Puritans

Amer. governor of the Plymouth Colony for 30 years. A member of the Separatist movement within Puritanism, in 1609 he went to Holland to seek religious freedom. Finding a lack of opportunity there, in 1620 he helped organize an expedition of about 100 Pilgrims to the New World. He helped draft the Mayflower Compact aboard the group's ship, was unanimously chosen governor, and served as governor of the Plymouth Colony for all but five years from 1621 to 1656. He helped …

…firm and stable earth, their proper element.” God's design was seen in every event no matter how small. When, for instance, a sailor aboard the Mayflower mocked those Puritans who were sick, William Bradford, recounting the incident in his History of Plymouth Plantation, found it fitting that the sailor should succumb to a disease and die. “But it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease.”