Jody – Captain of the Mayflower

Christopher Jones was born in 1570 in Harwich, Essex, England to parents Christopher and Sybil Jones. His father was a seafaring master captain of many ships. Young Christopher was trained from childhood to carry on the family tradition. He went through the full sea training of the time, shipping out as cabin boy by the age of twelve. When his father died, he was bequeathed a ship called the Marie Fortune. He became a merchant seaman and a master of ships. In those days the skipper of a naval ship carried the rank of captain. The skipper of a merchant ship was called a master.

Christopher Jones married Sara Twitt in 1593. They had one child before she died in May of 1603. Jones married again later that year to Josian Grey Thompson. Together they had eight children. Unfortunately most of Jones’ children did not live to adulthood. Jones and his wife moved from Harwich to Rotherhithe, a city near London on the river Thames. Jones designed and built a large ship, the Josian, which he named for his second wife. The Josian was so well-designed and built that it attracted the attention of the British Navy. Jones’ plans for the Josian were used in the construction of a naval ship by order of King James I.

In 1607, Jones sold the Josian and partnered with three other business investors to purchase the Mayflower as a merchant vessel. Jones was the Master of the Mayflower. The Mayflower was a three story ship, with a top deck, a gun deck and a cargo hold. Piracy was rampant in those days and even merchant ships had to have a gun deck. The first voyage of the Mayflower was to Trondheim, Norway and the voyage turned out to be a disaster. The Mayflower’s cargo was lumber, tar and fish. A bad winter storm struck and Master Jones had to dump several thousand pounds of cargo overboard to avoid sinking in the storm’s high seas. The Mayflower did not sink in the storm but was blown several hundred miles off course, taking the Mayflower several weeks to get back to port.

For the next ten years Master Jones sailed the Mayflower on a regular course to France, where he traded British products going in for French wine and cognac coming out. Employment in the wine and spice trade designated the Mayflower a “sweet ship”. Leakage from the wine casks over many years neutralized the garbage and other refuse the sailors in those days threw into the hold instead of bothering to drop it overboard. Historians have credited the Mayflower’s “sweet ship” qualities with the fact that the Pilgrims lost only one of their numbers by illness on the long, cold, cramped voyage to the New World.

In 1620 Thomas Weston, John Carver and Robert Cushman approached Christopher Jones about hiring him to transport their group of colonists and Separatists to the “northern parts” of the Colony of Virginia in America, near the mouth of the Hudson River. Jones was a well known and highly respected seaman. He knew the Mayflower well from decades of sailing the waters of the North Sea, the most treacherous body of water in the world. Jones knew that if the Mayflower was strong enough to travel the North Sea, she was surely strong enough to cross the Atlantic. The group also hired the Speedwell to undertake the voyage. The Speedwell carried the Separatists, who upon setting sail to the New World re-named themselves Pilgrims, from the Netherlands to England, where they were to meet up with the Mayflower to begin their voyage to the Virginia Colony. But the Speedwell proved to be too leaky and never took the famous voyage. The Mayflower left England for America on September 6, 1620.

With 102 passengers and a crew of 30 for the voyage now having to fit into one ship instead of two it has always been a wonder how Captain Jones managed to accommodate them all. The Mayflower was a merchant ship, not a passenger ship (there was no such thing as a passenger ship in those times). Some passengers slept in the shallop, a large ship’s boat which was stowed on the gun deck. Some passengers paid the ship’s carpenter to build cabins or bunks in the ‘tween decks for their beds or hammocks, cooking pots and clothing. Their other goods were stored in the hold. The cabins were small and often no more than a set of bunk beds with canvas partitions. The single men camped out where they could on the deck. The only place on the ship that was off-limits for the passengers was a 12-foot storage space on the gun deck which held ammunition in case of an attack. During the voyage, one child, Oceanus Hopkins, was born and only two people died.

After a 66-day sea voyage the Mayflower finally approached America’s shores. Due to inclement weather they had arrived much later than planned. The onset of a harsh New England winter was upon them. The Gulf Stream and winds had blown the ship north of its original destination. Instead of landing at the mouth of the Hudson River, Captain Jones, his crew, and the Pilgrims found themselves facing the outerside of Cape Cod. Legally the passengers onboard did not have a right to begin a colony in New England. Their settlement charter was for the Virginia Colony.

The Mayflower’s supplies were nearly depleted and winter was fast approaching. Captain Jones wanted to get the passengers on land as soon as possible. With the shores of Cape Cod in view, Jones had a decision to make. At the time the wind was blowing south and calculations were made that the ship would land at the mouth of the Hudson within a few days. Captain Jones decided to head south. But he and his crew were not familiar with the eastern seaboard south of Cape Cod and the maps they had were useless. For a time, all went well. Then the tides changed, the wind died and the depth of the water plummeted. They had sailed into a dangerous area of ever changing sand bars and shoals, the graveyard of many a shipwreck now known as Pollack Rip, located between Cape Cod and Nantucket Island.

By the end of the first day of sailing south, Captain Jones had another decision to make. If they anchored for the night at the edge of the Rip and a storm broke out, the Mayflower risked becoming shipwrecked on the shoals. Fortunately the wind shifted just enough to push the ship away from the treacherous area. With the wind now blowing north, Jones decided it was best to return to Cape Cod. By the time darkness fell, the Mayflower was drifting along the coast of present day Chatham, Massachusetts. Eventually they anchored in present day Provincetown Harbor. On November 11, 1620, Captain Christopher Jones safely landed the Mayflower and the Pilgrims in America. The Pilgrims called their new home Plimoth or Plimouth (Old English spelling), named after the major port city in Devon, England from which the Mayflower had sailed.

Jody – First Thanksgiving Proclamation

William Bradford was born in 1590 to William and Alice Bradford in Austerfield,Yorkshire,England. Austerfield was a small town of 200 or so residents. Most were farmers of modest means. TheBradfordfamily owned a large farm and was considered comparatively wealthy and influential in the community. As a child, William Bradford lost many family members. His father died when he was just a year old. His mother raised him alone until he was 4 years old when she re-married and sent him to his grandfather to live. Two years later his grandfather died and he returned to live with his mother and stepfather. One year later he became an orphan when his mother died. He was then sent to live with two uncles. Bradford’s uncles expected him to help with farm work but he was sickly most of the time and unable to do much work. He turned to reading and became familiar with the Bible and classic literature.

When William Bradford was twelve years old a friend invited him to hear a Puritan minister, Reverend Richard Clyfton, preach in Babworth, ten miles away from Austerfield. The sermons of Rev. Clyfton and, later, John Smith inspired young William. Even though his uncles forbade him to attend,Bradfordcontinued to attend their sermons. During one of the meetings he was befriended by William Brewster, bailiff and postmaster for the Archbishop of York. Brewster lived at Scrooby Manor, about 4 miles from Austerfield, and quickly became a father figure forBradford. Bradford borrowed books from Brewster and Brewster told him about church reform efforts that were taking place throughout England. A group of about 50 reformers began meeting secretly at Scrooby Manor. The group soon decided that reform of the Church of England was hopeless and that they would separate all ties with it. They became known as Separatists.

The weekly meetings of the Separatists soon attracted the attention of the Archbishop of York and many members were arrested, imprisoned and fined, including Brewster. In 1607 the Scrooby congregation decided to leaveEnglandillegally for the Dutch Republic, where religious freedom was permitted. William Bradford decided to go with them. The group suffered many setbacks in trying to leaveEngland, most notably their betrayal by an English sea captain who agreed to take them to theNetherlandsbut turned them over to the authorities instead. They were imprisoned for a short time. By the summer of 1608, the Scrooby congregation, including 18 year old William Bradford, had managed to escape England in small groups and relocated in Amsterdam.

The Separatists had spent most of their money in their attempts to get to the Dutch Republic. They took the lowest of jobs and lived under poor conditions. Having no family, William Bradford was taken in by the Brewster family. After nine months the congregation decided to relocate to the smaller city ofLeiden. When Bradford turned 21 in 1611, he was able to claim his family inheritance. He soon bought his own house and set up a workshop as a silk weaver, earning a reputable standing. In 1613, Bradford married Dorothy May, the daughter of a well-off English couple living inAmsterdam. In 1617, they had their first child, John Bradford. That same year the Scrooby congregation began to plan the establishment of their own colony in the New World.

The Separatists spent three years negotiating withEnglandto seek permission to settle in the northern parts of the Colony of Virginia. By July 1620, the necessary arrangements were made and approximately 50 Separatists departed theNetherlandson board the Speedwell. William and Dorothy Bradford had to leave their son behind with grandparents because he was too frail to make the voyage. The Speedwell was to meet up with the Mayflower off the coast of Englandand both would sail to Hudson’s River, now the site ofNew York City. The Speedwell proved too leaky and unable to make the voyage. About 100 passengers were instead crowded aboard the Mayflower. The passengers of the Mayflower, both Separatist and non-Separatist, are referred to today as Pilgrims. The term is derived from William Bradford’s journal describing their departure: With mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves of one another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them…but they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven.

The Mayflower reachedCape Codon November 9, 1620 after a voyage of 64 days. The colonists decided that the Mayflower could not proceed toHudson’s River for a variety of reasons, including shortage of supplies. They decided to settle somewhere on or nearCape Cod. They had no permission from the Crown to do so and feared for the legal status of the colony. They drafted the Mayflower Compact, which all free adult males signed, and agreed to majority rule. At the same time, they elected John Carver their first governor.

The Mayflower and its pilgrims searched theCapearea for a place to settle down. When the Mayflower was anchored in present-dayProvincetown harbor, Bradford volunteered to be a member of the exploration parties. While the Pilgrim men were out exploring one possible settlement site, Dorothy Bradford accidentally fell overboard and drowned. The exploration parties made three separate ventures from the Mayflower on foot and by boat. On December 6, 1620, during the third exploration, Bradford and his fellow explorers located what is nowPlymouth Bay and selected it for settlement. For the next few days they explored the bay and found a suitable place for settlement. The location featured a prominent hill suitable for defense. There were numerous brooks to provide fresh water. On December 20, 1620, the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived inPlymouth Bayand began building the colony’s first house on December 23.

In January 1621, a widespread sickness struck the colonists. William Bradford was stricken but recovered. Many of the settlers did not recover. During the months of February and March as many as two or three people died in a day. By the end of the winter, half of the 100 settlers had died. The Pilgrims’ remarkable courage was displayed in the spring when the Mayflower returned to England with not a single Pilgrim on it.

On March 16, the settlers had their first meeting with the Native Americans who lived in the area. The Pilgrims were frightened until a representative of Chief Massasoit (leader of the Pokanoket tribe) by the name of Samoset called out “Welcome” in English. He had learned English from the captains of fishing boats that sailed off the coast. Samoset stayed the night and left the next day. On March 22 a visit was made by Massasoit himself. Together Massasoit and the Governor of Plymouth John Carver signed a treaty to aid each other militarily in times of need. In April 1621, Governor Carver collapsed and died a few days later. The settlers ofPlymouththen chose William Bradford as the new governor.

Samoset returned to visit the Pilgrims with another Native American named Squanto, who spoke better English than Samoset. Squanto had been kidnapped a decade before by fishermen and taken toEngland, where he learned the language. The importance of Squanto to the Pilgrims was enormous. It has been said they would not have survived without him. Squanto taught them how to tap the maple trees for sap. He taught them which plants were poisonous and which ones were for medicine. He showed them how to plant corn by heaping the earth in low mounds with several seeds and a fish in each mound. He taught them to plant other crops as well.

Pilgrims had much to celebrate. They had built homes in the wilderness and were at peace with their neighbors. The harvest in October 1621 was a successful one. The Pilgrims had enough food to put away for winter. The corn, fruits and vegetables were all thanks to their Native American friends. The Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans. They invited Squanto and his tribe to join them in their celebration. Chief Massasoit and 90 braves came to the celebration that lasted three days. The next year the Pilgrims’ harvest was not as bountiful. The third year brought a hot and dry spring and summer. The crops were dying in the fields. Governor Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer. Soon the rains came. To celebrate, November 29^th was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. It is this date that is believed to be the true beginning of our present day Thanksgiving Day.

“In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29^th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.” – William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony.