Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England, founded in 1620, and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on the Mayflower at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of what is now the southeastern portion of Massachusetts; it was approximately coterminous with the combined territories of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol Counties, all of which were originally established by the General Court of the Plymouth Colony. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock.
Plymouth Colony was founded by a group of Protestant Separatists initially known as the Brownist Emigration, who came to be known as the Pilgrims. The colony established a treaty with Wampanoag chief Massasoit which helped to ensure its success; in this, they were aided by Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe. Plymouth played a central role in King Philip's War (1675–1678), one of several Indian Wars. The colony was ultimately merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories in 1691 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Despite the colony's relatively short independent existence, Plymouth holds a special role in American history. The social and legal systems of the colony became closely tied to their religious beliefs, as well as to English custom.
Plymouth Colony was founded by a group of Brownists (a sect of English Protestant dissenters) who came to be known as the Pilgrims. The core group (roughly 40 percent of the adults and 56 percent of the family groupings) were part of a congregation led in America by William Bradford and William Brewster. They began to feel the pressures of religious persecution by the Church of England while still in the English village of Scrooby, near East Retford, Nottinghamshire. In 1607, Archbishop Tobias Matthew raided homes and imprisoned several members of the congregation. The congregation left England in 1608 and moved to the Netherlands, settling first in Amsterdam and then in Leiden.
In Leiden, the congregation gained the freedom to worship as they chose, but Dutch society was foreign to them. Scrooby had been an agricultural community, whereas Leiden was a thriving industrial center, and they found the pace of life difficult. The community remained close-knit, but their children began adopting the Dutch language and customs, and some also entered the Dutch Army. They were also still harassed by the English Crown: English authorities came to Leiden to arrest William Brewster in 1618 after he published sharp criticism of the King of England and the Anglican Church. Brewster escaped arrest, but the events spurred the congregation to move farther from England.
The congregation obtained a land patent from the Plymouth Company in June 1619. They had declined the opportunity to settle south of Cape Cod in New Netherland because of their desire to avoid Dutch influence. The Plymouth land patent allowed them to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River. They obtained financial backing through the Merchant Adventurers, a group of businessmen who sought to profit from the colony once the Pilgrims began working to repay their debts.
With the funds secured from the Merchant Adventurers, the Colonists bought provisions and obtained passage on the Mayflower and the Speedwell. They had intended to leave early in 1620, but they were delayed several months by complications with the Merchant Adventurers, including several changes in plans for the voyage and financing. The congregation and the other colonists finally boarded the Speedwell in July 1620 in the Dutch port of Delfshaven.
Speedwell was re-rigged with larger masts before leaving Holland and setting out to meet Mayflower in Southampton, England, around the end of July 1620. The Mayflower was purchased in London. The original captains were Captain Reynolds for Speedwell and Captain Christopher Jones for Mayflower. Other passengers joined the group in Southampton, including William Brewster, who had been in hiding for the better part of a year, and a group known to the Leiden congregation as "The Strangers", extra workers and staff largely recruited by the Merchant Adventurers. The term was also used for many of the indentured servants who paid for their passage by binding themselves to a period of service.
Among the Strangers were Myles Standish, who was the colony's military leader; Christopher Martin, who had been designated by the Merchant Adventurers to act as shipboard governor during the trans-Atlantic trip; and Stephen Hopkins, a veteran of a failed colonial venture that may have inspired William Shakespeare's The Tempest. The group who later became the Leiden Leaders after the merging of ships included John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, and Isaac Allerton.
The departure of the Mayflower and Speedwell was beset by delays, including further disagreements with the Merchant Adventurers. A total of 120 passengers finally departed on August 5: 90 on the Mayflower and 30 on the Speedwell. Leaving Southampton, the Speedwell took on significant leakage, which required the ships to immediately put in at Dartmouth. The leakage was partly caused by being overmasted and pressed with too much sail. Repairs were completed, and a further delay ensued as they awaited favorable winds. The two ships finally set sail on August 23; they traveled only 200 miles (320 km) beyond Land's End before another major leak in the Speedwell forced the expedition to return again to England, this time to the port of Plymouth. The Speedwell was found to be unseaworthy; some passengers abandoned their attempt to emigrate, while others joined the Mayflower, overcrowding the already heavily burdened ship. Later, it was speculated that the crew of the Speedwell had intentionally sabotaged the ship to avoid having to make the treacherous trans-Atlantic voyage. The delays had significant consequences; the cost of repairs and port fees required that the colonists sell some of their vital provisions. More importantly, the late-autumn voyage meant that everyone had to spend the coming winter on board the Mayflower off Cape Cod in increasingly squalid conditions.
The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620, with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members in the 106 feet (32 m) long ship. The seas were not severe during the first month on the Atlantic, but in the second month the ship was badly shaken by strong north-Atlantic winter gales, causing leaks from structural damage. There were many hardships and dangers throughout the trip, including seasickness and the bending and cracking of a main beam of the ship. One death occurred, that of William Button.
After two months at sea, they sighted land on November 9, 1620, off the coast of Cape Cod. They attempted to sail south to the designated landing site at the mouth of the Hudson but ran into trouble at Pollock Rip, a shallow area of shoals between Cape Cod and Nantucket Island. With winter approaching and provisions running dangerously low, the passengers decided to return north to Cape Cod Bay and abandon their original landing plans.
Prior exploration and settlements
The Pilgrims were not the first Europeans in the area. John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland in 1497 had laid the foundation for the extensive English claims over the east coast of America. Cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi made one of the earliest maps of New England c. 1540, but he erroneously identified Cape Breton with the Narragansett Bay and completely omitted most of the New England coast. European fishermen had also been plying the waters off the New England coast for much of the 16th and 17th centuries.