Documents revealing crucial new information about pilgrims who founded America have been uncovered in Lincolnshire Archives, ahead of the 2020 ‘Mayflower 400’ anniversary next year.
The records and new research, now on display in Boston Guildhall, have revealed a story of illicit worship, intrigue and influence in the English town – with a local draper, Leonard Beetson, central to the story. Luke Skerritt, of Boston Guildhall Museum, knew of a document in the archives that related to the arrest of the pilgrims in Boston in 1607 and arranged to view it. This document led him to discover the pilgrims were in Boston for three months before their arrest – and that they were influential individuals such as WIlliam Brewster, Richard Clyfton and Thomas Helwys.
Beetson was arrested alongside the famous pilgrims but chose to stay in Boston, though he became a close friend of the radical puritan vicar of Boston, John Cotton, who influenced one in every 10 Bostonians to leave for America and found Boston, Massachusetts in 1630.