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Monday, December 4, 2017

Along the Pilgrim Trail ~ Touring Leiden in The Netherlands

Leiden, The Netherlands

Along the Pilgrim Trail, part 19

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 more about this tour this month.

In my last blog post I described how the first places we visited in Leiden were St. Pieterskerk and Rev. John Robinson's home across the street.  Our tour group then walked around the corner to see the alley where William Brewster lived and had his printing press.  

SITE OF THE VICUS CHORALI (OR PILGRIM) PRESS, ON PIETERSKERKKOORSTEEG
(ST. PETER'S CHURCH, CHOIR ALLEY) LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS, IN THE (1609 - 1620)
HOME OF THE SEPARATIST PILGRIM FATHER, ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER OF SCROOBY,
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, THE SPIRITUAL LEADER OF PLYMOUTH IN NEW ENGLAND
UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1643 - 44.

THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS (USA 1897)
WALDO MORGAN ALLEN, GOVERNOR GENERAL
ON THEIR FIRST PILGRIMAGE 152 BY PLANES - TO THE NETHERLANDS AND ENGLAND
SEPTEMBER 22 - OCTOBER 6, 1955
335 YEARS AFTER THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER


This little alley was renamed for William Brewster
Brewster descendants touching the wall of Brewster's house

Just a few blocks away was the little side street where the English Separatist James Chilton was stoned with a cobblestone during a religious riot on 28 April 1615.  There are existing records that show his daughter sought medical treatment for him due to his head injury after the attack.



Around the corner is the Leiden city hall, Staduis, where some of the Separatists had civil weddings recorded.  The Dutch custom of civil weddings was brought to New England by the English Pilgrim Separatists.  This building dates from the sixteenth century.



And within eyesight of the St. Catherine's hospital where Myles Standish was treated in 1601, as a British soldier during the war with Spain.  He was still living in Leiden when he was hired by the Separatists to act as their military advisor in 1620.  The chapel of this hospital is known as the protestant Waalse Kerk (Waloon Church).

St. Catherine's Hospital
WAALSE KERK
Originally a hospital chapel from the 13th
century.  After the Reformation used by the
French Church in the Netherlands

We then visited Jeremy Bangs' American Pilgrim Museum. This is a tiny place, so our group was divided into two sections, and then each section was divided in half so that one small group could gather in one room, and the other half of the group in the other.  This small two room museum is well worth visiting if you are ever in Leiden.  See the website:   http://www.leidenamericanpilgrimmuseum.org/index.htm



We were encouraged to ask questions, sit on the furniture,
and touch the books!  Quite an experience for descendants!





The tour ended here in Leiden on October 1st, but we lingered here to visit with some Hoogerzeil cousins until October 3rd.   In Leiden, the third of October is the day they celebrate liberation from a siege with Spain in 1574.  This celebration is a harvest festival that may have inspired the Separatists to celebrate Thanksgiving when they became known as "The Pilgrim Fathers" and settled in the New World. It is a very big party, and we got out of town just in time!

When the English Separatists left Leiden to go to Delfshaven to board the ship The Speedwell to join up with the ship The Mayflower, they left from this spot on this little canal in Leiden.  It is marked with a large memorial plaque listing the family names.  Many of these are not names related to the Mayflower, but some families came later.  Tomorrow I will blog about Delftshaven.  Stay tuned!


ALLERTON - ALSTON - BARKER
BARLOW - BASSETT - BLOSSOM
BOMPASS - BRADFORD
BREWSTER - BROWNE- CAREY
CARPENTER - CARVER - CHANDLER
CHILTON - COOKE - COOPER
CROCKSTON - CUSHMAN
CUTHBERTSON - DE LANNOY
DUNHAM - ENGLISH - FLETCHER
FULLER - GOODALE - GOODMAN
HANSON - HEALE - HOOKE
JENNEY - LEE - MAHIEU
MASTERSON - MINTER - MITCHELL
MORTON - NICHOLAS - NORRIS
PONTUS - PRIEST - RING
ROBINSON - ROGERS - SAMSON
SOUTHWORTH - STANDISH
SYMONSON - TILLIE - TINKER
TRACEY - TURNER - WHITE
WILLETT - WILLIAMS - WINSLOW
WOOD- WRIGHT

Vanaf hier vertrokken de Pilgrims uit
Leiden op weg naar de nieuwe wereld
1620 - 1647
From here the Pilgrims left Leiden
on their Journey to the new world
PA



Part 1 of this series "Babworth, Nottinghamshire":

Part 2 of this series "Scrooby Manor"

Part 3 of this series “Gainsborough, Lincolnshire”:

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

Part 5 this series "Stephen Hopkins of 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":

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 “In Exile in Amsterdam”:

Part 18 of this series “St. Pieterskerk in Leiden, The Netherlands”:


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Along the Pilgrim Trail ~ Touring Leiden in The Netherlands”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 4, 2017, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/12/along-pilgrim-trail-touring-leiden-in.html: accessed [access date]). 

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