Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

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The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English colonists who traveled to North America on the ship Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith named this territory New Plymouth in 1614, sharing the name of the Pilgrims' final departure port of Plymouth, Devon, England. The Pilgrims' leadership came from religious congregations of Separatist Puritans who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands. These Separatists held many of the same Calvinist religious beliefs as conforming Puritans, but unlike them (who wanted a purified established church), Pilgrims believed that their congregations should separate from the Church of England, which led to them being labelled Separatists. After several years of living in exile in Holland, they determined to establish a new settlement in the New World and arranged with investors to fund them. In 1620, they...

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