Mayflower Society holds annual historical meeting

From left, Betty Corcoran, governor of Tyler Colony; Carolyn McCall, deputy governor of Tyler Colony; Bart Nelson, governor of Texas Society of Mayflower Descendants; and Dr. Amy Glenn, guest speaker at the annual Compact Day luncheon.

On Nov. 10, the Tyler Colony of Texas Society of Mayflower Descendants held its annual Compact Day luncheon.

The meeting was held in the clubroom of Hamilton West Condos, 1521 Rice Road, Tyler.

Speaker of the day was Dr. Amy Glenn who spoke on the subject," The Policital Views of the Mayflower Colonists."

The Mayflower colonists were a group of Christian separatists who were working-class people in search of a place where they could have religious freedom and raise their families, according to Glenn.

They immigrated to Holland to escape religious persecution in England.

Increasing economic difficulties, Glenn said, and Dutch influence on their families resulted in their immigration to America.

To afford the voyage, she said, they approached the London Virginia Company, which awarded a patent to the group and financed the trip in exchange for seven years of indentured servitude.

They departed from Plymouth, England, on Sept. 6, 1620 on the ship, "The Mayflower."

Glenn said there were 102 passengers, but not all of them were separatists. Less than half of the group was separatists and the rest were called "strangers," she said.

However, when the ship arrived in the Cape Cod area, the captain decided to east anchor off of the shoreline what is now called Plymouth, Mass., things began to change among the passengers.

The "strangers" began to boast that they could they could do as they pleased as Cape Cod was beyond the jurisdiction of the London Virginia Company and their rules and regulations no longer applied.

It became apparent that some form of government was

needed before the Pilgrims disembarked from the ship.

The leaders decided that they needed some form of authority and to avoid a possible mutiny, the Mayflower Compact was drawn up and probably written by William Brewster who had a university education. The Pilgrims and "strangers" agreed to it and all of heads of households signed it.

Following the adoption of the Mayflower Compact, those who signed it became legal voters and set about to elect a governor, Glenn said.

She also said that the Mayflower Compact said only four things:

! We have a deep faith and belief in God and His divine guidance.

! We remain loyal to England and to the King regardless of the past.

! We have a mutual regard for one another as equals in the sight of God.

! We intend to establish just and equal laws on which we can build a government for the good of the colony.

"Out of those four statements, however, come a number of ideas," Glenn said. "According to the Mayflower Compact, a self-governing body rules for the greater good.

"The singers of the Compact clearly indicated the importance of the greater good by the written statement, 'solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforementioned.'"

It is interesting to note that many of the idea that the Pilgrims had toward religious and civic duties showed up in the wording of the Declaration of Independence 150 years later, Glenn said.

"The Mayflower Compact expressed the idea of self-government for the first time in the New World," she said. "At least six of our most basic principles came from the Mayflower Compact and Plymouth colony."

According to Glenn, they were:

! All men are created equal.

! All men are treated equally under the law.

! Governments should be created for the people and by the people.

! A social contract exists, even if only implicitly, between the governed the governing.

! Because God created all men as equals; power must reside in the people.

! The people can elect representatives who will guard the interests and preferences of the larger group.

Glenn ended with a closing thought, "As William Bradford said, 'As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea, in some sort to our whole nation.'"