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Show n . , v. . , . "( , y Nl W vWtf If-tK-. UXJoVaJj I The Mayflower during voyage, as seen in early engraving. tured pamphlet printers had been whipped, had their ears cut off, their noses split, were branded with the letters SS, standing for "Stirrer of Sedition and sent to London's Fleet prison for life. Brewster secretly returned to England under the cover name of "Master Williamson," which explains why a mysterious "Williamson" was added at the last minute to the Mayflower passenger list after the ship put in at Plymouth. The threatened persecution of Brewster was one of the main reasons the Pilgrims decided to leave Holland and emigrate to the New World. Another was the "Generation Gap," 350 years before that term became popular as a common family problem. The Pilgrims' children were falling away from the religion of Wrote William Bradford later, "Many of the children, by the great incentiousness of youth were drawn away by evil example." Dutch Sundays were dangerously liberal as far as the Pilgrims were concerned. The Pilgrim youngsters were growing up without any memories of England and were envious of their Dutch chums out playing on Sunday afternoon while they were forced to endure endless sermons indoors. then-father- Not all s. the Pilgrims were to leave Holland. Mary Brewster, for instance, took only two of her five children. Love and Wrestling, her two youngest sons, accompanied her. Jonathan, Patience and Fear, the older children, were left behind. Also staying in Leiden was Pastor John Robinson, without a doubt the most important Pilgrim leader among the elders before the trip to the New World began. His memory is still revered in Leiden and on the outer wall of the baptistry of Saint Peter's Church, there now stands a plaque showing the Mayflower, the date 1620, carrying the inscription: "Rev. John Robinson, M.A., Paster of the English Church, worshipping over against this whence at his spot, A.D. 1609-162prompting went forth The Pilgrim Fathers to settle New England in 1620." All the Leiden buildings even remotely connected with the history of the Pilgrim Fathers have been specially lighted, particularly Saint Peter's Church in the center of town. Built in the late 13th century, the church is just a few feet from the site of Robinson's home. And inside the church, a small, sober chapel in the southwest corner has been dedicated to the Pilgrims' memory. The square in front of Saint Peter's Church has been kept fre of traffic and parking to preserve its appearance as a plaza. Not far from the church is the Pilgrim Fathers House on the de Vliet canal, containing an exhibition of Pilgrim Father documents, illuminated enlargements of pertinent papers still contained in Leiden's city archives. Guides, dressed in traditional Pilgrim fashion, take visitors through the house, show the wedding registers, birth registers, notary books, and the last will of John Robinson's wife, Bridget. Descendents of the Pilgrim Fathers can obtain photocopies of the Pilgrim documents most important to them personally. While history records that indeed Plymouth, England, was the last port for the Mayflower en route to the New World, Leiden, the Netherlands, can rightfully claim an intimate association with that band of courageous Pilgrims. w 1 i.-- . Crown crtf VY r- 1 1 J o w o 0 a 17th-centu- ry 5 9 Jr.: 5, Family Weekly, November 22, 1970 1 vfi) i ( fa- - S 491 '?.' , -- , it f . f " 4 |