John Robinson's Congregation

Between 1590 and 1607 a group of English families wishing to separate from the Anglican Church, an action prohibited by law, formed a secret congregation at Scrooby, a village east of Sheffield. John Robinson became their minister in 1607, when the congregation numbered about 100.

Other Separatists had moved to Holland to have freedom of worship, although leaving England without permission was illegal. After several unsuccessful efforts, Robinson and some of his congregation escaped to Amsterdam in 1608, and the next year settled at Leiden, where most of them worked in the cloth industry. Many Separatists from England as well as those of other congregations in Holland came to join them, and the Green Gate congregation, as the Leiden church was known, grew to some 300 members.

Meanwhile the first permanent English colony in America was founded at Jamestown, and by 1617 the Green Gate congregation was interested in emigrating to the New World. John Carver, representing the group, opened negotiations with the Virginia Company of London for permission to establish a fishing and trading post in the north of its chartered area. The company agreed, but the church lacked the funds to undertake the enterprise.

The group was considering an offer by the Dutch West India Company to settle them on Manhattan Island when Thomas Weston of London made a proposal. He would organize a merchant adventurers' company and send the Leiden group to Virginia. The majority of the congregation rejected the offer, but a minority under the leadership of John Carver, Elder William Brewster, and William Bradford elected to go. Before plans were completed, it was learned that a charter for New England was being sought by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The Leiden group would have favored New England, where the Anglican Church was not already established, as it was in Virginia. However, they did not wish to delay departure until Gorges had his charter and could authorize their settlement.