The romantic story of the Mayflower pilgrims, and its place in the life of to-dayAddison, A. C. (Albert Christopher)
History
The romantic story of the Mayflower pilgrims, and its place in the life of to-day
Addison, A. C. (Albert Christopher)
Mayflower (Ship); Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)
Seven of the principal men, treated as ring-leaders, were kept in prison
and bound over to the assizes. Apparently nothing further was done with
them. Brewster is said to have been the chief sufferer both in person
and pocket. He had eluded a warrant by leaving for Boston, and we know
this was in September, because on the fifteenth of that month the
messenger charged to apprehend Brewster and another man, one Richard
Jackson of Scrooby, certified to the Ecclesiastical Court at York "that
he cannot find them, nor understand where they are." On the thirtieth of
September also the first payment is recorded to Brewster's successor as
postmaster at Scrooby.
How the imprisoned Separatists fared, there is nothing to show. No
assize record exists. The Privy Council Register, which could have
thrown light on the matter, was destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1618;
and the Boston Corporation records, which doubtless contained some entry
on the subject that would have been of the greatest interest now, are
also disappointing, as the leaves for the period, the first of a volume,
have disappeared.
Eventually the prisoners were all liberated. That dreary wait of many
weeks was a weariness of the spirit and of the flesh. Patiently they
bore the separation, and by and by they met to make more plans. Next
spring they agreed with another Dutchman to take them on board at a
lonely point on the northern coast of Lincolnshire, between Grimsby and
Hull, "where was a large common, a good way distant from any town." This
spot has been located as Immingham, the site of the new Grimsby docks.
The women, with the children and their goods, came to the Humber by boat
down the Trent from Gainsborough; the men travelled forty miles across
country from Scrooby. Both parties got to the rendezvous before the
ship, and the boat was run into a creek. This was unfortunate, as when
the captain came on the scene next morning the boat was high and dry,
left on the mud by the fallen tide, and there was nothing for it but to
wait for high water at midday.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Bocklehurst, Gainsborough_
TRENTSIDE, GAINSBOROUGH]
Meanwhile the Dutchman set about taking the men on board in the ship's
skiff, but when one boatload had been embarked he saw to his dismay, out
on the hills in hot pursuit, "a great company, both horse and foot, with
bills and guns and other weapons," for "the country was raised to take
them." So the laconic historian says, "he swore his country's
oath--Sacramente," and heaving up his anchor sailed straight away with
the people he had got. Their feelings may be imagined; and their plight
was aggravated by a violent storm, which drove them out of their course
and tossed them about for a fortnight, until even the sailors gave up
hope and abandoned themselves to despair. But the ship reached port,
at last, and all were saved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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