88 FOUNDING OF DORCHESTER, MASS. 



In connection with this Puritan (or Separatist) movement, 

 definite and combined action may be traced as early as 1607. 

 when William Brewster, a gentleman of good social position, 

 organized a Church of Puritans at the little village of Scrooby 

 in Nottinghamshire, where " on the Lord's Day he entertained 

 the members with great love " in the Manor House. William 

 Bradford of the near-by village, Austerhelcl, who became 

 afterwards Governor of Plymouth (Mass.), was closely allied 

 with Brewster in this movement. In the following year, 1608, 

 being threatened with imprisonment (for the Act of 1593 made 

 Puritanism an offence against the Statute law), they and their 

 friends left England for Amsterdam, under the leadership of 

 Rev. John Robinson, removing to Leyden in Holland in 1609. 



Not wishing to lose their English nationality, \vhich must 

 have been the case had they remained in Holland, they once 

 more started on their travels, sailing to Southampton in the 

 Speedwell, August, 1620. Here they found other Puritan 

 Pilgrims waiting for them in the Mayflower with the object of 

 crossing the Atlantic, and founding new Colonies in a new 

 land, with freedom of laws and religion w r hich they could not 

 hope for at home. 



The Mayflower and Speedwell started down channel in 

 company, but after delays at Dartmouth and Plymouth, 

 Speedwell was finally abandoned, some of her passengers 

 being taken on board Mayflower, which little vessel of 180 

 tons, with 102 passengers, left Plymouth on 6th September, 

 and after a dangerous voyage reached Provincetown, Cape 

 Cod Harbour, on 21st November, and New Plymouth, 21st 

 December, (N.S.) 1620. 



Although, up to this time, Dorset had made no important 

 contribution to the How of settlers into the New Country, 

 there can be no doubt that the movement was coming 

 more and more under the influence of the Rev. John 

 White, Rector of S. Peter's and Holy Trinity, 16061648, 

 " Patriarch of Dorchester, 1 ' known later as " Father of the 

 Massachusetts Colony." Born at Stanton St. John in Oxford- 

 shire in 1575, he was educated at Winchester and New College, 



