From the Speakers Report at the 2007 Meeting

MUSINGS OF A 2007 MAYFLOWER PILGRIM

The Mayflower Tour of 2007 was memorable in many ways. Such a tour has occurred only rarely, the last being some twentyfifty  years ago. In this year, 2007, we undertook our own pilgrimage to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of when the Pilgrims first set out from England.

As was the case with the original Mayflower Pilgrims, our group represented different points of view. Some were interested in the spiritual roots of the Pilgrims, and others had more secular interests. We were indeed a motley bunch. We had a pastor, a bishop, scholars, financiers, statesmen, craftsmen, merchants, scientists - a rancher, a mountaineer - mothers, fathers, daughters and sons - a poet, a bard, an actor - a few knights errant, and perhaps even a few displaced princes and princesses. And a whole busload of genealogists!

We embarked on our pilgrimage through England listening to Lee William's incomparable rendition of the opening to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Then we proceeded to witness a collage of places which represented key elements in the story of our Mayflower forbears.

To set the stage for our adventure we visited historic locations representing the political and ecclesiastical circumstances which gave the impetus for the Pilgrims to emigrate from England. The Tower of London gave some insight into the monarchs' absolute power and tyranny, with Hampton Court suggesting their opulent and decadent lifestyle. Magnificently outfitted soldiers, a stunning parade of the Queen's horse guards, and glimpses of the priceless crown jewels all served to fill in the outlines of this sketch of the British regal past.

A visit to magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral reflected the triumph of Protestantism in the center of Britannia. Afterwards we pondered a darker side to this struggle toward triumph as we discussed the many martyrs who were tortured and burned at the stake - sometimes in the shadow of this very church (or its precursor) - because they didn't conform to the reigning monarch's religious views.

Later as we visited King's College Chapel and Cambridge we were reminded that radical reform ideas were kindled and fueled here by the ideas of Erasmus and the continental reformers from the early 1500's on. Many of the early English reformers and puritans studied here at Cambridge, including our own William Brewster, who was enrolled at Peterhouse College.

The crux of our journey centered along the Great North Road running through Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Here we were immersed in the heartland of the Separatist movement. That it was religious ideas which motivated our forbears was very apparent, as it is the churches which still bear witness to this confluence of radical religious ideas and courageous people who ultimately led the way to the New World on the ship called the Mayflower.

Various regional scholars, including Joan Board and Rev. Malcolm Dolby, pastor of the Scrooby church, informed us of the histories of the churches at Babworth, Scrooby, and Austerfield. We had the rare privilege of entering the grounds of Brewster's former dwelling, which in its heyday had once been the awesome hunting palace of the bishops of York. At the end of this full day I doubt that any of us didn't feel that we had been walking on hallowed ground.

A sojourn to nearby Gainsborough Hall in Lincolnshire the following day revealed a further location where the growing group of Separatists met after being driven from Babworth and Scrooby. It was here in the medieval manor house's great hall that the Hickman family allowed the Separatists to assemble from 1603 until they departed for Holland.

As with so many forays into the past, the lifestyle of those early times remains in only incomplete sketches. That is what made our visits to the well-furnished Gainsborough Hall, and then to Shipton Hall near Droitwich so very special. Gainsborough was a treasure trove of Elizabethan and 17th century furnishings, and boasts a well outfitted kitchen.

At Shipton Hall we were able to visit an old Tudor home, filled with many original, or certainly very old furnishings, and guided by no less than the owner, whose family has lived there for four generations. These visits filled in some of the blank spaces of how our forbears lived, for many of them came from such comfortable circumstances. It became very obvious that they certainly had sacrificed much in the way of creature comforts by leaving for the unknown and primitive lands on the other side of the great sea.

There is a very sad story associated with the great house of Shipton. For it was from here that the four More children were reportedly turned out by an irate father who had learned that they were the product of his wife's infidelities. All four children were forced to make the Atlantic passage with the Mayflower, but only one survived the first winter of suffering in Plymouth Colony.

Numerous other spots connected with our Pilgrim story informed our visit. The cathedral of Southwark represents a geographical area with a strong Separatist presence, and was home to John Harvard, while St. Mary's of Rotherhithe marks the borough where the Mayflower originated, along with her captain, Christopher Jones, and her first mate, John Clarke.

Various members of the Mayflower voyage hailed from further places we visited: Droitwich was the home of Edward Winslow; Fenstanton is associated with the Howland family; and Henlow has connections with Henry Samson and with Elizabeth Tilley, wife of John Howland.

A highlight of our trip was the visit to the church at Henlow, where we honored the 400th anniversary of the baptism of Elizabeth Tilley and also dedicated a plaque commemorating Henry Samson. We celebrated this occasion with a special service with the pastor, followed by interviews by the BBC and a tea party graciously provided by parishioners.

Paralleling the flight of our pilgrim ancestors, we appropriately crossed the English Channel by boat to the Netherlands. Here we visited Pilgrim related sites in Amsterdam, Delfshaven, and Leiden. The high point was a day's tour of Leiden conducted by the great Pilgrim scholar, Dr. Jeremy Bangs. Dr. Bangs showed us the courtyard home of Pastor John Robinson and the area where numerous homes were built for the Separatist band near the university, where many pursued their studies of theology. On the side of the Peterskerk we observed the plaque commemorating Robinson, who is buried there. Our route took us past the house where John Quincy Adams lived when he was a student in Leiden. Later we touched the wall that still remains from the home where Brewster lived.

After dining at the coach house under the shadow of the castle, we toured the Pilgrim Museum, which Dr. Bangs oversees. This museum exhibits many elements from a typical home such as where our forbears would have lived in Holland. If we were brave enough to ascend a diminutive circular stairway, we were hosted in the dwelling above to tea by the current owners, who are restoring this ancient house. In the museum below, Dr. Bangs showed us a collection of original pilgrim artifacts, such as tiles from Pastor Robinson's house. A dining area in the adjacent basement displayed numerous items common in a kitchen of the time. Of particular note in the museum was an antique house jack, which Bangs explained was probably like the apparatus that was used to salvage the Mayflower's broken mast.

Under the teaching of Dr. Bangs we learned that many contemporary attempts to cast a negative light on various aspects of the Pilgrim experience are simply not well-informed, and most likely are not true. For instance, he is convinced that Dorothy Bradford's death was accidental. He also related to us how a hitherto unknown manuscript by William Brewster is apparently sequestered away in a bank lockbox somewhere in the American Midwest. We all hope that the current owners will soon make this public.

In Amsterdam we saw how the English Reformed Church is preserving the memory of the early Separatists. Here in this city of canals we visited the Rijksmuseum, and witnessed some of the artistic contributions of that great artist Rembrandt, who was born in Leiden (1606) just about the time the Pilgrims went there (1607). Thus Rembrandt's story fits in with our story, as his work portrays Dutch life contemporary with our Pilgrim forbears.

In Delfshaven Rev. Frank Williams led us in a moving service commemorating the Pilgrims as they prepared to depart for a stopover in England and then the voyage to

America aboard the Speedwell, leaving behind family and friends and homes where they had lived for more than a dozen years.

The ultimate destination of our own pilgrimage was the harbor of Plymouth back in England. Though by necessity one of the earlier stops on our journey, the visit to Plymouth was the culminating highlight of our trip. We were all moved to be in the very place where our forebears bid their last farewell to the world they knew. We assembled near the secluded garden where they held their final service of prayer to prepare for their voyage. Here, banded together in the narrow Tudor street of ancient Plymouth, we held our own prayer service in remembrance. On the steps at the harbor below we placed our own feet on the very stones where their feet last trod on English soil, and where they climbed aboard their ship of destiny, the Mayflower. From the hill above the bay we could see the route they would have taken, leaving the harbor behind, and sailing off into an unknown world.

This has been an attempt to weave together the strands of our journey into a meaningful picture. In actuality our visits occurred in a different order than presented here, and often seemed a bit disjointed due to the logistics of land transportation, and due to the English guides, who essentially gave us bits and pieces of their standard tour of Britain. I hope this rendering helps us to grasp the meaning of our own pilgrimage, and most importantly to comprehend the profound significance of that first pilgrimage of our forefathers who voyaged into the New World.

May the words of our tour guide echo throughout the ages in regards to the Pilgrims of the Mayflower: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remember………”

Bradford's words, which are cast in bronze at Pilgrim Point in Plymouth, still resonate today: "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sorte to our whole nation."

Sylvia Schmidt

Memphis, Tennessee October 27, 2007