The Mayflower leaves Southampton, England for the East Coast of America with 102 adult colonist–settler–passengers on board. The voyage is organized and controlled by a 45–man group of colonist–passenger “Separatists” (a breakaway group) from the Church of England, later to be known as the Pilgrims. The balance of the passengers are referred to as “the Strangers” (author-No good would come of that appellation).
These 45 Pilgrims had originally fled England to the Netherlands to escape religious harassment by the Church of England. They then made their way back to Southampton, England for this voyage to the Americas.
The intended destination was the Verazanno Narrows area, where contemporary Elizabeth, NJ, Staten Island, NY and Brooklyn, NY intersect.
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The settlers on board draft the “Mayflower Compact,” a document giving the Pilgrims the authority to unilaterally determine that their settlement be in nearby (but colder) Massachusetts, instead of the charter–designated Verazanno Narrows area, several hundred miles to the south (the destination strenuously preferred by “the Strangers”).
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In any event, buffeted by a brutal 65–day journey, which included a myriad of serious travails, the ship weighed anchor November 21, 1620 in what is now Provincetown, RI (just west of, and contiguous to, Massachusetts) for the New England winter. After plague engulfs the anchored vessel over the next several winter months, by the spring of 1621, only 53 of the original 102 adult presumptive settlers remain alive.
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These 53 then made their way eastward (approximately 30 miles) on the Mayflower from the Provincetown area to the Cape Cod (Massachusetts) area, to where they settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts (then Plimoth Plantation), formally leaving the Mayflower over the last 10 days of March (1621).
John Carver and William Bradford were the preeminent leaders of the small, but historic, Pilgrim group. Carver would die within the year, and Bradford would then dominate early Plymouth history through his death in 1657.
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“Plymouth Rock” in Plymouth, MA, now an iconic landmark, marks the spot of the group’s disembarkation. Presumably first stepping onto the soon-to-be-legendary large granite rock from their landing boat, the Pilgrims were presumably able to avoid getting their squared–off, and brass–buckled hi–laced Pilgrim boots wet, as they entered American history.
Plymouth was the first significant, permanent continental European settlement in the New World.
(Jamestown, Virginia [colonized in 1607] to the south, whose settlers were directly from England, and not via the Netherlands, was the first large permanent English settlement.)
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Alexis de Tocqueville wrote (in amazement) of the elevated status of the legendary (Plymouth) rock:
“It is treasured by a great nation. Its very dust is shared as a relic.”