Mayflower

Competing claims for America’s origin myths: Roanoke v. Plymouth?

Anna Ruth Scott

Bideford Town Council – Town History, the Saga of Roanoke – from 2009

‘British settlers arrived in America before Pilgrim Fathers’ – The Telegraph 7 May 2010

The town of Bideford makes a claim for a more significant role in the legends of America’s origins. The colony of Roanoke, established by Sir Walter Raleigh, was thought to have failed. Some of the colonists were believed to have joined with native Americans, and now, using DNA, there is a project to establish these links with the town from where the colonists originated. The links above describe Bideford’s claim. Presumably the contrast with the Pilgrims comes from Bideford’s proximity to Plymouth, from where the Pilgrims sailed, rather than making the contrast with the earlier settlement at Jamestown in Virginia.

Pilgrims heritage in the UK and beyond

Anna Ruth Scott

The Pilgrims as they are known in the USA travelled from their original homes in England to the Netherlands and then on to America in 1620 to settle at Plymouth in Massachusetts, forming a colony at Plimoth Plantation.

Some of the original settlers came from the area where the counties of north Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire meet in the East Midlands of England. William Bradford, the second Governor of the colony, was born in Austerfield in South Yorkshire. William Brewster, elder in Plymouth colony, lived in the Manor House at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire.

The influential preachers Richard Clyfton and John Robinson, although they themselves did not travel on the Pilgrims’s ship, the Mayflower, were also from the region. Clyfton was preacher at Babworth, until his separation with the established Church, and Robinson lived at Sturton-le-Steeple. Both men escaped to Holland with the separatist congregation and were influential leaders.

There are various sites in the region that claim a link to the Separatists that travelled on the Mayflower, and these places have been visited by and commemorated by both Americans and locals. Have you been to visit any of these Pilgrim heritage sites? What do you think about what there is to see? I’ll be posting on each place that you can visit, and really want to find out what you think about the sites and stories of Pilgrims’ origins.