"There were two boats that left England that day, and the ordained minister, Reverend Robinson, was on the other one, the Fortune, which sprang a leak and had to turn back, and the Mayflower had to go on by itself." Elder William got away just in time. "There was a price on his head for heresy, and the king's men were conducting an international manhunt for him."
"They had to promise to work together and pool their resources for the good of the group. That promise lasted only a year, after it became obvious that some people were working harder than others. That, plus that there were 3,000 miles of open land to the west that they could claim, was the impetus for people to disavow the Mayflower Compact and set out on their own."
"The voyage lasted a hundred days. "It was awful. They were running out of water. They were supposed to land in Virginia and start farming to pay back the investors who had put up the money for the two boats and wanted a return on their investment. Very little is known about whether it was paid back."
William Brewster served as the Pilgrims' Elder, guiding spiritual and temporal matters during the early years at Plymouth. He acted in a ministerial role without ordination and fled England to avoid heresy prosecution. The Mayflower voyage lasted about a hundred days under harsh conditions, with shortages of water and an intended landing in Virginia to repay investors. Upon arrival, many signed the Mayflower Compact to cooperate and pool resources, but the compact held only about a year as settlers struck out individually, motivated by unequal effort and thousands of miles of claimable western land. A descendant later visited Brewster's Nottinghamshire origins.
Read at The Mercury News
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