William Phelps (colonist) - Immigration To New England

Immigration To New England

For more details on the Puritans' immigration to New England, see Great Migration (Puritan).

King Charles I of England had succeeded his father King James I of England in 1625, and continued his father's strong opposition to the Puritan movement, who opposed many of the Anglican Church's doctrines as retaining too much of its Roman Catholic roots. After the Puritans assumed control of Parliament, they began to pose a serious threat to the King's authority. In January 1629, in a move to neutralize his opponents, Charles dissolved Parliament entirely. The religious and political climate became so difficult for Puritans that many began to make arrangements to leave the country.

William Phelps was among them. Phelps had been a member of Reverend John Warham's church. Warham had been a minister since 1614, but was relieved of his ministerial duties in 1627 because of his “strong Puritan leanings.” The group Phelps joined was organized by the Reverend John White, Vicar of Dorchester, England. White is generally regarded as the sponsor of the earliest Massachusetts settlement after Plymouth. At his urging, nearly 150 individuals gathered from the English West Country counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. While many assumed that they were motivated by religious persecution like others in the Winthrop Fleet, the West Country was free from it.

Unlike many who fled England for Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean during this time, the Puritans who migrated to the New World were on the whole better educated and tended to leave relatively prosperous lives to establish a new society of pious family values. Unlike the Pilgrims who were non-conformists or separatists, the Puritans were reformers. They were not leaving England for religious freedom, per se, for they believed their faith to be the only true religion. They disrespected all other faiths, especially Quakers.

The emigrants were organized on March 19, 1630 as the West Country Company at New Hospital, Plymouth, England, the day before leaving England. Although very few knew one another, they agreed to emigrate as a body to Massachusetts, where White had sent other groups over the prior six years. White has been called “the father of the Massachusetts Colony,” despite remaining in England his entire life, because of his influence in establishing this settlement. From their first arrival aboard the Mayflower in 1620, until 1629, only about 300 Puritans had survived in New England, scattered in small and isolated settlements.

The group fasted, prayed and prepared themselves for their perilous long voyage. White preached sermons in the morning and afternoon; then, with his blessing, the group departed on March 20 for the New World aboard the Mary and John.