today on the ancestral findings podcast
not everyone who traveled to the new world on the mayflower
was a pilgrim the non-religious passengers were called strangers this is why they came
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though the pilgrims a separate group from the puritans who came just after them were all about
establishing a religious community in the new world they were forced to take on non-religious
passengers to pay for the voyage this was something they agreed to only very reluctantly
as they did not want their community corrupted the elders of the church who had led england
some years previously to set up a community in the much more religiously accommodating laden holland
discussed at length whether they should allow passengers from outside their community
on the ship they were already concerned that the liberal and what they considered hedonistic
atmosphere in laden was having a detrimental effect on their children this is why they were
so eager to go to the new world they couldn't go back to england and laden was too permissive
and secular in its nature though it was more than willing to allow the pilgrims to live there
why did non-believers join the mayflower voyage ultimately the pilgrims decided that as much as
they were loathed to do it they had to let non-believers board the mayflower in order
to raise enough money to finance the voyage there were plenty of non-pilgrims who were willing and
eager to join the voyage too non-believers wanted to get to the new world for a variety of reasons
among these reasons were the following access to new land
which was in short supply in england a chance to build a better economic future for their families
being out from under what they saw as repressive laws in gaining the individual freedom they craved
escaping a criminal conviction starting over again after economic or personal setbacks in england
where no one knew them or had preconceived notions of who they were the opportunity to earn money
by working in the new world for a few years then returning to england as rich people getting away
from their families and familiar expectations adventure this was especially true with young men
so just because your ancestor came over on the mayflower does not mean that person was
a pilgrim he or she could very well have been one of the many strangers the pilgrim word for
non-pilgrims on the mayflower who came along to the new world with them
some famous stranger passengers on the mayflower just as there are famous
pilgrims who came on the mayflower there are famous strangers as well some of these include
the more children ellen jasper richard and mary moore all aged between eight
and four years old were sent away on the mayflower by their legal but likely not biological father
their mother was of the nobility and she was forced into a marriage with her cousin to forge
a monetary advantage between the two branches of the family she and her cousin rarely lived
together and generally kept separate residences yet she somehow became pregnant four times during
her marriage the likely father of her children was her gardener who was warned away from her by
her husband several times eventually her husband could take the shame no longer and divorced her
as the legal father of the children he had the right to do whatever he wanted with them he took
them from their mother and sent them away on the mayflower finding pilgrim passengers willing to
take on each child as an indentured servant while their mother tried for years to get them back even
attempting to go to the new world herself once to retrieve them she was never able to do so ellen
jasper and mary were all among the large group of mayflower passengers who died the first winter
only richard survived he became a mariner who went back to england many times had contact with his
family there and even had a wife and children both in plymouth colony and in england at the same time
he's the only mayflower passenger with a known headstone that can be visited today stephen
hopkins this interesting person captured the attention of his countrymen and contemporary
william shakespeare and became the inspiration for one of shakespeare's characters in his play
the tempest hopkins first went to the new world in 1607 to help colonize jamestown in virginia
conditions there were less than optimal and he blamed this on the leadership he
instigated mutiny and was put on the next ship back to england where he was almost hanged for
the attempted insurrection since his wife had died while he was away leaving him with
minor children to care for he was given a pardon so the crown did not have to support the children
stephen remarried and came over to the new world again with his second wife and children
in 1620 on the mayflower where he became a successful merchant the billington family
these were known as the troublemakers aboard the mayflower and once they got to land one of the
billington sons fired a musket on board the ship near a keg of gunpowder and almost blew up the
mayflower another went exploring and got lost in the woods for several days while the colony was
being built causing work to have to stop to send out a search party he was eventually found and
returned by a group of local natives the patriarch of the family john billington was cited many times
for challenging the authority of the colony's governor and was eventually hanged in 1630. the
first mayflower passenger to be treated thusly for the murder of a neighbor who he saw as his enemy
the stories of the strangers who came over on the mayflower are just as fascinating as the
stories of the pilgrims with whom they traveled and lived because there were so few people aboard
the mayflower they only had each other to rely on when they landed in the new world
stranger and pilgrim were forced to live and work together for the survival of the colony it was
not the ideal situation the pilgrims wanted but it was necessary eventually families intermarried and
it was forgotten who was a stranger and who was not at the beginning though this distinction was
important the fact that the pilgrims and a bunch of strangers who did not share their beliefs were
able to create such a successful colony together is a remarkable testament to human determination
and our natural inclination to work together as one for a common cause despite our differences
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