The Legacy of Elizabeth Peabody

A few years after they married, Mayflower passengers John and Priscilla Alden became parents to Elizabeth, perhaps the first European female born in New England. Two decades later they witnessed her marriage to William Peabody on December 26, 1644. The newlyweds settled north of Plymouth in William’s home of Duxbury, Massachusetts. 

Elizabeth was described as tall, beautiful, dignified, and “a woman of great character and fine presence." William was a respected church leader, as well as surveyor and town clerk. 

When the last of their thirteen children left home, the Peabodys moved to Little Compton, Rhode Island, which was then part of Plymouth Colony. William became their first town clerk, keeping that position so long into his old age that they hired an assistant to ensure that he kept accurate records. 

Ten years after William was gone, Elizabeth also died. She was one of very few colonial women to have a published obituary, confirming her importance in the community. A Boston newspaper praised her as "exemplarily virtuous and pious, and her memory is blessed." She had at least eighty grandchildren when she died, and over 550 great-grandchildren. Living into her early nineties, Elizabeth saw so many new generations in her family that, before she died, one of her own granddaughters became a grandmother. 

Among the several writers who were inspired by Elizabeth’s family is her own descendant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote of the romance of Elizabeth’s parents in the classic American poem, “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” 

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"Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel."

(Psalms 128:6; 1599 Geneva Bible)

"Also I will cause thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"

(Genesis 26:4; 1599 Geneva Bible)

The Christmas Controversy

 As the Plymouth colonists were busy at work with their morning communal tasks, Governor Bradford saw something disturbing. Several young men (new arrivals to the colony) stood about doing nothing. Clearly, they lacked the customary work ethic of the original colonists. When he encouraged them to go work, they refused. They said it went against their conscience to work on Christmas Day. This was December 25, 1621, one year after the Pilgrims began building their community. Governor Bradford reluctantly allowed them to set aside work until they were better informed. 

Later that day, Bradford found those same young men gleefully playing ball in the streets. He confiscated their sporting equipment, saying that, while it may go against their conscience to work on Christmas day, it also went against the whole town’s conscience for them to play as everyone else was working. It was one thing to keep Christmas as a day of devotion in their homes, but quite another to use it as an excuse for laziness and public revelry. 

Puritans and Separatists did not observe holidays like Christmas or Easter because they were not commanded by God, but believed they were from Catholic or pagan origins. They also disapproved of the “dishonorable” theatrical plays, gambling, and dancing associated with Christmas celebrations. 

In 1647, the Puritan dominated English Parliament voted to abolish Christmas, and in 1659 the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay did the same, adding a five shilling fine to anyone caught observing the holiday of Christmas. 

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“This man esteemeth one day above another day, and another man counteth every day alike: let every man be fully persuaded in his mind. He that observeth the day, observeth it to the Lord: and he that observeth not the day, observeth it no1t to the Lord.”

(Romans 14:5-6; 1599 Geneva Bible) 

Uncontrollable Church Protests

England in the 1640s endured unprecedented religious fracturing. The momentum for religious freedom spread like wildfire, fueling the political divide in a nation at war with itself. Even the Sunday morning church service was not immune to the conflict as religious protesters disrupted sermons with angry outbursts, shouting out messages with all the fury of ancient prophets. Filled with righteous indignation, Quakers, Levelers, Anabaptists, Separatists, and others burst into church gatherings to challenge the doctrines of their ministers. This happened so often that on December 22, 1646 the House of Lords ordered local authorities to arrest anyone “who shall disturb any minister in holy orders” while he is “exercising his public calling.” 

The church protests eventually spilled overseas as religious rebels continued pouring into New England colonies, and even Harvard College was not immune. The school, which began as a training center for Puritan ministers, held regular services on their campus. In July of 1654, during an infant baptism ceremony, one man entered the chapel to stop the service and instruct them of their errors. If his objections were more academic than other church protests, it was because the protester was none other than the college president himself. The views of Henry Dunster, Harvard’s first college president, had moved away from Puritan orthodoxy toward the Anabaptist practice of adult baptism. He was soon dismissed from his office at the college, taken to court, exiled from Boston, and his last few years were spent as a preacher in Plymouth Colony. 

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“So the Priests, and the Prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the House of the Lord. Now when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking..., and all the people took him, and said, Thou shalt die the death.”

(Jeremiah 26:7-8; 1599 Geneva Bible)

See: The Life of Henry Dunster (1872) in Google Books.

A Dreary Inspection of Their New Home

On December 21, 1620, passengers who had been onboard the Mayflower for months could finally visit the future site of their colony. With a violent storm lashing the coastline, only a few determined souls took that chance. After years of praying and planning, they would wait no longer to see their new homesite. 

The shallop’s sail struggled against the harbor winds, and the waves tossed them like driftwood. Once on land, it soon became clear that the squalls and angry waters would forbid them from going back to the ship. There was no choice; they were forced to endure through the night. A makeshift shelter would be crucial, but there was not enough time to construct one under the already darkened skies. This was the winter solstice – the darkest time of the year. A long, wet, and trembling night lay ahead for those who were brave enough to go ashore. 

With hunger and illness crouching in every corner, the outlook for those who stayed on the ship was no better. On the day they had looked forward to for years, the coughing and crying was inescapable. And there was no sympathy from sailors who much preferred to haul wood and wine than a boatload of sickly immigrants. 

As the storm battered outside the ship and sickness and stench filled the inside, one more passenger was lost. After five deaths already, Richard Britteridge was the first to slip away after they reached Plymouth Harbor, and the worst was yet to come.  

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“God is our hope and strength, and help in troubles, ready to be found. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains fall into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof rage and be troubled, and the mountains shake at the surges of the same..” 

(Psalms 46:1-3; 1599 Geneva Bible)

They Chose Plymouth

Exhausted from two months at sea and weeks of waiting along the coast in the cramped and stinking ship, the Pilgrims were desperate to get on land, but first they had to choose a home. Adding urgency to their decision was the pressure from the Mayflower’s crew. The sea-beaten sailors were already agitated at the long delays and weeks of futile searching along the coast for an ideal location that may not exist. After all, their ship was blown hundreds of miles north of their destination. 

Recent history made the Pilgrims extra cautious in their choice. To the south was Jamestown, the struggling colony that seemed always on the verge of collapse. And the chilling tale of Roanoke, the village that disappeared without a trace, haunted their memories.

After weeks of wintry exploration, one location looked most promising. Named by English explorer John Smith, Plymouth offered fresh water springs, abundant fish and fowl, and endless trees for lumber. With a hilltop location that gave them security and a natural protective harbor, the Pilgrims chose Plymouth for their fledgling colony on December 20, 1620. 

Additionally, with all the other benefits, the land was already cleared off and prepared for fresh crops and new homes. It seemed as if Plymouth was a gift from God. Later they learned the real reason why the land was ready for habitation. A few years earlier the thriving village of Patuxet stood there, but the population was decimated by the diseases brought over from Europe.  

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“Joshua and Caleb “spake unto all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we walked through to search it, is a very good land. If the Lord love us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, which is a land that floweth with milk and honey.” 

(Numbers 14:6-8; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“According to the grace of God given to me, as a skillful master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon: but let every man take heed how he buildeth upon it.” 

(1 Corinthians 3:10; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Churches Created by Divorce

Henry wanted a divorce. Since Queen Catherine could not bear him a son, his heart was set on the beautiful Anne Boleyn. But the Catholic Church, which regulated marriage in Western Europe, would not allow it. Therefore, on December 18, 1534, King Henry VIII severed England's ties with the Pope and declared himself Supreme Head of the newly established Church of England. Henry’s self-proclaimed religious authority provided him the freedom to divorce or marry whenever he wished, renewing his hopes for a son – a male heir who would ensure political stability for both England and Henry’s dynasty. 

Then the king soon became disenchanted with his new marriage. After several moral and criminal accusations were made against Anne, Henry had her beheaded, making way for another wife, and yet another, finally totaling six successive wives and three surviving children. His young son, Edward VI, was crowned king after Henry’s death, but when the teenager died, it opened the royal door for Henry’s militantly Catholic daughter, Mary Tudor. At Mary’s death, Henry’s last surviving child, Elizabeth I, took the throne, securing the kingdom for a more moderate style of Protestant faith – one that required less bloodshed. 

Henry could not have anticipated how his divorce and severing ties with Catholicism would lead to endless religious divisions, even within his own Church of England. It was these fractures that eventually led to the emergence of Puritans, Separatists, and Quakers, who would cross the ocean a century later, establishing new religious colonies on the American continent. 

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“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it..., So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself.... Therefore everyone of you, do ye so: let everyone love his wife, even as himself, and let the wife see that she fear her husband.” 

(Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Twelve Honest Men

In November 1620, the men aboard the Mayflower signed a document known as the Mayflower Compact, agreeing that they would come together as a political body to create “just and equal laws” for their new colony. One of their first laws in Plymouth Colony paved the way for jury trials. On December 17, 1623, the town court ordered that all matters of crime, trespass, and debt disputes “should be tried by the verdict of twelve honest men... in form of a jury."

Before this, crimes and legal disputes were handled within regular town meetings under the oversight of the governor, but as the colony grew, the town meeting became unwieldy for many tasks. The Pilgrim’s desire for freedom in religious practice did not mean they rejected the semblance of law and order, so as citizens of England they conducted their affairs in ways familiar to them, and that would meet the approval of governing authorities. Their differences with the Church of England may have motivated the young colony to work all the more to show themselves as conscientious and law-abiding citizens and loyal subjects of His Majesty, King James.

Although the jury system was rarely needed in the earliest days, it was certainly tested a few years later when the first murder occurred in their midst. In 1630, one of the original Mayflower passengers was put on trial before a jury and found guilty of "willful murder by plain and notorious evidence." He was soon after hanged for his crime. 

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“And I charged your Judges that same time, saying, Hear the controversies between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall have no respect of person in judgment, but shall hear the small as well as the great: ye shall not fear the face of man: for the judgment is God's....” 

(Deuteronomy 1:16-17;1599 Geneva Bible)

Arrival at Plymouth Harbor

On December 16, 1620, the Mayflower finally anchored in Plymouth Harbor on the western shore of Cape Cod Bay. The Mayflower’s passengers first set sail from England on August 5, however, they were stalled for weeks because their companion vessel kept leaking. After fruitless repairs to the Speedwell, they abandoned the smaller ship in early September, leaving behind some passengers and cargo, and sailed for two months on the restless Atlantic Ocean. When they reached Cape Cod on the American coast, far north of their destination, they waited weeks onboard the ship as search teams explored the coastland and as several passengers died onboard. 

It had been over four months after they first set sail from Southampton when Captain Jones gave the command to drop anchor in Plymouth Harbor. For many passengers, their shipboard ordeal began even earlier when they boarded the Speedwell in Holland on July 22 to meet fellow colonists awaiting them in England. 

After the ship reached Plymouth Harbor, there were several more days of exploration before settling on a place to establish their lives, and several more weeks of falling trees and building their crude village on the frozen ground before they could all leave the ship and become land-dwellers once more.

Even more passengers would die of various causes while they waited on the Mayflower. Though the passengers left no record of stepping down at any specific place, Plymouth Rock has since become an important symbol of their difficult journey and determination to begin anew. 

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“Albeit they were few in number, yea very few, and strangers in the land. And walked about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.” 

(Psalms 105:12-13; 1599 Geneva Bible)

A “Dangerous Woman” Makes Her Stand

After her husband died, Lady Deborah Moody lived in London with her children for ten years, then found herself at odds with the Church of England. She was called into the Star Chamber, the court reserved for British nobles. They did not approve of her new religious associations. She was consorting with the Anabaptists, who insisted it was wrong to baptize infants, for they could not yet embrace Christian faith. The chamber ordered her to leave London and return home to Wiltshire. Instead, she sailed to New England, home of her friend, Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts.

Lady Moody joined the church in Salem in the spring of 1640. She soon became a landowner, with over 1000 acres, renting it out to other settlers. Her social status and influential personality gave her the opportunity to share her religious convictions with friends and neighbors, and her Anabaptist ideas began to take hold. One influential neighbor took note. Reverend Hugh Peter, who succeeded in banishing Anne Hutchinson for her religious views, complained to other prominent men, and they soon labeled her a “dangerous woman.”

December 14, 1642, Deborah Moody and other women were brought to court and charged with falsely teaching that the baptism of infants was not an “ordinance of God.” Refusing to recant, or remain in another religiously intolerant environment, she moved again. This time to the more tolerant Dutch area of New Amsterdam, where she founded the settlement that eventually became Brooklyn and Coney Island.

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“But Peter and John answered unto them, and said, Whether it be right in the sight of God, to obey you rather than God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the thing which we have seen and heard.” 

(Acts 4:19-20; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Another Desperate, Frigid Search

On the icy morning of December 7, 1620, several men set off again from the Mayflower. Two weeks anchored off the bitter New England coast, the ocean-weary passengers and over two dozen restless crewmembers hoped this would be the day the Pilgrims found a suitable home. 

While the men in the shallop searched for a harbor deep enough to bring in the ship, those on foot stumbled upon graves and the decayed structures of earlier inhabitants. Both groups found beached blackfish measuring nearly twenty feet long. One fish was cut up with several pieces strewn about. 

The land party found bare human footprints along the sandy beach and followed them toward the woods where one man thought he glimpsed an Indian shelter. As night fell, the ground team lost sight of the shallop. They scurried out of the woods to reconnect with the others. When they found the boat, they directed it toward a nearby creek. After both teams reunited, they gathered firewood and made their usual crude barricade for protection against wind and possible nighttime attacks. 

In the deepening darkness, they ate their meager rations and shared the stories they gathered from the day's events. At night, however, their sleep was interrupted by loud, bone-chilling cries. They jumped to their feet, grabbed their muskets, and fired into the darkness. After a long silence, seeing nothing in the dim firelight, they decided the howls were probably wolves. One crewman said he often heard the same unearthly sounds in Newfoundland.

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“For poverty and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness, which is dark, desolate and waste.” 

(Job 30:3; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Jasper Dies Far From Home

Six years after their 1610 marriage, Samuel More was convinced his wife had a long-term affair. All four children in the More household bore a noticeable resemblance to Katherine’s childhood friend, Jacob Blakeway. Long before Samuel and Katherine were married, she and Jacob promised themselves to each other, but her father had other plans. He arranged for Katherine to marry her cousin, Samuel, in order to keep their Shropshire County estate within the family. 

Months after their fourth child was born, despite Katherine’s wishes, Samuel placed the children with another family. Four years later, he placed them all aboard the Mayflower with those pious passengers intent on planting another English colony on the American continent. By sending them across the ocean, Samuel believed the children could leave behind a lifetime of questions about their parentage and have a far better chance for happiness and prosperity. But Samuel surely also knew it was an effective way to minimize his pubic humiliation, lash out against his cheating wife, and slash his financial burden for children he no longer wanted. 

On December 6, 1620, seven-year-old Jasper More died at Cape Cod from an infection, the first child to die on the journey. Within weeks, both sisters would follow him in death. Out of the four Mayflower siblings, only Richard More survived to adulthood, becoming an important sea captain for the colonists. 

Little is known of their mother's fate, but Samuel More became a member of England’s Parliament and a military officer. 

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“Behold, children are the inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb his reward. As are the arrows in the hand of the strong man; so are the children of youth. Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” 

(Psalms 127:3-5; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Another Warrant for William Brewster

 On December 1, 1607, a second arrest warrant was issued for William Brewster, charged with being "disobedient in matters of religion." 

The Separatists who met in Brewster's home could no longer, in good conscience, worship with the Church of England. There were too many remnants of the Roman Catholic faith for their taste. In Brewster's Nottinghamshire home in Scrooby, England, they believed they could worship as their conscience dictated and avoid any conflicts with the local church authorities. This arrangement, however, did not last for long. 

Three years earlier, the Church of England issued 141 rules to force the Separatists into cooperation in matters of church beliefs and practices. But those new rules served only to toughen their determination to go their own way. King James feared that their religious rebellion may lead to a political rebellion and an attempt to overthrow his government. He angrily declared, "I shall make them conform themselves, or I will harry them out of the land." 

Archbishop Tobias Matthews made himself an expert on these religious radicals, reading every possible book on the subject. For harboring these disagreeable pietists and teaching them unlawful religious doctrines, the Archbishop declared that William Brewster was "a very dangerous schismatical Separatist." 

Brewster eventually paid the fines laid against him and two other Separatist friends, however he refused to appear in court to face the charges. Though he escaped arrest this time, it would not be England’s last attempt to bring him in for his religious rebellion. 

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“But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the assemblies, and into prisons, and bring you before Kings and rulers for my Name’s sake.” 

(Luke 21:12; 1599 Geneva Bible)