The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — CompleteAmes, Azel
History
The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Complete
Ames, Azel
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691; Mayflower (Ship); Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)
Elder William Brewster and his family, his wife and two boys, were
passengers on the SPEEDWELL, beyond reasonable doubt. He was, in
fact, the ranking man of the Leyden brethren till they reached
Southampton and the respective ships’ “governors” were chosen. The
Church to that point was dominant. (The Elder’s two “bound-boys,”
being from London, do not appear as SPEEDWELL passengers.) There is,
on careful study, no warrant to be found for the remarkable
statements of Goodwin (“Pilgrim Republic,” p. 33), that, during the
hunt for Brewster in Holland in 1619, by the emissaries of James I.
of England (in the endeavor to apprehend and punish him for printing
and publishing certain religious works alleged to be seditious),
“William Brewster was in London . . . and there he remained until
the sailing of the MAYFLOWER, which he helped to fit out;” and that
during that time “he visited Scrooby.” That he had no hand whatever
in fitting out the MAYFLOWER is certain, and the Scrooby statement
equally lacks foundation. Professor Arber, who is certainly a
better authority upon the “hidden press” of the Separatists in
Holland, and the official correspondence relating to its proprietors
and their movements, says (“The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers,”
p.196): “The Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Church was, for more than a
year before he left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL, on the 22 July-
1 August, 1620, a hunted man.” Again (p. 334), he says: “Here let
us consider the excellent management and strategy of this Exodus.
If the Pilgrims had gone to London to embark for America, many, if
not most of them, would have been put in prison [and this is the
opinion of a British historian, knowing the temper of those times,
especially William Brewster.] So only those embarked in London
against whom the Bishops could take no action.” We can understand,
in light, why Carver--a more objectionable person than Cushman to
the prelates, because of his office in the Separatist Church--was
chiefly employed out of their sight, at Southampton, etc., while the
diplomatic and urbane Cushman did effective work at London, under
the Bishops’ eyes. It is not improbable that the personal
friendship of Sir Robert Naunton (Principal Secretary of State to
King James) for Sir Edward Sandys and the Leyden brethren (though
officially seemingly active under his masters’ orders in pushing Sir
Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, to an
unrelenting search for Brewster) may have been of material aid to
the Pilgrims in gaining their departure unmolested. The only basis
known for the positive expression of Goodwin resides in the
suggestions of several letters’ of Sir Dudley Carleton to Sir Robert
Naunton, during the quest for Brewster; the later seeming clearly to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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