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Great Puritan Migration (1620-1640): Passenger Ship Portal

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The Great Puritan Migration

From The Great Migration of Picky Puritans, 1620-40 New England Historical Society

When the Pilgrims landed in Plimoth Plantation in 1620, they began what was called the Great Migration – great not because of the numbers of people who arrived, but because of the Puritans’ purpose. They came to America to live righteous and spiritual lives, rather than to get rich. And they didn’t let just anyone join their movement. Most of the Puritans who came to New England were prosperous middle-class families. They were different from the poor, single male immigrants who predominated immigration to other regions of America. They were highly literate and skilled, unlike the immigrants to Virginia, 75 percent of whom were servants. The Puritans were actually leaving stable economic lives in a corrupt England for an uncertain future in a land where they could build a City Upon a Hill. ....

... The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony were the most extreme of the Puritan sect. They believed in complete separation from the corrupt Anglican church. More moderate Puritans only sought to purify and reform the Church of England. King Charles I gave the Great Migration an impetus when he dissolved Parliament in 1629 and began the Eleven Years’ Tyranny. Charles, a high Anglican, embraced religious spectacle and persecuted Puritans. The Puritans knew the Plymouth Colony experiment worked, and decided to replicate it. The Great Migration began to take off in 1630 when John Winthrop led a fleet of 11 ships to Massachusetts. Winthrop brought 800 people with him to New England; 20,000 followed him over the next 10 years. The Massachusetts Bay Company found willing recruits. Marcus Lee Hansen in The Atlantic Migration 1607-1860 wrote:

"The company had no trouble in finding congregational groups willing to go, and the groups and no trouble in recruiting members. A rage of emigration swept through the eastern and midland counties of England, arousing in the authorities an apprehension which was to be shared by many other local officials of Europe during the next two and a half centuries. The popular interest anticipated most of the features appearing in later periods. The ballad, “Summons to New England,” was sung on the streets; a “great giddiness” to depart prevailed; “incredible numbers’ sold their lands; and debtors attempted to get away under the pretext of religion. When John Winthrop, Jr., in 1635 passed through Ireland, Scotland and the north of England, he found that the contagion spread also to these parts; everywhere he stopped, eager inquirers sought him out."

... Once the immigrants arrived, they typically fanned out to new towns after spending a few weeks or through the winter season in their port of entry. If they arrived early enough in a new town to become a proprietor, they would share in the distribution of land. Towns limited the number of proprietors to make sure their children had viable economic futures. When the town reached its limit, it was declared closed. Within the first 10 years of settlement, 22 towns were declared closed from Maine to Rhode Island. But there was plenty of frontier farther into the interior.

All that ended when the English Civil War broke out in 1640. The great migration stopped, and some settlers returned to England to fight the war. But the population of New England grew anyway. The Puritans lived longer and healthier lives, and formed large, healthy families. When the first U.S. census was taken in 1790, New England had a population of 1,009,522.

.... With thanks to GreatMigration.org and The Atlantic Migration 1607-1860 by Marcus Lee Hansen.


Ships of the Great Migration

listed chronologically

  1. Great Migration: Passengers of the Mayflower, 1620
  2. Great Migration: Passengers of the Fortune, 1621
  3. Great Migration: Passengers of the Sparrow, 1622
  4. Great Migration: Passengers of the Anne & Little James, 1623
  5. Great Migration: Passengers of the Abigail, 1628
  6. Great Migration: Passengers of the Higginson Fleet, 1629
  7. Great Migration: Passengers of the Lyon's Whelp, 1629
  8. Great Migration: Passengers of the Arbella, 1630
  9. Great Migration: Passengers of the Handmaid, 1630
  10. Great Migration: Passengers of the Mary & John, 1630
  11. Great Migration: Passengers of the Swift, 1630
  12. Great Migration: Passenger of the William & Francis, 1632
  13. Great Migration: Passengers of the Lyon, 1631 & 1632
  14. Great Migration: Passengers of the Mary & Jane, 1633
  15. Great Migration: Passengers of the Griffin, 1633
  16. Great Migration: Passengers of the Mary & John, 1633/4
  17. Great Migration: Passengers of the Recovery 1633/1634
  18. Great Migration: Passengers of the Elizabeth and Ann, 1634
  19. Great Migration: Passengers of the Elizabeth and Dorcas, 1634
  20. Great Migration: Passengers of the Francis 1634
  21. Great Migration: Passengers of the Griffin, 1634
  22. Great Migration: Passengers of the Hercules, 1634
  23. Great Migration: Passengers of the Elizabeth, 1634 & 1635
  24. Great Migration: Passengers of the James of London, 1635
  25. Great Migration: Passengers of the Phillip, 1635
  26. Great Migration: Passengers of the Planter, 1635
  27. Great Migration: Passengers of the Abigail, 1635
  28. Great Migration: Passengers of the Angel Gabriel, 1635
  29. Great Migration: Passengers of the James from Bristol, 1635
  30. Great Migration: Passengers of the Truelove 1635
  31. Great Migration: Passengers of the Unity, 1635
  32. Great Migration: Passengers of the Blessing, 1635
  33. Great Migration: Passengers of the Defence (Defiance), 1635
  34. Great Migration: Passengers of the Hopewell, Spring 1635
  35. Great Migration: Passengers of the Increase, 1635
  36. Great Migration: Passengers of the Susan and Ellen, 1635
  37. Great Migration: Passengers of the Speedwell, 1635 & 1637
  38. Great Migration: Passengers of the John & Dorothy of Ispwich & The Rose of Yarmouth, 1637
  39. Great Migration: Passengers of the Mary Anne of Yarmouth, 1637
  40. Great Migration: Passengers of the Bevis, 1638
  41. Great Migration: Passengers of the Confidence, 1638
  42. Great Migration: Passengers of the Hector, 1637 & 1638
  43. Great Migration: Passengers of the Diligent, 1638
  44. Great Migration: Passengers of the John of London, 1638
  45. Great Migration: Passengers of the Jonathan, 1639

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