history
continued ...
William Hickman allowed John Smyth, an outcast preacher
from the city of Lincoln, the freedom to preach in his Puritan
views at Gainsborough Old Hall from 1600-1602. Under severe
religious persecution during the reign of King James, John
Smyth had a congregation of seventy people meeting secretly
at Gainsborough Hall. The Gainsborough Separatists decided
to leave England and unable to emigrate legally, John Smyth
and about forty of his followers slipped away to Amsterdam
where they joined the "Ancient Brethren", some 300 other
exiled English Separatists.
After a couple of false starts in the ship Speedwell in
Amsterdam and Leyden in Denmark and Southampton and Dartmouth
in England, the Pilgrims (as they were now called) hired
the ship Mayflower and set off from Plymouth on September
6, 1620. They came ashore at Plymouth Rock on the December
26, 1620 where they spent their first harsh winter.
To the settlers' amazement, an Indian named Squanto, who
had been kidnapped and taken to Europe, returning with Captain
John Smith in 1614, helped the Pilgrims survive that first
year. The Pilgrims marked their first year in the New World
in November 1621, celebrating the first Thanksgiving. The
memory of those first few intrepid Mayflower passengers
is rooted deeply in British and American hearts and minds,
and the founders of New Plymouth will always be remembered
with respect and empathy on both sides of the Atlantic.
