Edward Winslow - Voyage

Voyage

Winslow and his wife Elizabeth were part of the Leiden Separatist group who had decided to travel far away from England and the repressive regime of King James I to more freely practice their religious beliefs. Merchant Adventurer investment group agent Thomas Weston assisted them in this venture by providing the ship Mayflower for their journey. Traveling on the Mayflower in company with the Winslows were his brother Gilbert and family servant/employee George Soule and a youth, Elias Story. Also in the care of the family was Elinor (Ellen) More, a girl of eight years. In all there were four More children from Shipton, Shropshire in the care of others on the Mayflower: Elinor, Jasper, Mary and Richard. These children were later to be found to be the reputed offspring of an adulterous relationship and given into the care of others on the Mayflower by their mother’s husband, Samuel More to put the children at as great a distance as possible. Elinor perished the winter of 1620 with only one brother Richard More surviving.

They departed Plymouth, England on the Mayflower on September 6/16, 1620 with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members in a small 100 foot ship. The first month in the Atlantic, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong north-Atlantic winter gales causing the ship to be badly shaken with water leaks from structural damage. There were two deaths, but this was just a precursor of what happened after their Cape Cod arrival, when almost half the company would die in the first winter.

On November 9/19, 1620, after about 3 months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted land, which was Cape Cod. And after several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.