U3A Warsop History Group

Meeting held Tuesday 16 th July 2019 in St Teresa’s Church Hall, Warsop at 10:15am

Guest Speaker; Maggy Watkins “The Pilgrim Fathers” Next year is a very important year as it is the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower to America and five of the Puritan leaders came from this area. Maggy was going to take the talk on a tour of the towns and villages and the people that played their part in the Pilgrim Fathers story.

From Nottinghamshire to America At the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1542 the Commissioners for the Crown looted all their treasures and the King, Henry VIII, confiscated all monastery land. He either kept the land for himself or sold it off and kept the monies for the Crown. In this area that would mean the lands at Welbeck, Worksop, Blythe, Rufford and Newstead plus all the smaller Priories. This led to many rich Puritan families moving in by buying up the land. This is why this area became such a strong Puritan and dissenting area.

The Puritans believed in a “pure” religion. They believed that the r eformation of the Church under Elizabeth I was incomplete and sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship. They believed that the Church of England was corrupt and that real Christians must separate from it and they also believed in the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. They did not believe in the “Devine Right of Kings”! All of this led them to be in conflict with the Crown and they began to be hounded and persecuted, being fined for not attending church and denied a living if a puritan clergyman. In 1606 Tobias Matthew was appointed Archbishop of York. He was one of King James's chief supporters and he promptly began a campaign to purge the archdiocese of non-conforming influences, both Puritans and those wishing to return to the Catholic faith. Disobedient clergy were replaced, and prominent Separatists were confronted, fined, and imprisoned. He is credited with driving people out of the country that refused to attend Anglican services.

The Pilgrims moved to the Netherlands around 1607/08. They lived in Leiden, Holland, the success of the congregation in Leiden was mixed. Leiden was a thriving industrial centre and many members were able to support themselves working at Leiden University or in the textile, printing, and brewing trades. Others were less able to bring in sufficient income, hampered by their rural backgrounds and the language barrier. The Netherlands, however, was a land whose culture and language were strange and difficult for the English congregation to understand or learn. They found the Dutch morals much too libertine, and their children were becoming more and more Dutch as the years passed. The congregation came to believe that they faced eventual extinction if they remained there.

By 1617 many members of the congregation were showing signs of early aging, a few had spent their savings and so gave up and returned to England, and the leaders feared that more would follow and that the congregation would become unsustainable. Younger members had begun leaving to find employment and adventure elsewhere. It was important for the people to retain their English identity, culture, and language. The decision was made to move to America. There were many uncertainties about moving to such a place as America, as stories had come back about failed colonies. There were fears that the native people would be violent, that there would be no source of food or water, that they might be exposed to unknown diseases, and that travel by sea was always hazardous.

In order to move to America it was necessary to get permission from the English Crown. This was in the form of a contract between the Crown and the Pilgrims which also involved outside investors who had a right to claim some of the land that the Pilgrims settled. It took several attempts and over three years before an agreement was reached to settle land in the Hudson River area (New York).

With personal and business matters agreed upon, the Puritans procured supplies and a small ship, the 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 1577 at sixty tons, and was part of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada. It departed Delfshaven in July 1620 with the Leiden colonists. It reached Southampton, Hampshire and met with the Mayflower and the additional colonists hired by the investors. With final arrangements made, the two vessels set out on August 15. 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. Of the 120 combined passengers, 102 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. The reduced party finally sailed successfully on September 16 1620. Initially the trip went smoothly, but under way they were met with strong winds and storms, which was to blow them off course. One storm 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.

Land was sighted on November 9, 1620. The passengers had endured miserable conditions for about 65 days. It was confirmed that the area was Cape Cod within the New England territory. 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. They decided to turn around, and the ship was anchored in Provincetown Harbour by November 11/12. The Pilgrims had reached their destination.

The Mayflower Compact Because the Pilgrims had not landed in the area agreed with the Crown and their investors they believed that that contract between them was null and void. 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 organized them into what was called a " civill body politick ," in which issues would be decided by voting, the key ingredient of democracy. It was ratified by majority rule, with 41 adult male Pilgrims signing for the 102 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. At this time, John Carver was chosen as the colony's first governor. 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.

Prominent Places and Puritans of Nottinghamshire Scrooby Scrooby Manor House was home to William Brewster and some of the separatists attended St Wilfred’s Church before they decided to break away from the establish traditions and Church law. William Brewster was one of the most influential Pilgrims, held secret meetings at his house and he accompanied the Pilgrims over to Holland and America. As elder and religious leader of the Pilgrims, he is credited as holding the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

Sturton le Steeple Is the birthplace of John Robinson , he was born in the village in 1576. In 1604 he married Bridget White also from the village. John Robinson became the leader of the separatists during their time in Holland. He died in 1625 never making the voyage to America. He did prove an important source of advice through letters sent to the colonists. The village also has connections to other separatists including John Smyth and Katherine White (sister of Bridget) who married John Carver .

Gainsborough Gainsborough Old Hall owned by William and Rose Hickman were ardent Puritans and sympathetic to the beliefs of the separatists, they allowed the group to worship in secret at the Old Hall and supported them financially.

Another prominent puritan family was the Wray family of Glentworth near Gainsborough. Isabel and Francis Wray (sisters), paid for people to go to Cambridge University which was a hotbed of radical dissent. At this time to be a vicar you needed a degree and this is the reason the Wray family paid for a lot of people to go through this route, and the reason why there are such a lot of puritan churches in 30 miles radius of Retford. A tomb to the Wray family can be found in Glentworth Church.

Clarborough Edward Southworth and his brother Thomas were baptised in the church at Clarborough, both were almost certainly members of John Robinson’s Separatist Church in Leiden. One of their sisters married William Bradford of Austerfield.

Babworth Church Richard Clyfton became vicar of Marnham in 1585 then moved to All Saints Church Babworth in 1586. He was deprived of his living in 1604 for his nonconformists’ views. William Brewster and William Bradford worshipped here until the Separatist Church was formed at Scrooby in 1606 when they and Clyfton moved there. Bradford was also a passenger on the Mayflower. Clyfton moved to Amsterdam in 1608 and died there in 1616.

Worksop A prominent Worksop Anglican Clergyman was Richard Bernard (1568-1641) He lost his job over his dissent in Worksop on 15 March 1605, but then returned to his parish post in Worksop in 1607. When he was at Worksop he associated with well-known Puritans William Brewster (1567–1644), a passenger on the Mayflower, and John Robinson (1575–1625), who organised the Mayflower voyage. His daughter Mary married Roger Williams in 1629. Roger and Mary Williams immigrated to the New World in 1631 where they were co-founders of the state of Rhode Island and they also founded the first Baptist Church in America.

Austerfield William Bradford was born in Austerfield in 1590. He was orphaned at an early age and by the age of 12 he was attending Richard Clyfton’s preaching’s at Babworth. He later joined the congregation at Scrooby and became good friends with William Brewster.

At the end of Maggy’s talk the meeting showed their appreciation with a sustained round of applause.