The Mayflower story

The Pilgrim Fathers arrived at what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts on 11 November 1620. They were not the first European settlers of America, nor even the first British people to attempt to settle there. However, their lengthy journey across the Atlantic, their survival against the odds, and the way in which they conducted themselves inspired a nation.

They founded the first permanent colony in New England, which they named Plymouth after their final point of departure from England, some 66 days previously. Yet it was not until two centuries later that they began to be known as the Pilgrim Fathers after an American politician, Daniel Webster, used the phrase for the first time.

Who were they?

The people who decided to cross an ocean to the new land of America were a mixed group. There were men, women, children, and three female passengers were pregnant. Some brought their servants with them and even their dogs. Many were Puritans, a Christian community whose religious views differed from the Church of England at a time when non-Anglican worship was illegal in this country. A community of English Puritans had settled in Holland, where there was religious tolerance, and it was they who chartered two ships for a and . Once the ships had been arranged, they discovered that there were not enough Puritans willing to fill all the available berths, so the opportunity was offered to others outside the faith who wished to emigrate. As a result, many non-Puritans accompanied them on their voyage to the New World.