Pictures:
Top - All Saints Church, Babworth - Charge of Richard Clyfton. Middle - Austerfield Church, where William Bradford was baptised in 1589. Bottom - Scrooby Manor, home of William Brewster.
The Pilgrim Fathers - from nearby to New England
The borders of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire were central – at the beginning of the 17th century – for a group of Christian believers who suffered greatly for their nonconformity. They were to be later known as the Pilgrim Fathers, who departed on the Mayflower from Plymouth to settle in what is now New England in the United States.
Richard Clyfton, a clergyman, was rector at Babworth in Nottinghamshire, William Bradford, a businessman, came from Austerfield in Yorkshire and William Brewster, a crown postmaster, came from Scrooby in Nottinghamshire. They covenanted together in 1606 to form the nonconformist church at Scrooby, with Brewster providing the accommodation at his home, Scrooby Manor.
As a result of persecution, they later fled with others to Holland, (forming another church with a congregation of around 100-150 people) before departing with others on board the famous Mayflower to establish the Plymouth Colony, which remained a separate state right up until 1691, almost a century after they first met together at Scrooby Manor.
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