by Nan C Avery

Created on: October 29, 2009

Pilgrims deserve their name. They went on different pilgrimages from voluntary exile to Holland and then to the New World.

They had renounced Anglicans and the "perceived" corruption of the Anglican Church. They were originally from Scrooby, England - a small community about 160 miles north of London. They had formed their own separatist congregations and when state authorities appointed by King James I, began to harass them, they left for Holland in 1607. They lived in Holland for about ten years and a sense of not belonging and feeling alien made them decide to make their pilgrimage to the new world. At that time, a charter was required from trading companies approved by the Crown plus they needed money to get started in the New World "plantations". They needed money to pay for the voyage and to keep the settlement from failing during its infancy.

The Pilgrims finally made a deal with Thomas Weston, an ironmonger with a group of London merchants called "Adventurers. The terms of the deal sounded great from the silver-tongued Weston. He told them that he was sympathetic to their religion. He originally proposed that the Pilgrims would be able to raise great profits from cod fishing as well as fur trading. The Pilgrims would each be given a share in the company. They would work four days a week for the company (which they supposedly had an interest in) and two days would be for them. Most of them had sold their homes and unneeded possessions to get ready for the voyage. Thinking he could take advantage of the Pilgrims so close to leaving, Weston came to them and told them that, unfortunately, things had changed and now he had to change the original deal. They would no longer have a part in the company. The pilgrims had to give all the days to the company and their houses and possessions would belong to the adventurers at the end of seven years. The Pilgrims wouldn't agree and Weston tore up the agreement. The Pilgrims were left without money and support for the trip. Pilgrim Robert Cushman (who had originally agreed to the new Weston deal without discussing it with anyone) and their deacon John Carver were able to negotiate with London a Patent to own land.

At this point, the pilgrims had sold their homes and farming implements. They had no choice but to go to the New World. With so little money, the pilgrims had to sell off some of their supplies, including two tons of butter. As a result, they didn't have enough provisions to last a year. The provisions they were able to take were hardtack (hard biscuits made out of dough and usually riddled, after a few months at sea, with cockroaches and other vermin), beer, wine, salted beef and pork, dried peas, fishing supplies, muskets, armor clothing, tools, trade goods for the Indians and a screw jack (which was used on the Mayflower when one of the main beams in the midship became bowed and cracked and a carpenter was able to use the jack screw raise the beam and support it with a a post).

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