by Fay Alexander | Dec 19, 2011 | Trials of the Mayflower Pilgrims
Probably the worst trial of the Mayflower’s voyage was the terrifying break in a main beam during a storm which threatened the Mayflower with foundering. The crew dragged a spare beam up from the ship’s hold and placed it under the broken beam but could not keep it in place.
In his History William Bradford says only that “for the buckling of the main beam, there was a great iron screw that the passengers brought out of Holland, which would raise the bream into his place.” Historians assumed that the screw was part of their printing press. Yet lately they suggest it was a housebuilding tool which the colonists would use to build their village in the New World.
Perhaps Bradford did not mention the “great iron screw” as part of a printing press because the activities of William Brewster, his fellow pilgrim and renegade printer in Holland, had put Brewster in jeopardy with King James. The King’s men searched for Brewster in Holland while he hid in England until the Mayflower’s departure from Southampton in 1620.
Living in poverty, the Pilgrims had to be practical. The wilderness offered unlimited building materials to anyone willing to start from scratch. If the screw was part of their printing press it might have served two purposes: one, as it had been in Holland, a means of advancing their biblical Christianity to the world, and two, in the wilderness, a tool for building houses.
One thing is for sure. Without the screw, in all likelihood, the Mayflower may never have been heard from again, lost at sea, and with it the crew and passengers. No Mayflower Compact. No Plimoth Plantation. Throughout the endless ordeals of the Pilgrims, the Hand of Providence always seemed to intervene and get them through, if even by the skin of their teeth. [Edited Nov. 22, 2021]
by Fay Alexander | Oct 22, 2011 | Pilgrim Monuments, Trials of the Mayflower Pilgrims
Susan J. Matt’s new book, Homesickness: An American History, coincides very nicely with my memory of tasting the Pilgrims’ own yearning for home even as they were on the verge of their Atlantic voyage:
Early in September of 1985 I joined a group of Mayflower descendants touring England. We visited Dartmouth on the south coast to see a monument to the American Pilgrims who were delayed at Dartmouth for repairs to their ship, the Speedwell. The weather was glorious with whispering breezes and brilliant sunshine, ideal for the late summer season. We stood by the monument at the edge of the harbor surrounded by high intensely green hills dotted with white sheep with black noses. Townspeople strolled along the walkways enjoying the gentle weather, soon to be chilled by autumn winds.
Unexpectedly, I found myself feeling a strange emotion, which seemed to be a keen appreciation of the scene, yet tinged with profound sadness. What had come over me?
I had nothing to feel sad about. The tour so far had been an adventure, including my brief separation from my group at Windsor Castle before I was “found” by my anxious busload of fellow tourists. I had no word for this disturbing emotion.
Then as I stood absorbing this tranquil scene, the word “nostalgia” stole into my mind. Not being English, I could not account for that word. I was an American tourist enjoying the tranquil English landscape and its charming natives, not someone visiting familiar ground from the past.
Then gradually the significance of the word dawned on me. I was feeling the deep nostalgia the Pilgrims felt as they lingered at Dartmouth before crossing the vast Atlantic to a terrifying new world. The Pilgrims had always yearned to return to their homeland. To preserve their English heritage, they had chosen to accept help from English adventurers rather than generous Dutch sponsors who offered them more favorable terms. Now while they awaited still more repairs to their ship, they were touched by these incandescent days at home just as they must leave it forever. For they had no illusions about returning to England. To cross three thousand miles of ocean to a stark wilderness at the beginning of winter offered little hope of return to the homeland they loved.
This was a gift to me, to feel so keenly the emotions these colonists suffered. Later, while writing One Candle’s Light I recalled this poignant, piercing emotion vividly. It was a prophetic insight to the courageous mission these pilgrims undertook in obedience to their God.
by Fay Alexander | Apr 26, 2011 | Leiden, Trials of the Mayflower Pilgrims
In the spring of the year 1610, 401 years ago, the congregation of Englishmen from Scrooby left Amsterdam to take up residence at Leiden after a contentious few months with the Ancient Brethren. It was a heart-wrenching move to leave the Brethren who had helped them survive in Holland, but the Scrooby people feared that constant bickering among the Brethren would poison their own risky venture before it had been firmly established.
Their pastor, Richard Clyfton, did not make the move to Leiden, believing that the Brethren were sincerely trying to follow their faith. John Robinson and William Brewster became Pastor and Elder of the Scrooby congregation facing a difficult adjustment for English yeomen (farmers) to an urban society speaking a strange language. How would these countrymen fare in a culture so different from their own?
by Fay Alexander | Apr 17, 2011 | Geneva Bible, Separation of chuch and state
The Pilgrims of Plimoth Plantation believed in the Christian faith as it was presented in the Calvinist Geneva Bible. They found no mention in this Bible of doctrines of the Church of England in their Book of Common Prayer, or the hierarchy of priests, deacons, bishops, and liturgical rituals. If the official Church/State had respected their Biblical version of Christianity, they would gladly have stayed within the Church fold, but the Church forbade any “gatherings” outside prescribed Church services and imprisoned or executed “heretics” who did not follow Church teachings. These restrictions forced “separatists,” like the Pilgrims, to practice their Biblical faith in secret or to try to leave the country, which was also illegal.
These Pilgrims established the concept of separation of church and state in America. As other European settlers arrived bringing their versions of Christianity with them, they were free to practice their faiths without persecution. This heritage prevails in modern America which allows other religions unknown to American colonists. Some clashes occur today, e.g. the controversy over the building of a mosque in New York City near the Trade Center site. This issue will probably be settled on legal grounds rather than by any restriction of Islamic religious practice.
New Pilgrim Histories Published
Another definitive history by Nick Bunker, Making Haste from Babylon, was published in 2010. Had either Bangs’ Strangers, or Bunker’s Babylon been available before my One Candle’s Light was published in late 2009, I would have had a wealth of new historical fact to draw upon. Instead I used the personal accounts of William Bradford in his Of Plymouth Plantation, Edward Winslow in Good Newes from New England, and Phineas Pratt’s account of his escape from Wessagussett, all contemporary versions of the Pilgrims’ story.
by Fay Alexander | Feb 21, 2011 | Author's Research, Author's Welcome, English Reformation, Jeremy Bangs, Leiden, Pilgrim Monuments
Fay’s First Blog
I welcome all readers interested in the American Pilgrims and their determined quest for freedom from government thought control.
My book, One Candle’s Light, (Oaktara, 2009) is a historical novel beginning with William Brewster’s coming-of–age around 1578 in rural England and continuing through the community’s home at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts in 1622.
I made three trips to England to research the Pilgrims’ individual stories and the gathering of their community. At key sites in England American groups have erected monuments to memorialize these Englishmen and their determined effort to seek freedom instead of power. Some of the buildings the Pilgrims used are still standing, notably Scrooby Manor and Babworth Church. The English are famous for preserving sturdy buildings and their historical significance.
From the point of view of Americans, the most significant contribution the Pilgrims made to American history was that they were part of the English Reformation of the Christian church which swept Europe and England in the 16th Century. The Pilgrims therefore became known as the “Pilgrim Fathers” celebrated at Plimoth Plantation as the first permanent family settlement in America.
For readers interested in authentic details of the Pilgrims’ quest I recommend Jeremy Bangs’ definitive work, Strangers and Pilgrims: Traveler and Sojourners, published in 2009. It is an exhaustive history and bibliography of the Pilgrims’ story.
Fay Alexander, author – One Candle’s Light
