“No home for these!—too well they knew
The mitered king behind the throne;
The sails were set, the pennons flew,
And westward, ho! for worlds unknown.”
The rest of the story of the “Pilgrim Fathers” we all know—how they crossed the water, battled against famine, disease and poverty, and succeeded slowly but surely in building up a settlement at Plymouth.
Years passed before they had any neighbors. At last, in 1628, the little settlement of Salem was formed by the Massachusetts Bay Company. This was followed two years later by a big migration of Puritans to New England under John Winthrop which led to the founding of Boston and several smaller towns. The colony which embraced these different settlements was called Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Meanwhile, things had been going from bad to worse in England. King Charles was now on the throne and his subjects were discouraged to find that he was even more of a tyrannical master than James, his father. How could anybody expect justice or fairness from a ruler who believed that because he was a king, he could do no wrong? It grew more and more uncomfortable for the Puritans every day, even in the established church. One of Charles’ chief advisers, Archbishop Laud, was busy ridding the country of all “heretics” and other offenders against the royal will and law. If Roger Williams had now taken notes in the Star Chamber as he did when a boy, he would have recorded many undeserved punishments, such as heavy fines, whippings and worse. But he was now a man and looking with longing eyes across the ocean, as so many of his countrymen had before him.
As to Roger Williams’ true place among the different sects of his time, he was without doubt a Separatist. More than one passage in his letters points to this as the truth. There was no half-way to a man of his decided character. Believing as he did, there was only one thing for him to do—seek a refuge in the New World.
“And truly it was as bitter as death to me,” he wrote in after years, “when Bishop Laud pursued me out of this land, and my conscience was persuaded against the national church, and ceremonies, and bishops.”
By the last of the year 1630, our pioneer was ready to sail for America and on December 1st, he took passage in the ship Lyon, commanded by Captain Pierce, at Bristol. With him was his young wife Mary. Very little is known about her early history—far less than what has been discovered about the fair Jane whom Roger Williams failed to win. That she made a good wife and mother and shared her husband’s troublous career with loving devotion is quite certain.
For over two months, in the dead of winter, the vessel battled with gales and storms and ice. One passenger, a young man, lost his life and at times probably everybody aboard felt sure they would never see land again. It must have been with deep relief and thanksgiving that the weary passengers finally landed safely at Nantasket, near Boston, February 5, 1631.
In this stormy fashion, Roger Williams’ new life began.