Next Saturday, I give my George Washington talk to the local chapter of the Society of Mayflower Descendants at the Albany Country Club. The chapter, called a Colony, is always on the lookout for first-rate speakers and, finding none for their fall meeting, they invited me. If you love history as I do, being in a roomful of people who count the Pilgrims as direct ancestors will be an extraordinary experience. The Separatists were so named because they wanted to separate from the Church of England and did not come to Plymouth in the New World direct from England. In a very real sense they came from Holland, where they’d fled persecution from English authorities - For these & other reasons they removed to Leyden, a fair & bewtifull citie, and of a sweete situation, but made more famous by ye universitie wherwith it is adorned, in which of late had been so many learned man. But wanting that traffike by sea which Amerstdam injoyes, it was not so beneficiall for their outward means of living & estats. The Mayflower did, of course, set sail from Plymouth, England, on September 20, 1620, and what made the Separatists different is why they’re of interest.
© 2024 John Oliver
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