Voyage To New England
With members of his immediate family and other relatives and associates, Arnold gathered his group together with their baggage and supplies in the spring of 1635 and made the trip from Ilchester to Dartmouth on the coast of Devon. While the exact route of the travelers was not recorded, a probable path was through Yeovil, Crewkerne and Axminster to Exeter. From there the party likely turned south along the Devonshire coast traveling through Teignmouth and Torquay to the port city of Dartmouth.
Fred Arnold, in 1921, provided a perspective of the group as they prepared to load their ship destined for the New World: "While their eyes rested upon these last scenes in the home land, the...young people...were perhaps thinking more of the village greens of Ilchester and Yeovil...and their playmates from whom they were now separated...while the older ones were more likely turning their thoughts toward the unknown sea with some doubts and misgivings mayhap, but yet with stout hearts and strong hopes facing the great adventure that lay before them in a new world."
The ship carrying William Arnold and his group sailed from England to New England in 1635, with some brief particulars of the voyage given by his son Benedict in the family record: "Memorandom my father and his family Sett Sayle ffrom Dartmouth in Old England, the first of May, friday &c. Arrived In New England June 24o Ano 1635" The name of the ship on which this group sailed was not recorded, nor has it been identified since. Governor Winthrop recorded that in the six-week period beginning 4 June 1635, fifteen ships had arrived in the Massachusetts Bay area, but he only gave the names of two of them. The ship on which the Arnolds sailed was not the Plain Joan, as stated in some accounts, which vessel carried a Thomas Arnold from England to Virginia. There is no known record of any event that took place at sea, only the length of the trip. The journey to America was less than two months in duration and ended on William Arnold's 48th birthday.
Read more about this topic: William Arnold (settler)
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