northeast coast of South America where the Dutch had established Essequibo colony, or another site near the Virginia settlements. Virginia was an attractive destination because the presence of the older colony might offer better security and trade opportunities; however, they also felt that they should not settle too near, since that might inadvertently duplicate the political environment back in England.
The London Company administered a territory of considerable size in the region. The intended settlement location was at the mouth of the Hudson River which became the Dutch colony of New Netherland. This plan allayed their concerns of social, political, and religious conflicts, but still promised the military and economic benefits of being close to an established colony. Robert Cushman and John Carver were sent to England to solicit a land patent.
Preparations stalled because of the continued problems within the London Company. Competing Dutch companies approached the congregation and discussed with them the possibility of settling in the Hudson River area. Slade was also a spy for the English Ambassador. The Puritans' plans were therefore known both at court and among influential investors in the Virginia Company's colony at Jamestown. The first Dutch settlers did not arrive in the area until Weston did come with a substantial change, telling the Leiden group that parties in England had obtained a land grant north of the existing Virginia territory to be called New England.
This was only partially true; the new grant did come to pass, but not until late in when the Plymouth Council for New England received its charter. It was expected that this area could be fished profitably, and it was not under the control of the existing Virginia government. A second change was known only to parties in England who chose not to inform the larger group. New investors had been brought into the venture who wanted the terms altered so that, at the end of the seven-year contract, half of the settled land and property would revert to the investors.
Also, there had been a provision which allowed each settler to have two days per week to work on personal business, but this provision had been dropped from the agreement without the knowledge of the Puritans. Amid these negotiations, William Brewster found himself involved with religious unrest emerging in Scotland. In , King James had promulgated the Five Articles of Perth which were seen in Scotland as an attempt to encroach on their Presbyterian tradition.
Pamphlets critical of this law were published by Brewster and smuggled into Scotland by April These pamphlets were traced back to Leiden, and a failed attempt to apprehend Brewster was made in July when his presence in England became known. Also in July in Leiden, English ambassador Dudley Carleton became aware of the situation and began leaning on the Dutch government to extradite Brewster. An arrest was made in September, but only Thomas Brewer the financier was in custody. Brewster's whereabouts remain unknown between then and the colonists' departure.
Brewster's type was seized. After several months of delay, Brewer was sent to England for questioning, where he stonewalled government officials until well into One resulting concession that England did obtain from the Netherlands was a restriction on the press, making such publications illegal to produce.
Thomas Brewer was ultimately convicted in England for his continued religious publication activities and sentenced in to a fourteen-year prison term. Not all of the congregation were able to depart on the first trip. Many members were not able to settle their affairs within the time constraints, and the budget was limited for travel and supplies. It was decided that the initial settlement should be undertaken primarily by younger and stronger members.
The remainder agreed to follow if and when they could. Robinson would remain in Leiden with the larger portion of the congregation, and Brewster was to lead the American congregation. The church in America would be run independently, but it was agreed that membership would automatically be granted in either congregation to members who moved between the continents. With personal and business matters agreed upon, supplies and a small ship were procured. Speedwell was to bring some passengers from the Netherlands to England, then on to America where it would be kept for the fishing business, with a crew hired for support services during the first year.
The larger ship Mayflower was leased for transport and exploration services. The Speedwell was originally named Swiftsure. It was built in at sixty tons, and was part of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada. It departed Delfshaven in July with the Leiden colonists, after a canal ride from Leyden of about seven hours. Soon thereafter, the Speedwell crew reported that their ship was taking in water, so both were diverted to Dartmouth, Devon. There it was inspected for leaks and sealed, but a second attempt to depart also failed, bringing them only as far as Plymouth , Devon.
It was decided that Speedwell was untrustworthy, and it was sold; the ship's master and some of the crew transferred to the Mayflower for the trip. William Bradford observed that the Speedwell seemed "overmasted", thus putting a strain on the hull; and he attributed her leaking to crew members who had deliberately caused it, allowing them to abandon their year-long commitments. Passenger Robert Cushman wrote that the leaking was caused by a loose board.
Of the combined passengers, were chosen to travel on the Mayflower with the supplies consolidated. Of these, about half had come by way of Leiden, and about 28 of the adults were members of the congregation. Initially the trip went smoothly, but under way they were met with strong winds and storms. One of these caused a main beam to crack, and the possibility was considered of turning back, even though they were more than halfway to their destination.
However, they repaired the ship sufficiently to continue using a "great iron screw" brought along by the colonists probably a jack to be used for either house construction or a cider press. One crew member and one passenger died before they reached land. A child was born at sea and named Oceanus. Land was sighted on November 9, The passengers had endured miserable conditions for about 65 days, and they were led by William Brewster in Psalm as a prayer of thanksgiving.
An attempt was made to sail the ship around the cape towards the Hudson River , also within the New England grant area, but they encountered shoals and difficult currents around Cape Malabar the old French name for Monomoy Island.
Some of the passengers, aware of the situation, suggested that they were free to do as they chose upon landing, without a patent in place, and to ignore the contract with the investors. A brief contract was drafted to address this issue, later known as the Mayflower Compact , promising cooperation among the settlers "for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. It was ratified by majority rule , with 41 adult male Pilgrims signing [39] for the passengers 73 males and 29 females. Included in the company were 19 male servants and three female servants, along with some sailors and craftsmen hired for short-term service to the colony.
It was Carver who had chartered the Mayflower and his is the first signature on the Mayflower Compact, being the most respected and affluent member of the group. The Mayflower Compact was the seed of American democracy and has been called the world's first written constitution. Thorough exploration of the area was delayed for more than two weeks because the shallop or pinnace a smaller sailing vessel which they brought had been partially dismantled to fit aboard the Mayflower and was further damaged in transit.
Small parties, however, waded to the beach to fetch firewood and attend to long-deferred personal hygiene.
Exploratory parties were undertaken while awaiting the shallop, led by Myles Standish an English soldier whom the colonists had met while in Leiden and Christopher Jones. They encountered an old European-built house and iron kettle, left behind by some ship's crew, and a few recently cultivated fields, showing corn stubble. They came upon an artificial mound near the dunes which they partially uncovered and found to be an Indian grave.
Farther along, a similar mound was found, more recently made, and they discovered that some of the burial mounds also contained corn. The colonists took some of the corn, intending to use it as seed for planting, while they reburied the rest. William Bradford later recorded in his book Of Plymouth Plantation that, after the shallop had been repaired,. They also found two of the Indian's houses covered with mats, and some of their implements in them; but the people had run away and could not be seen.
Without permission they took more corn, and beans of various colours. These they brought away, intending to give them full satisfaction payment when they should meet with any of them, — as about six months afterwards they did. And it is to be noted as a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that they thus got seed to plant corn the next year, or they might have starved; for they had none, nor any likelihood of getting any, till too late for the planting season. By December, most of the passengers and crew had become ill, coughing violently.
Many were also suffering from the effects of scurvy. There had already been ice and snowfall, hampering exploration efforts; half of them died during the first winter. The shallop party headed south along the cape, consisting of seven colonists from Leiden, three from London, and seven crew; they chose to land at the area inhabited by the Nauset people the area around Brewster , Chatham , Eastham , Harwich , and Orleans where they saw some people on the shore who fled when they approached.
Inland they found more mounds, one containing acorns, which they exhumed and left, and more graves, which they decided not to dig. They remained ashore overnight and heard cries near the encampment. The following morning, they were attacked by Indians who shot at them with arrows. The colonists retrieved their firearms and shot back, then chased them into the woods but did not find them. There was no more contact with Indians for several months. The local Indians were already familiar with the English, who had intermittently visited the area for fishing and trade before Mayflower arrived.
In the Cape Cod area, relations were poor following a visit several years earlier by Thomas Hunt. Hunt kidnapped 20 people from Patuxet the site of Plymouth Colony and another seven from Nausett, and he attempted to sell them as slaves in Europe. One of the Patuxet abductees was Squanto , who became an ally of the Plymouth Colony. The Pokanokets also lived nearby and had developed a particular dislike for the English after one group came in, captured numerous people, and shot them aboard their ship. By this time, there had already been reciprocal killings at Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod.
But during one of the captures by the English, Squanto escaped to England and there became a Christian. When he came back, he found that most of his tribe had died from plague. Continuing westward, the shallop's mast and rudder were broken by storms and the sail was lost.
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They rowed for safety, encountering the harbor formed by Duxbury and Plymouth barrier beaches and stumbling on land in the darkness. They remained at this spot for two days to recuperate and repair equipment. They named it Clark's Island for a Mayflower mate who first set foot on it. The anniversary of this survey is observed in Massachusetts as Forefathers' Day and is traditionally associated with the Plymouth Rock landing tradition.
This land was especially suited to winter building because it had already been cleared, and the tall hills provided a good defensive position.
The cleared village was known as Patuxet to the Wampanoag people and was abandoned about three years earlier following a plague that killed all of its residents. The "Indian fever" involved hemorrhaging [48] and is assumed to have been fulminating smallpox. The outbreak had been severe enough that the colonists discovered unburied skeletons in the dwellings. Supplies were brought ashore, and the settlement was mostly complete by early February.
When the first house was finished, it immediately became a hospital for the ill Pilgrims. Thirty-one of the company were dead by the end of February, with deaths still rising. Coles Hill became the first cemetery, on a prominence above the beach, and the graves were allowed to overgrow with grass for fear that the Indians would discover how weakened the settlement had actually become.
Between the landing and March, only 47 colonists had survived the diseases that they contracted on the ship. In this time, half the Mayflower crew also died.