by Rod Gragg
A seventeenth-century Dutch baker removes a loaf from the oven. In Holland, family members of the English Separatists worked as bakers, chandlers, woodcutters, weavers, wool-carders, ribbon-makers, cobblers, leather-workers, laborers, and in other occupations.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
Secondly, they saw that though the people generally bore these difficulties very cheerfully, and with resolute courage, being in the best strength of their years; yet old age began to steal on many of them, and their great and continual labors, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before their time; so that it was not only probable, but certain, that in a few more years they would be in danger of scattering by the necessities pressing upon them. Therefore, according to the divine proverb that a wise man sees the plague when it cometh, and hides himself (Proverbs 22:3); they, like skillful and hardened soldiers, were wary of being surrounded by their enemies, so that they could neither fight nor flee, and thought it wiser to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found.
“[They] began to apprehend present dangers and to scan the future”
Thirdly, as necessity was a task-master over them, so they themselves were forced to be, not only over their servants, but in a sort over their dearest children; which not a little wounded the hearts of many a loving father and mother, and produced many sad and sorrowful effects. Many of their children, who were of the best disposition and who had learned to bear the yoke in their youth and were willing to bear part of their parents’ burden, were often so oppressed with their labors, that though their minds were free and willing, their bodies bowed under the weight and became decrepit in early youth—the vigor of nature being consumed in the very bud, as it were.
But still more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of the children, influenced by these conditions, and the great licentiousness of the young people of the country, and the many temptations of the city, were led by evil example into dangerous courses, getting the reins off their necks and leaving their parents. Some became soldiers, others embarked upon voyages by sea and others upon worse courses tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of the parents and the dishonor of God. So they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and become corrupt.5
Over time, the English Separatists in Holland began to assimilate into the surrounding Dutch culture. Parents became increasingly concerned that their children would become more Dutch than English.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
Should they leave Holland? That’s the question some of the Separatists in Holland began seriously asking themselves by the year 1617. For many of them, life in Holland continued to be difficult. Some feared their children might spend their childhood in child labor. Or lose their English identity. Or even lose their faith to what they saw as Holland’s worldly ways. That year a theological dispute among professors at the University of Leiden escalated into street riots, and rising tension related to the dispute threatened to make Holland’s religious melting pot boil out of control.
Seeing their children forced to take difficult jobs at an early age deeply concerned many Separatists in Holland. Eventually, many began to believe that they could find better lives for their families outside Holland.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
In 1617, a theological dispute among faculty members at the University of Leiden escalated into street riots, adding a new, troubling dimension to life in Leiden for the Separatists.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
“Their bodies . . . became decrepit in early youth”
Meanwhile, as the peace treaty between Holland and Spain neared an end, rumors of renewed warfare began to circulate. The Separatists knew that if Catholic Spain invaded and reoccupied Holland, they and their families could be killed the same way that tens of thousands of other Protestants had been executed by Catholic rulers in Spain, France, and Portugal a century before. So Pastor Robinson and church leaders began to seriously consider making another move. But if they left Holland, where could they go?6
The Separatists were well aware that tens of thousands of Protestants had been massacred by Catholic troops during fighting in Holland years earlier. As the peace treaty between Holland and Spain neared expiration, many of the Separatists began to fear that Spain would again invade Holland.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
CHAPTER FIVE
“They Knew They Were Pilgrims”
Why not go to America?
That’s the question that Pastor Robinson and members of the Separatist church at Leiden had begun seriously asking in 1617. By then, the reasons for considering a move from Holland were well-established—the low-paying jobs and difficult lifestyle, the concerns about their children succumbing to worldly ways or losing their English identity, worries about rising religious tensions in Holland, fears of possible invasion and persecution by Spain, along with the foundational Separatist desire to share the Gospel. But where would they go this time? By 1619, a consensus emerged: Why not go to America?1
There were other options. The Leiden Separatists still enjoyed the favor of their Dutch neighbors. “These English have lived amongst us now these twelve years,” Leiden authorities noted, “and yet we have never had any suit or accusation come against them. . . .” At one point Dutch contacts offered the opportunity of relocating to the colony of New Netherland, which Dutch investors were attempting to establish in the area of modern-day New York City. After some initial interest, Robinson and the other church leaders abandoned the idea, along with a proposal to help settle a Dutch colony in South America. They also considered moving elsewhere in Holland, but there they would still be raising their families in Dutch culture, and as foreigners, they believed, they would never be fully accepted in Holland.
America seemed the wisest choice. Why not go to the new English colony in Virginia? It had been established at Jamestown in 1607, and would prove to be the first successful English colony in North America. Its early days had been desperate, as its ill-prepared colonists struggled in the American wilderness, nearly starving to death and reportedly even resorting to cannibalism at one point. By 1619, however, the Virginia colony had twelve years of survival behind it, and had somewhat stabilized. Even so, Robinson and the congregation’s leaders rejected that destination too, fearing that there they would again come under the iron rule of the Church of England.
Faced with a hardscrabble lifestyle, challenges to their values, and the threat of a possible Spanish invasion, Pastor Robinson’s Separatist congregation began to consider leaving Holland. But where could they go?
STORIES OF THE PILGRIMS
But what if they were granted their own colony far away from Jamestown, perhaps in northern Virginia? And what if they were allowed self-government and full freedom to worship according to their consciences? With this vision in mind, a member of the congregation would report, “the Lord was solemnly sought in the congregation by fasting and prayer to direct us. . . .” Church members afterward felt led to cobble together the funds to send Robert Cushman and John Carver, two of their trusted deacons, on a mission to London. There they would discuss the proposal with the principals of the Virginia Company, the joint stock corporation that had established Jamestown, and which held a royal charter to establish colonies in America. Although known largely for its Jamestown Colony, the Virginia Company actually had been granted territory that stretched from the Cape Fear River in modern North Carolina to Long Island Sound in what would become New York. In London, Cushman and Carver received a favorable response. One of the Virginia Company’s chief principals, Sir Edwin Sandys, was a devout Christian who was sympathetic to the Separatists—plus the company sorely needed colonists for its New World ventures. Even so, the proposed Separatist colony would be required to have the approval of King James I, who was no friend of Separatists.
In wilderness America, English colonists had established a surviving colony at
Jamestown in Virginia despite deadly hardship. Holland’s Separatists considered relocating there.
THE LEADING FACTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Pastor Robinson and church leaders drafted a carefully worded letter to Virginia Company officials, which was designed to reassure them that the congregation was worthy of support despite the controversy associated with the Separatist movement. It was a masterpiece of diplomacy. In it, they acknowledged King James as the “Supreme Governor in his Dominion” and that he had the right to govern “civilly according to the laws of the land.” However, on the principal and controversial Separatist doctrine that the king did not have biblical authority to oversee their congregation or anyone’s personal faith, they remained silent.
To seek God’s direction about their future, Pastor Robinson and his Leiden congregation held a solemn assembly. Afterward, the congregation voted to examine the option of establishing a colony in America.
RIJKSMUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM
In another letter to Edwin Sandys and other officials of the Virginia Company, Pastor Robinson and Elder Brewster stated the reasons why the Leiden Separatists believed they could succeed in the New World.
“We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us”
Right Worshipful,
Our humble duties, with grateful acknowledgment of your singular love, especially shown in your earnest endeavor for our good in this weighty business about Virginia. We have set down our request in writing, subscribed as you wished by the majority of the congregation and have sent it to the Council of the Virginia Company by our agent, John Carver, a deacon of our Church, whom a gentleman of our congregation accompanies.
We need not urge you to any more tender care of us, since, under God, above all persons and things in the world, we rely upon you, expecting the care of your love, the counsel of your wisdom, and the countenance of your authority. Notwithstanding, for your encouragement in the work we will mention these inducements to our enterprise:
1. We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us, unto Whom and Whose service we have given ourselves in many trials; and that He will graciously prosper our endeavors according to the simplicity of our hearts therein.
2. We are well weaned from the delicate milk of our mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange and hard land, which yet in a great part we have by patience overcome.
3. The people are, for the body of them, industrious and frugal, we think we may safely say, as any company of people in the world.
4. We are knit together in a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves straightly tied to all care of each other’s good, and of the whole by everyone, and so mutually.
5. Lastly, it is not with us as with other men whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves home again. We know our entertainment in England and Holland; we shall much prejudice both our arts and means by removal; if we should be driven to return, we should not hope to recover our present helps and comforts, neither indeed look ever for ourselves to attain unto the like in any other place during our lives, which are now drawing towards their periods.
Pastor Robinson and other church leaders contacted officials of the Virginia Company, which had backed establishment of the Jamestown settlement. One of the company’s founders, Sir Edwin Sandys, was sympathetic to the Separatists and their plight.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
These motives we have been bold to put to you, and, as you think well, to any other of our friends of the Council. We will not be further troublesome, but with our humble duties to your Worship, and to any other of our well-willers of the Council, we take our leaves, committing you to the guidance of the Almighty. Yours much bounden in all duty,
“It is not with us as with other men whom small things can discourage”
John Robinson
William Brewster
Leyden, Dec. 15th, 16172
“We Resolved to Hire a Ship”
The Leiden Separatists Decide to Go to America
Pastor Robinson and his congregation faced a daunting task: they had to receive royal permission to establish a colony in America, obtain an official patent from the Virginia Company, acquire funding for the expedition and settlement, and receive assurances from the king and the Church that they would be allowed religious freedom in America. All of that had to transpire before they could even set sail. Initially, all seemed to go well. Influenced no doubt by the sympathetic Edwin Sandys, the principals of the Virginia Company appeared enthusiastic, and even King James initially seemed agreeable to the idea of a Separatist colony in North America. He was petitioned by an influential member of the Virginia Company, who assured his royal highness that the colony would provide revenue from offshore fishing. “So God have my soul, ’tis an honest trade,” the king reportedly proclaimed, “’twas the apostles’ own calling!”
Then the grand proposal began to unravel. Officials in the Church of England were unenthusiastic, and the king stopped short of openly granting the Separatists freedom of religion in America. The best he would promise was that he would “not molest them, if they carried themselves peaceably.” The king’s limited support for the proposed colony unsettled the officers of the Virginia Company, who were also unexpectedly distracted by internal issues. In the spring of 1619, they finally granted a patent for a colony “in the most northern parts of Virginia” at the mouth of the Hudson River near modern New York City—but the would-be colonists still needed to raise their funding. Meanwhile, news reached them of a deadly disaster that had befallen another group of Separatists while they were sailing for Virginia. Their overcrowded ship was blown off course and lost its way, the ship’s drinking water ran out, and the “bloody flux”—severe dysentery—killed two-thirds of the 180 passengers. Faced with such discouragement, many of the Leiden Separatists gave up on relocating. It appeared to be the death of the vision.
King James agreed not to block the Separatists from establishing a colony in America—especially when he was assured they could produce a profit from fishing. “So God have my soul, ’tis an honest trade,” he reportedly announced, “’twas the apostles’ own calling!”
DOMESTIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Robinson, Brewster, and others remained determined, however, and their determination increased when a sixty-three-year-old church member was inadvertently injured in religion-fueled street fighting. Then, in 1620, an English businessman appeared in Leiden, introduced himself to church leaders, and offered to raise the capital needed to underwrite the colony. His name was Thomas Weston. He was a forty-three-year-old London hardware merchant-turned-exporter who had somehow learned of the Separatists’ plans—and came to make them an extraordinary offer. He was a principal in a London investment group, he explained, and his firm—the Merchant Adventurers—could also provide a patent for a colony near the mouth of the Hudson River. He and his backers would pay for the necessary trans-Atlantic ship, its crew, provisions for the voyage, and whatever was necessary until the colonists were established. In return, they would work four days a week for the company, producing profits by offshore fishing and fur trapping, and be allowed to work two days for themselves—with no work on the Sabbath. At the end of seven years, their land and houses would become their private property.
Robert Cushman, sent back to England by the Leiden congregation, roamed crowded English docks, looking for a ship and crew to transport his fellow Separatists to America.
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“We resolved to hire a ship”
They enthusiastically accepted Weston’s offer, and signed a contract. Some, including William Bradford, promptly sold their homes and began making preparations for the voyage to America. Next, they planned to hire two ships—one in Holland, one in England—to transport them to America. Then they discovered that Thomas Weston could not back up his bold talk. Apparently he had hoped to ob
tain a profitable fishing monopoly for the colony. When unable to do so, he insisted on changing the terms, requiring the colonists to work six days a week for the company, which—at the end of seven years—would also keep half their homes and property. Robinson and the other church leaders declared the new requirements to be “fitter for thieves and bondservants rather than honest men,” and instructed their deacon-turned-business-agent, Robert Cushman, who was still in London, to refuse the new terms.
Cushman was a middle-aged English grocer who had come to Holland with his wife and son in 1609, and had joined Pastor Robinson’s church. As with other Separatists, life in Holland had not been easy for him. His wife had died, and—although he had been a man of some means in England—he had been forced to work as a wool-comber in Holland. He had become a lay leader in the church, had remarried, and had agreed to serve as the Leiden congregation’s business agent back in London—a difficult job complicated by long-distance communications. Instead of rejecting Weston’s revised offer, for instance, Cushman had pledged the congregation to accept it, fearing that the proposed colonization would otherwise collapse.
Back in Leiden, church leaders were dismayed by the news and were also frustrated to learn that Weston had failed to hire a ship and crew in England as promised. Again, for some, it was the death of the vision. In Leiden and Amsterdam, some of those planning to go to America changed their minds, leaving those who remained committed short of both numbers and money. They forged ahead anyway, searching for a ship and crew they could hire in Holland to help transport them to America. To replace the Separatists who had backed out of the voyage, Weston and the Merchant Adventurers recruited other passengers in England. Most of the new recruits were motivated by the opportunities of a new life in a new land, rather than a desire for greater religious freedom. Perhaps due to this difference, or simply because they were generally unknown to them, the Leiden Separatists came to refer to the new recruits as “Strangers.”