Historical Background of Plymouth Colony
Standish was associated for most of his life with a congregation of Protestants known as Separatists. Unlike Puritans, who sought to reform the Church of England, Separatists believed that the Church of England was beyond reform and wished to break from it to form independent congregations. One group of Separatists formed in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, led by ministers Richard Clyfton and John Robinson, and by a lay minister or "elder" William Brewster. English authorities outlawed and persecuted such congregations. In 1608, the Scrooby congregation relocated to Holland in the Dutch Republic, where freedom of religion was permitted. The group eventually settled in Leiden, Holland, where it remained for 12 years.
Although they enjoyed religious freedom in Holland, the members of the Scrooby congregation were troubled by the foreign culture of Leiden and they wished to raise their children in a strictly English environment. In 1620, with the permission of King James I of England and backing from a group of financial investors in London known as the Merchant Adventurers, the Scrooby congregation departed for the New World aboard the Mayflower to establish a colony in North America.
Not all the Mayflower passengers were Separatists. The Merchant Adventurers recruited a number of colonists seeking financial opportunity in the New World. Others, such as Myles Standish, had been hired by the Separatists specifically for their expertise in certain areas. Standish's religious leanings have been the source of some debate. He was one of the forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact which states the colony's purpose was to advance the Christian faith for the Glory of God. Whatever his denomination, he sympathized with the Separatists, supporting and defending Plymouth Colony for much of his life, although there is no evidence as to whether he joined their church.
In what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, the passengers of the Mayflower established a colony referred to at the time as "New Plymouth" (although the name and spelling varied). The term "Pilgrims" is now used primarily to refer to the Separatist congregation, although it is often applied to all the original settlers of Plymouth Colony (both Separatist and Anglican).
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