The Pilgrims in Leiden, Holland
The Separatists Spent 10 Years There Before Sailing to America
Aug 24, 2008 Carroll Trosclair
The City of Leiden in The Netherlands (Holland) is a unique destination for historians and other travelers interested in the pilgrims who sailed to America in 1620. The visit to the tulip and windmill city can be especially appropriate in connection with America’s Thanksgiving Day, which is closely linked to those pilgrims.
According to the Pilgrim Hall Museum at Plymouth, MA, groups of English men, women and children left England in 1607-08 in quest of religious freedom. They were not known as pilgrims then, but rather as "Separatists" who were out of step with both the Church of England and with the Calvinist "puritans" who were simply trying to "purify" the church.
The Separatists spent 12 years in Holland before moving on to America aboard the Mayflower. Holland was more tolerant than England because it had experienced religious persecution earlier under Spanish rule.
Leiden Had Major Cloth-Weaving Industry
According to the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, other English Separatists had fled to Amsterdam in 1595. The pilgrims who arrived in 1607-08 spent one or two years in Amsterdam, then moved to Leiden, which was well known for its university and its cloth-weaving industry. The English were hardly noticed when they arrived because about one third of Leiden’s population consisted of refugees, including thousands from neighboring Belgium.
Pilgrim Leader William Bradford said in his journal that most of the English immigrants went to work in the university or the textile business.
According to the Leiden museum, the pilgrims’contacts with Dutch Mennonites and French-speaking Calvinists in Leiden expanded their horizons and "led to the development of a uniquely cosmopolitan, relatively tolerant view of the world."
In 1620, because of job problems and fear that the Spanish were returning, some Pilgrims sailed back to England and boarded the Mayflower for the trip to Plymouth.
Leiden's American Pilgrim Museum
The American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden is located in a small 14th Century building. It was founded in 1997 by curator and historian Jeremy Bangs, who now serves as its director. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. and has a three euro admision fee. It includes furnishings, maps and engravings recalling life in the Separatists era.
Leiden visitors can also find buildings and monuments recalling:
- The church where the Pilgrims worshipped and where Philip Delano, one of President Frankln Delano Roosevelt’s ancesters, was baptized in 1603.
- The house where Separatist William Brewster set type for books that were forbidden in England.
- The Pieterskerk (Cathedral of St. Peter) where many English pilgrims are buried. A monument there lists the pilgrims who died in Leiden. Another quotes Pilgrim Robert Cushman’s biblical remark: "We are all, in all places, strangers and pilgrims."
- The Pilgrim Archives, where computers are available to trace Pilgrim ancestry.
- A monument which depicts a 1574 Leiden Thanksgiving service. According to the museum, that service inspired the Pilgrim Thanksgiving festival at Plymouth in 1621.
- A ball of yarn sculpture that recalls the weaving industry that flourished in Leiden when the pilgrims were there.
University of Leiden Founded in 1575
Since it was founded in the 12th Century, Leiden has a rich history to offer visitors, including its occupation by the Spanish and the 1807 boat explosion that killed 154 people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Much of Leiden’s history is preserved in its old buildings, narrow streets, museums and at the University of Leiden, which goes back to 1575.
Other historic sites include the 13th Century Burcht Castle, the huge Hooglandsekerk church, the windmill museum and buildings associated with Rembrandt, Einstein and John Adams before he became president of the United States.
Of course, Leiden also offers visitors tulip gardens and windmills.
Leiden is best reached via short train rides from Amsterdam and The Hague.
Sources:
- Pilgrim Hall Museum website
- Leiden American Pilgrim Museum website
- Trip Advisor.com
Amsterdam's Historic Canal Houses
Leiden Tulips
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