From Pilgrim to President
The Pilgrims were English Protestants, who fled England to escape the oppressive regime of James I and the Anglican church. They lived and worked in Leiden from 1609 to 1620. In 1620 groups of Pilgrims travelled onwards to North America: the ‘New World’. In the USA people still celebrate Thanksgiving Day, in memory of the Pilgrims’ ordeals and eventual deliverance. Native Americans, however, call the day a day of mourning. Mourning for the loss of lives and land that followed. The influence of the Pilgrims on the United States has been great. No fewer than nine American Presidents are direct descendants of the Leiden Pilgrims.

Leiden, City of Refugees
Leiden is known as the City of Refugees. The city gave shelter to people who fled (religious) persecution in Flanders, France and England. In the 17th century the population of Leiden grew from just over 20.000 to 70.000 souls in a short space of time. Even in the 20th century no less than three out of four ‘Leidenaars’ are descended from refugees. The Pilgrims also found a (temporary) safe haven in Leiden.

Where did the Pilgrims come from?
Early in the sixteen hundreds the English Calvinists were persecuted by Queen Elizabeth and her successor James I. The separatists, those who wanted to leave the established (state) Anglican Church, had a rough time of it. Around 1608 a number of them fled to Holland, where there was relative freedom of religion. They escaped from the coast somewhere between Grimsby and Hull. The refugees were picked up by a Dutch skipper and eventually reached Amsterdam. From there they moved to Leiden. After a stay of eleven years, a substantial part of this community emigrated as Pilgrims to North America, between 1620 and 1643. During their journeys they were joined by other English people. Some of the refugees of 1608 never left Leiden. In America the Pilgrims are seen as the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Stay in Leiden
In 1608, a group of refugees, led by John Robinson, fled from persecution in England because they refused to obey the rules of the Anglican state church. Robinson and roughly one hundred pilgrims petitioned the city authorities of Leiden for leave to settle in the city. Although they did not need permission to stay, the request was answered on the 12th of February 1609 in de following, telling phrases: "Geen eerlicke persoonen weygeren vrije ende lybre incompst omme binnen deze stede...haer woonplaets te nemen". In modern English: “No honest persons will be refused free and unconstrained entry to the city to take up residence”.

Leiden was the second largest city in Holland, home to a booming textile industry and a famous university. Robinson and his flock bought a piece of land near St. Peter’s Church, called the Groene Poort (Green Alley). They built 21 little houses, so that people started to call it the Engelse poort (English Alley). Later the houses were demolished and the Jean Pesijn almshouses were built in the same spot (1683).
Famous Pilgrims are William Brewster and his adopted son William Bradford. Brewster was an elder of Robinson’s congregation and co-owner of the Pilgrim Press (1617-1619). He lived in a side alley of the Pieterskerkkoorsteeg, now the William Brewster Alley. Bradford later became the governor of the Pilgrim colony in America. His manuscript Of Plimoth Plantation is still our most important source on the life of the Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims left a paper trail in the Leiden archives of hundreds of documents that can still be explored online or in person.

Departure for the ‘New World’
From 1620 members of the Pilgrim community emigrated from Leiden to North America. There were several reasons for leaving. The freedom of religion, though better than in England, was also limited in the Netherlands. The Dutch left people alone to worship in their own way. However, those not belonging to the state church were excluded from some aspects of public life. Besides, the English put pressure on the Dutch government to end the printing of dissenting books by Brewster & co.. The imminent end of the Twelve Year Truce with Spain in 1621 meant war was likely. The economic situation of the Pilgrims was not very good. And they were afraid that their children would integrate too much into Dutch society and the Dutch church. Their fears proved to be right. More than half of the group remained in Leiden. They eventually became indistinguishable from the locals.

No empty land
The Pilgrims and other colonists settled on a continent that was not empty. The relations with the Native Americans, Wampanoag and Massakeessetts, varied from friendship to downright enmity. A letter from John Robinson in Leiden, to William Bradford in Plymouth from December 1623 disapproved of the killing of seven Native Americans by other Englishmen. Robinson was a man of his time, a Europe torn by wars fired by religious zeal, He thought it would have been better to convert Native Americans. Killing some Native Americans might be justified if provoked, He did point out that once the spilling of blood had started, it would be difficult to stop. Prophetic words…

Historical ships
The ships that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic Ocean have become famous: Mayflower (1620), Fortune (1621), Anne and Little James (1623) and the second Mayflower (1629). After that last trip some stragglers made the journey to America on their own.

‘Leiden’ traditions across the water
Upon arrival in North America the Pilgrims wanted to realize their ideals. A fitting way to govern themselves. Looking back we can say that the Pilgrims were an influential force in the formation of American society, then and now. Their 'Dutch' years and old ‘Leiden’ traditions can be discerned in modern USA.

3rd of October celebration in Leiden transforms into Thanksgiving
After the siege of Leiden in 1574 it became customary to celebrate its relief with a yearly service in the Pieterskerk (St. Peter’s Church). The service is to give thanks for the liberation from the Spanish and the renewed supply of food. Herring and white bread are still distributed in Leiden on the 3rd of October, as a reminder of the ships loaded with food that entered the city after the siege. There is a theory that Thanksgiving, the feast of thanks of the Pilgrims, has elements of this Leiden tradition, combined with elements of a harvest festival. The first description of Thanksgiving by Edward Winslow contains a description of a military parade. This was also an element of the celebrations in Leiden in the early seventeenth century.

Civil marriage
Civil marriage is a Dutch ‘invention’. At the end of the sixteenth century only marriages in the Protestant state church were valid. Because the Dutch Republic had a large Roman Catholic minority, it was impracticable to deny marriage to almost half the population. Marriage determined property rights and the legitimacy of children.Those who did not belong to the state church could be married by ‘schepenen’, the city authorities. The marriage could then be blessed by their own church. Only the civil marriage had any legal validity. The Pilgrims imported the civil marriage in America. The first few years they were without a pastor, Joyhn Robinson had stayed behind in Leiden. Civil marriage was the only way to proceed is couples did not want to ‘live in sin’.

Elected government
Leiden was divided into ‘bonnen’ and ‘gebuurten’. A bon was a district of the city governed by elected bonmeesters. The district took care of fire safety, keeping the district clean, collecting special taxes and dividing money among the poor. The gebuurte was a smaller unit that took care of burials and other neighbourly duties. The election of civil authorities has its roots in this system, as well as the election of church officials.

Pilgrims to President
Since the Pilgrims came to American no fewer than nine of their descendants have made it to President. Presidents Taylor, Grant, Roosevelt, Bush sr. and jr. and Obama all have a Leiden Pilgrim ancestor.

John Adams – 1797-1801
His son John Quincy Adams – 1825-1829
Zachary Taylor – 1849-1850
Ulysses S. Grant – 1869-1877
James A. Garfield – 1881-1881
Franklin D. Roosevelt – 1933-1945
George H.W. Bush – 1989-1993
George W. Bush – 2001-2009
Barack H. Obama - 2009 - 2017

…and to mayor of New York
And how about Leiden-born Thomas Willett, who became the first mayor of New York? A letter by this Pilgrim, which he wrote to Hugh Goodyear, vicar of the English reformed church in Leiden on the 16th of September 1660 is still availaible at Heritage Leiden..