Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Four centuries of causing trouble in the New World

400 years ago today the Mayflower sailed from Southampton for the New World.  My Great-to-the-9th grandfather was on it, which means that there have been twelve generations of my family causing trouble on these shores.  You're welcome, I guess.

The dock they left from is still preserved in the modern city.  You get to it via this sunken pathway:


Probably four centuries of city living have added a few feet of soil to the ground.  But past the old storage cave you get to a pub on the site of the dock:


You can read the story here.

8 comments:

libertyman said...

Four hundred years is a long time for the New World. I hope we can make it another few, at least.

Vitaeus said...

Have three different ancestors that came over on this. Howdy cousin.

Beans said...

Sailed for freedom (well, their freedom) right into a few years of communism (old school pre-Marx and Engels communism, but still communism) and then, after dying off like a plague hit them, got better with capitalism.

It's one of the many many reasons I hate communism in all forms. It's genetically been bred out of my genes (also got 12 gens of Puritan blood somewhere in me.)

Funny, when I point out the Pilgrim's abject failure at communism to some... commie pinko socialist, they always drop the line that the Puritans weren't doing communism right.

Which is true. At the end, only 50ish Pilgrims failed to achieve peak communism. Which I am most happy they did.

To the Survivors go the spoils! And, boy, by the time they embraced capitalism there was a lot of spoilage to embrace. Yuck.

squeeky's mom said...

You can thank my 9 or 10x great grandfather for financing this voyage. He owned the bank that whoever owned the Mayflower got his financing from. Your Welcome. :)

Sherm said...

I see that there are an estimated 25 million Mayflower descendants in the country. Not an exclusive group, particularly since I was let into the club. The English are doing it right, though. They have a pub; we have a rock. (And a not very impressive rock at that.)

Anonymous said...

Don't feel bad about your ancestors being tardy (Jamestown, Virginia, was already settled by 1620).
--Tennessee Budd

NITZAKHON said...

My father's line (well, one branch) came to Plymouth via Jamestown.

waepnedmann said...

I laughed!
The blood runs true.


Edward Doty later became a wealthy land owner, but his argumentative nature and display of temper caused him to be in the Plymouth court many times over the years.[8]
Doty's first problem with the law came just after the Pilgrims had begun constructing their settlement. The early eighteenth century notes of Thomas Prince describe an incident of June 18, 1621 when the first duel (with a sword and dagger) was fought in New England between two servants of Stephen Hopkins, Edward Doty and Edward Leister. The duel ended with one being wounded in the hand and one in the thigh. Their punishment was to be tied head and feet together for twenty-four hours without meat or drink.