Azel Ames

“ No reliable description of the pinnace herself is known to exist, and but few facts concerning her have been gleaned. That she was fairly "roomy" for a small number of passengers, and had decent accommodations, is inferable from the fact that so many as thirty were assigned to her at Southampton, for the Atlantic voyage (while the MAY-FLOWER, three times her tonnage, but of greater proportionate capacity, had but ninety) , as also from the fact that "the chief [i.e. principal people] of them that came from Leyden went in this ship, to give Master Reynolds content." ”

“ No new and relevant item of fact discovered, however trivial in itself, has failed of mention, if it might serve to correct, to better interpret, or to amplify the scanty though priceless records left us, of conditions, circumstances, and events which have meant so much to the world. ”

“ Among the passengers, however, were some who, like Thomas Blossom and his son, William Ring, and others, abandoned the voyage to America at Plymouth, and returned in the pinnace to London and thence went back to Holland. Deducting from the passenger list of the MAYFLOWER those known to have been of the English contingent, with Robert Cushman and family, and John Carver, we have a very close approximate to the SPEEDWELL'S company on her "departure from Delfshaven." It has not been found possible to determine with absolute certainty the correct relation of a few persons. ”

“ Such errors have so great and rapidly extending power for harm, and, when built upon, so certainly bring the superstructure tumbling to the ground, that the competent and careful workman can render no better service than to point out and correct them wherever found, undeterred by the association of great names, or the consciousness of his own liability to blunder. ”

“ John Tilley (who is also sometimes called Master) is reputed a brother of Edward, and is known to have been—as also his wife—of the Leyden church (Bradford, Deane's ed. p. 83.) His second wife Bridget Van der Velde, was evidently of Holland blood, and their marriage is recorded in Leyden. Elizabeth Tilley was clearly a daughter by an earlier wife. He is said by Goodwin ("Pilgrim Republic," p. 32) to have been a "silk worker" Leyden, but earlier authority for this occupation is not found.
John Crackstone is of record as of the Leyden congregation. ”

“ Both servants might possibly have been procured from London or at Southampton, but probably sailed from Delfshaven with Winslow in the SPEEDWELL.
Elder William Brewster and his family, his wife and two boys, were passengers on the SPEEDWELL, beyond reasonable doubt. He was, in fact, the ranking man of the Leyden brethren till they reached Southampton and the respective ships' "governors" were chosen. The Church to that point was dominant. (The Elder's two "bound-boys," being from London, do not appear as SPEEDWELL passengers.) ”

“ It is true that new facts and items of information which have been coming to light, in long neglected or newly discovered documents, etc., are correctives of earlier and natural misconceptions, and a certain percentage of error is inevitable, but many radical and reckless errors have been made in Pilgrim history which due study and care must have prevented. ”

“ It is not impossible, but it does not necessarily follow, and certain known facts indicate the contrary.
Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in "The Pilgrims' Life in Common," says: "Carver, Winslow, Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Fuller, and Allerton. were the persons of largest means in the Leyden group of the emigrants. It seems as if their quota of subscription to the common stock were paid in 'provisions' for the voyage and the colony, and that by 'provisions' is meant such articles of food as could be best bought in Holland." The good Doctor is clearly in error, in the above. ”

“ Davis, in his "Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth," makes a singular error for so competent a writer, when he says: "The agents of the company in England had hired the SPEEDWELL, of sixty tons, and sent her to Delfthaven, to convey the colonists to Southampton." In this, however, he but follows Mather and the "Modern Universal History," though both are notably unreliable; but he lacks their excuse, for they were without his access to Bradford's "Historie." That the consort-pinnace was neither "hired" nor "sent to Delfthaven" duly appears. ”

“ But neither Weston, Martin, Carver, nor Cushman seems to have been directly concerned in the purchase of the SPEEDWELL. The most probable conjecture concerning it is, that in furtherance of the purpose of the Leyden leaders, stated by Bradford, that there should be a small vessel for their service in fishing, traffic, etc., wherever they might plant the colony, they were permitted by the Adventurers to purchase the SPEEDWELL for that service, and as a consort, "on general account." ”

“ The cruel indictment fails, and the imaginary "turning point in modern history," to announce which Professor Arber seems to have sacrificed so much, falls with it.
The Rev. Dr. Griffis ("The Pilgrims in their Three Homes," p. 158) seems to give ear to Professor Arber's untenable allegations as to the Pilgrim leaders' responsibility for any error made in the "overmasting" of the SPEEDWELL, although he destroys his case by saying of the "overmasting:" "Whether it was done in England or Holland is not certain." ”

“ The second-named partner (the Planter body) was to furnish the men, women, and children,—the colonists themselves, and their best endeavors, essential to the enterprise,—and such further contributions of money or provisions, on an agreed basis, as might be practicable for them. At the expiration of the seven years, all properties of every kind were to be divided into two equal parts, of which the Adventurers were to take one and the Planters the other, in full satisfaction of their respective investments and claims. ”

“ Captain Myles Standish and his wife Rose, we know from Bradford, were with the Pilgrims in Leyden and doubtless shipped with them. Arber calls him ("The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers," p. 378) a "chief of the Pilgrim Fathers" in the sense of a father and leader in their Israel; but there is no warrant for this assumption, though he became their "sword-hand" in the New World. ”

“ Passing out of the gates of Delft and leaving the town behind, they had still a good ten miles of canal journey before them ere they reached their vessel and came to the final parting, for, as Mr. Van Pelt has clearly shown, it is a mistake to confound Delft with Delfshaven, as the point of embarkation in the SPEEDWELL. Below Delft the canal, which from Leyden thither is the Vliet, then becomes the Schie, and at the village of Overschie the travellers entered the Delfshaven Canal, which between perfectly straight dykes flows at a considerable height above the surrounding pastures. ”

“ To this straining, Arber wholly ascribes the "leakiness" of the SPEEDWELL and the delay in the final departure of the MAYFLOWER, to which last he attributes the disastrous results he specifies. It would seem that the historian, unduly elated at what he thought the discovery of another "turning-point of modern history," endeavors to establish it by such assertions and such partial references to Bradford as would support the imaginary "find." ”

“ William Trevore was, we are told by Bradford, "a seaman hired to stay a year in the countrie," but whether or not as part of the SPEEDWELL'S Crew (who, he tells us, were all hired for a year) does not appear. As the Master (Reynolds) and others of her crew undoubtedly returned to London in her from Plymouth, and her voyage was cancelled, the presumption is that Trevore and Ely were either hired anew or—more probably—retained under their former agreement, to proceed by the MAY-FLOWER to America, apparently (practically) as passengers. ”

“ Minter (or Minther) , of Robinson's flock; that her father had died prior to 1618 (perhaps before 1616) ; that the Carvers were near friends, perhaps kinsfolk; that her father being dead, her mother, a poor widow (there were clearly no rich ones in the Leyden congregation) , placed this daughter with the Carvers, and, marrying herself, and removing to Amsterdam the year before the exodus, was glad to leave her daughter in so good a home and such hands as Deacon and Mistress Carver's. ”

“ He says, unhappily chiming in with Arber's indictment: "In their eagerness to get away promptly, they [the Leyden men] made the mistake of ordering for the SPEEDWELL heavier and taller masts and larger spars than her hull had been built to receive, thus altering most unwisely and disastrously her trim." ”

“ He adds still more unhappily: "We do not hear of these inveterate landsmen and townsfolk [of whom he says, 'possibly there was not one man familiar with ships or sea life'] who were about to venture on the Atlantic, taking counsel of Dutch builders or mariners as to the proportion of their craft." Why so discredit the capacity and intelligence of these nation-builders? Was their sagacity ever found unequal to the problems they met? Were the men who commanded confidence and respect in every avenue of affairs they entered ”

“ That it is clear, from Cushman's letter of June 11/21, that Reynolds was then in Holland, for Cushman directs that " Master Reynolds tarrie there and bring the ship to Southampton;"
(d) That Master Reynolds was not originally intended to "tarrie there," and "bring the ship," etc., as, if he had been, there would have been no need of giving such an order; and
(e) That he had been sent there for some other purpose than to bring the SPEEDWELL to Southampton. Duly considering all the facts together, there can be no doubt that only one "pilott" was sent from England ”

“ Leyden with her mistress. Her early marriage and; death are duly recorded.
Roger Wilder, Carver's "servant;" was apparently in his service at Leyden and accompanied the family from thence. Bradford calls him "his [Carver's] man Roger," as if an old, familiar household servant, which (as Wilder died soon after the arrival at Plymouth) Bradford would not have been as likely to do—writing in 1650, thirty years after—if he had been only a short-time English addition to Carver's household, known to Bradford only during the voyage. ”

“ They may have been of the Leyden contingent and so have come with their brethren on the SPEEDWELL, or they may have been of the English colonists, and first embarked either at London or at Southampton, or even at Plymouth,—though none are supposed to have joined the emigrants there or at Dartmouth. ”

“ A sound and conscientious writer will welcome the courteous correction of his error, in the interest of historical accuracy; the opinion of any other need not be regarded.
Some of the new contributions (or original demonstrations) , of more or less historical importance, made to the history of the Pilgrims, as the author believes, by this volume, are as follows:—
(a) A closely approximate list of the passengers who left Delfshaven on the SPEEDWELL for Southampton ”

“ Allowing for [i.e. leaving out] the younger children and servants, it is evident that not half the company can have been from Robinson's congregation." As the total number of passengers on the MAYFLOWER was one hundred and two when she took her final departure from England, it is clear that Goodwin's estimate is substantially correct, and that the number representing the Leyden church as given above, viz., forty-two, is very close to the fact.
"When they came to the place" [Delfshaven] , says Bradford, "they found the ship and all things ready ”