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Monday, November 27, 2017

Along the Pilgrim Trail ~ St. Pieterskerk in Leiden, Holland, near where the Pilgrims worshiped

The 2017 GSMD Historic Sites Tour in front of St. Pieterskerk, Leiden, The Netherlands

Vincent and I recently took the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Historic Sites Tour of England, Wales and The Netherlands along with 41 other enthusiast participants (known as "The 43").  We traced the footsteps of the Separatists and the Mayflower passengers and crew all around these countries with some amazing tour directors, guides, historians and authors.  We were given access to places off the usual tourist trails, and behind the scenes.  We had a wonderful time, and I will be blogging about it a few more times in the next week or so.



We spent a long day in Leiden seeing the sites where the Pilgrims lived, worked, and worshiped .  Our group took a long walk through the university, where William Bradford taught English, and where John Robinson studied. It was very quiet on a Sunday morning!  We had to wait a while for the St. Pieterskerk to open, since the access to the building was through a small pub!  The church was deconsecrated in 1971 and is now run as a museum, and an event and concert venue.

The church building was started in 1390, and finished in the 1570s.  According to Wikipedia “On 7 July 1572 the church was closed for services.  It reopened on 5 October of the same year for the first protestant service.”  This was not long before the Scrooby congregation headed by Reverend John Robinson arrived in 1609.  The Separatists and John Robinson lived across the street from the church at the former almshouse and in apartments around a small courtyard. This alley or court still exists, but it is privately owned and photography was not allowed inside, although we were allowed to peek inside.


"Almshouse, founded in 1655 for the benefit of poor people.
Until 1625 John Robinson lived in this place.
His followers set sail from Leiden to America as
the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620." 

The Separatists worshiped here together at John Robinson's house across from St. Pieterskerk.  In 1620, when a large group of them (“the Pilgrims”) left Leiden via Delfshaven on board the ship The Speedwell to join the Mayflower for the New World. Rev. John Robinson stayed behind with the rest of his flock, intending to join them in the New World, but he died in Leiden and was buried under the floor of St. Pieterskerk.  There is a plaque listing the names of the Separatists and their children who were at one time buried under the floor.  The graves have since been cleared out, and the church has been reconsecrated.  It is still a very solemn place to visit.  As a descendant of Rev. Robinson, I had been looking forward to this for a long time!

UPDATE:  (3:56 PM EST 27 November 2017)
A comment from Leiden historian Jeremy Bangs:
"The Pilgrims did not worship in the Pieterskerk. They met for many years across the street in John Robinson's large house. After a general rule against groups' gathering in private houses to discuss religious issues (a measure against the Remonstrants, having nothing to do with the Pilgrims), the Pilgrims were allowed to meet in a room in the former chapel that had become the university;s library. After the remnant of the Pilgrim congregation merged with the English Reformed Church whose minister was Hugh Goodyear, that room remained in use as the English Church until the early 19th century, The English Church / University Library was behind Robinson's house, and the walls still remain, although the interior has been drastically altered."

During the Pilgrim Fathers Leiden exile
more than thirty family members died.
Many were buried in the Pieterskerk along with
their Leiden neighbours.
"BUT NOW WE ARE ALL, IN ALL PLACES,
STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS, TRAVELERS
AND SOJOURNERS..."
Robert Cushman, Pilgrim Leader 1622
----------------
Isaac Allerton's child - 1620
John Allerton's child - 1616
Thomas Blossom's children - 1617
Thomas Brewer's wife and children - 1617, 1618
William Britsman's child - 1612
Edmund Chandler's child - 1619
Robert Cushman's wife & children - 1616
Samuel Fuller's wife & child - 1615
Edmund Jessop's child - 1618
John Keble's child - 1614
Samuel Lee's child - 1619
Robert Peck's child - 1619
John Reynold's wife & child - 1619
John Robinson's children - 1618, 1621, 1623
John Robinson - 1625
John Spooner - 1628
John & Jane Spooner's child - 1630
Randall Thicken's child - 1615
The Mayflower 1620
------------
In Memory of
REV. JOHN ROBINSON, M.A.,
Pastor of the English church worshiping over against
this spot A.D. 1609 - 1625, when at his prompting
went forth
THE PILGRIM FATHERS
to settle New England
in 1620
---------------
Buried under this house of worship, 4 Mar. 1625
AEt. XLIX years
--------------
IN MEMORIA AETERNA ERIT JUSTUS
---------------
Erected by the National Council of the Congregational
Churches of the United States of America
A.D. 1891


Inside the John Robinson chapel
inside St. Pieterskerk

"IN MEMORY OF
JOHN ROBINSON
PASTOR OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN LEYDEN
1609 - 1625
HIS BROADLY TOLERANT MID
GUIDED AND DEVELOPED THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
THE PILGRIMS OF THE MAYFLOWER
OF HIM THESE WALLS ENSHRINE ALL THAT WAS MORTAL
HIS UNDYING SPIRIT
STILL DOMINATES THE CONSCIENCES OF A MIGHTY NATION
IN THE LAND BEYOND THE SEAS

THIS TABLET WAS ERECTED BY THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER
DESCENDANTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  A.D. 1928"
St. Pieterskerk from the narrow
streets of Leiden, The Netherland

I descend from Rev. John Robinson twice!  Click here to see my lineages:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/08/surname-saturday-robinson-of-england.html

---------------------------------------

Part 1 of this series "Babworth, Nottinghamshire":

Part 2 of this series “Scrooby Manor, Nottinghamshire”:

Part 3 of this series "Gainsborough, Lincolnshire"

Part 4 of this series "Harwich, Essex, home of the Mayflower"

Part 5 of this series "Upper Clatford, Hampshire":

Part 6 of this series "William Mullins of Dorking, Surrey":

Part 7 of this series "Edward Winslow of Droitwich, Worcestershire":

Part 8 of this series "The Fullers of Reddenhall, Norfolk":

Part 9 of this series "John Howland of Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire":

Part 10 of this series "Tilley and Sampson of Henlow, Bedfordshire":

Part 11 of this series "William Bradford of Austerfield, Yorkshire":

Part 12 of this series "Francis Eaton of Bristol":

Part 13 of this series "James Chilton, Robert Cushman of Canterbury, Kent, England":

Part 14 of this series "Fishtoft, Lincolnshire where the Pilgrims were betrayed":
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/along-pilgrim-trail-fishtoft.html

Part 15 of this series "Boston, Lincolnshire, where the Pilgrims were jailed":

Part 16 of this series "Immingham, Lincolnshire to Holland":

Part 17 of this series "Exile in Amsterdam, Holland in 1609":
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/along-pilgrim-trail-in-exile-in.html   


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Along the Pilgrim Trail ~ St. Pieterskerk in Leiden, Holland, near where the Pilgrims worshiped", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 27, 2017, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/along-pilgrim-trail-st-pieterskerk-in.html: accessed [access date]). 

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