That’s not a typo, it’s the way Plymouth was spelt by those who came over on the Mayflower in 1620. Spelling was not standardized in Britain until the mid-18th century with Johnson’s dictionary.

We drove down to Plymouth and the first thing we saw was not Mayflower II, Plymouth Rock or Plymouth Plantation but Isaac’s Restaurant! After an ice-cream (which got everywhere because of its size and the wind blowing on it, not being able to eat it fast enough before it melted), we wandered on to look at the Mayflower II, built in England in 1957 and sailed over to new Plymouth. Various information posts and memorials highlighted the story of the colonists and the Indians and there is a statue of the chief indian Massasoit of the Wampanoag who helped the settlers survive, though many of both populations died from illness, presumably viral infections indigenous to either group. There is an impressive William Bradford statue who came to spread the gospel beyond the known world. The list of names of those who died in the first year after arrival on a memorial tomb is sadly long. Two lads were skateboarding around it on the path and appeared to be french speaking, and oblivious to its significance. The Rock is embedded in the sand and washed by the tide. It was not highlighted until after the first generation had died but a second generation man identified it for posterity and oxen then moved it into a prominent position, splitting it in half in the effort. Later it was cemented back together.

Only about half of the travellers on the Mayflower were from the Leiden church in Holland, exiles from England because of persecution by the state for their separation from the Church of England. They decided they would have a better chance of living a godly life in a new colony without interference from the state. The rest were traders and treasure seekers, and they came from all over England. Had things gone to plan, there would have been two boats making the crossing, but they soon found that the Speedwell was unseaworthy and everyone had to fit onto the Mayflower.

It cost $8 each to visit the new boat. It is very cramped. The staff are very knowledgeable and helpful. The one I spoke to knew of the Mayflower barn in Jordans. When I was at Seer Green Primary School we used to walk there in a long crocodile to see it and were always told it was built with timbers from the Mayflower. Now they say that there is perhaps one beam (with a mayflower on it) that came from the ship.

On the Mayflower II it seemed remarkable that so many people could live on it for five weeks packed so closely together. The best part is one of the staff members dressed in period costume and speaking in what they suppose is a period accent and refusing to acknowledge and knowledge of anything beyond 1620. She pretended to be shocked when I said that John Robinson, pastor of the Pilgrims in Leyden, was dead. He in fact died in 1625 and never joined them, as he had originally planned (some day I plan to reprint the works of John Robinson, which were reprinted in the 19th century in four small volumes).

We spent so long with this lady (who accused Marianne of being an Arminian because the lady said that you couldn’t know if you were going to heaven and Marianne said she did know. So this gave us the opportunity to preach the Gospel to her and those who were listening. Since those who are saved are given God’s Spirit as a guarantee (Romans 5:5; 8:16; Ephesians 1:13) they must know they are saved, and told her that if she didn’t know she needs to repent and trust Christ.

We headed down to Plymouth Plantation, but arrived too late to get in, so we wandered around the shops and I bought a biography of Anne Hutchinson who was ejected from the Massachusetts Bay colony for heresy and sedition following the Antinomian Controversy of 1636. It is said that she claimed direct revelation, but, of course, history is written by the victors, so whether this is what she actually said or whether this is what the authorities said she said remains to be seen. I will have to get into the documents of the court case which was published in 1968.

From Plymouth we had a leisurely drive home—it had to be as road work (singular over here) caused the traffic to crawl along until we got to south Boston.