Bassetlaw, Pilgrim Fathers Country
The beginnings of religious Separatism are closely connected with Babworth, where Richard Clyfton was rector between 1586 and 1605. Separatists believed that the Church of England, which replaced Roman Catholicism as the established church in 1558, was still too similar with its liturgy, ceremonies and powerful bishops. They wanted the freedom to hold simple acts of worship.
The local Pilgrim movement began under Clyfton, as people came to join in his simple services which consisted of bible readings, a sermon and prayers not taken from the authorised prayer book. Other nonconformists were also meeting openly in parish churches throughout central and eastern England. These meetings annoyed the bishops, whose authority and orders were being ignored and the church courts would occasionally demand fines.
In April 1603, the nonconformists presented a petition to King James I asking for the freedom to worship God as they wished.
This led to the Hampton Court Conference where the King's response was "I will
make
them conform or I will harry them out of the land". As a direct result new laws were made banning private religious meetings and insisting that everyone went to communion at least three times a year. Separatists were now liable to severe punishments for breaking church law and meetings had to be held in secret.
Clyfton was accused before the Chancery Court of being a 'nonconformist and non-subscriber'. His 'offences' were not wearing a cap and surplice during religious ceremonies, not using the sign of the Cross in baptism and refusing to bow at the name of Jesus. He was removed from his living at Babworth in April 1605.
William Brewster lived in the village of Scrooby. In 1580 he went to Cambridge University where he became friendly with students who were studying the bible and discussing religious freedom.
On the death of his father he returned to Scrooby, living in the Manor House and becoming bailiff to the Archbishop of York's estates. He was greatly influenced by the sermons of Richard Clyfton at Babworth, and John Smyth who was the pastor of another Separatist group at Gainsborough. When Clyfton was deprived of his living he went to live with Brewster. Clyfton was the first pastor and Brewster the presiding elder of the Separatist congregation at Scrooby in 1606.
John Robinson, of Sturton le Steeple, another Cambridge graduate, joined the company as teacher.
Another member of the Scrooby Congregation was William Bradford. He was baptised in 1590, two miles to the north of Scrooby in the village of Austerfield.
After 18 months of meeting at Scrooby, the group began to think seriously of fleeing to Holland, where they had heard there was "freedom of religion for all men".
Although it was a difficult decision, the majority decided that there was no alternative but to leave England. The first attempt was in the winter of 1607-8 when they went to Boston to join a ship bound for Holland. However, at the last moment the captain betrayed them to the local authorities. They were arrested and their leaders were held in Boston, but later freed.
A second attempt was made in the spring of 1608. This time the party split up. The women sailed in small boats to a deserted point on the south of the Humber, while the men travelled on foot. Disaster struck again. The boats containing the women ran aground on the mud and they were captured. The men sailed to Holland on a Dutch vessel, leaving them behind. The women were hustled from one magistrate to another before finally being allowed to rejoin the men.
In Amsterdam the Scrooby Pilgrims were welcomed by members of the Gainsborough community led by John Smyth who had arrived in 1607. However, John Robinson decided that his group should seek independence in the Dutch city of Leiden. Richard Clyfton remained in Amsterdam, where he died in 1616.
The Scrooby group arrived in Leiden in the spring of 1609. Robinson and Brewster lectured at the university while the others worked at various trades.
While they were there the political climate changed, forcing the Pilgrims to consider moving again. The treaty with Spain was due to end in 1621, which meant that soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition could enter Holland at any time, threatening religious freedom. The Pilgrims also wished to keep their English identity.
In 1617 the Separatists sent two of their leaders, Robert Cushman and John Carver of Doncaster, to London to ask the Virginia Company and King James for permission to set up a religious colony near the existing settlement of Jamestown in America.
Assured of financial support from a group of London merchants, Cushman and Carver agreed to set up their colony within the territories assigned to the Plymouth Virginia Company. The financial terms were very hard. The partnership with the Merchant Adventurers would last for seven years, during which time the Pilgrims were to work every day of the week to pay back the loan. At the end of the seven years, houses, land and goods would be equally divided between settlers and merchants.
The original plan was for two ships to make the Atlantic crossing. The Speedwell (owned by the Leiden group) would carry the Separatists and remain with them, while the Mayflower (chartered by the Merchant Adventurers) would take merchants to set up trade links in the New World and return with goods. The Leiden group, which formed the minority, was led by William Brewster. It was intended that those remaining with John Robinson would follow later.
The tiny Speedwell left Delftshaven in Holland on 21st July 1620 taking the Pilgrims on the first leg of their voyage. A few days later they anchored at Southampton where the Mayflower was lying ready with the rest of the company. On 6th August the two ships set sail but the Speedwell started to leak badly and both vessels put into Dartmouth. On 23rd August the Pilgrims sailed again. Four days later, in open sea beyond Land's End, the Speedwell began to leak again.
Once more both ships returned, this time to Plymouth. After lengthy discussions the two captains decided that the Speedwell was unfit for the voyage. So 54 Separatists joined the merchants on the Mayflower, leaving the rest behind.
On 6th September the journey started once again. The epic voyage had finally begun, with 102 passengers crammed into the overloaded Mayflower. It was a long and difficult crossing with many storms, but on 9th November land was sighted.
An initial excursion to search for wood and water was quickly followed by a second party to explore the coastline. On 15th November sixteen armed men, led by Captain Myles Standish, set out to find a river beside which they could build their settlement. One month later they found an abandoned Indian site with a deep, sheltered harbour. This was the place named Plimoth by the Plymouth Adventurers some years before. The Pilgrims decided to settle there.
William Bradford wrote
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed ye God of Heaven, who had brought them over ye vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles and miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull"
Of the 103 passengers, only 41 survived their first year in America.
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