Map of First Attempt to Depart, 1607

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Map of First Attempt to Depart, 1607

With the situation growing more intense the Scrooby congregation realized they could not stay, yet they were not allowed to go. The English people were more or less prisoners in their own land and not allowed to go abroad without special permission from the King's Privy Council. Passports were required and the Separatists found the ports and havens had been closed against them.

As a result of the impossible situation, Bradford tells us the Separatists were forced "to seek secret means of conveyance, and to bribe and fee mariners, and give extraordinary rates for their passages. And yet were they often times betrayed, many of them; and both they and their goods intercepted and surprised, and thereby put to great trouble and charge..."

"There was a large company of them purposed to get passage at Boston in Lincolnshire, and for that end had hired a ship wholly unto themselves and made agreement with the master to be ready at a certain day, and take them and their goods in at a convenient place, where they accordingly would all attend in readiness."

Late in 1607, Clyfton and a group of his followers (probably including the Brewster, Bradford and the Robinsons) started off, on foot, for the seacoast town of Boston which lay sixty miles to the southeast.

After a large expenditure of money, the Separatists found themselves waiting at the arranged place of debarkation, but the ship master did not appear on the appointed day. When the ship finally arrived at the designated spot, the ship master took them aboard in the night. "But when he had them and their goods abroad," the Separatist group learned they had been betrayed and King James' local sheriff with his bailiffs appeared on the scene to arrest them. They were put in open boats, where they were "rifled and ransacked". The shirts of the men were searched for money, "yea even the women bore even further than became modesty". The sheriff's men hauled them back into the town of Boston and "made them a spectacle and wonder to the multitude which came flocking on all sides to behold them".

The bailiffs stripped them of their money, books and other goods before they were presented to the magistrates. Messengers were then sent to inform the Lords of the Council of the arrest, and the bedraggled Separatists were committed to jail.

Although the magistrate treated them courteously and showed them what favor he could, he could not release them until orders came to him from the Lords of the Council

After a month's imprisonment the greatest part the charges were dismissed and the Separatists were sent back to the places from whence they had come. However, seven of the principal members, including Richard Clyfton, John Robinson and William Brewster, were still kept in prison and bound over to the assizes. The seven men were soon released and never brought to trial.

Last modified November 7, 1999
by
Webmaster Dave Lossos