December 18, 1620, 102 seekers after religious freedom landed at Plymouth Rock in the Mayflower after an arduous voyage of 3 months and 12 days. They were dubbed pilgrims by William Bradford, who would become Plymouth's first governor. Three of my ancestors came ashore then — not unusual since a high percentage of Americans can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower.
As it happens one of those ancestors was the first European born in the New World — Peregrine White — born aboard the Mayflower while it held off-shore and advance scouts searched for a safe harbor for the ship to land.
"The names of those which came over first, in the year 1620, and were by the blessing of God the first beginners and in a sort the foundation of all the Plantations and Colonies in New England; and their families…
"Mr. William White and Susanna his wife and one son called Resolved, and one born a-shipboard called Peregrine ..."
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, ed.
Samuel Eliot Morison (New York : Knopf, 1991), p. 442.
