With illegal immigrants currently crossing the channel to England, it is easy to forget the flow was once in the opposite direction. From Elizabethan times, Englishmen and women boarded boats to escape the country’s strict religious conformity laws. Attending Church services was mandatory. Separatist believers lost their property, their liberty and even their lives because they wished to follow a more communal style, with both male and female members participating and voting on key decisions.
Amsterdam became the preferred destination after the Dutch
Republic won independence from Spain in 1581. Most famously, in 1607 a group from
the Nottinghamshire village of Scrooby, led by postmaster William Brewster and
pastor John Robinson, were arrested and imprisoned in Boston Guildhall for
trying to leave the country without a licence. Eventually successful, these pioneers
moved to Leiden, then sailed to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620.
Undoubtedly, the Mayflower Pilgrims were influenced by their
time in Amsterdam, where they lived amongst Huguenots, Anabaptists, Sephardic Jews
and Muslims escaping forced conversion in Spain. There were hundreds of other
English Puritans and Independents too, including former neighbours John Smith
and Thomas Helwys who formed the first Baptist church. All were allowed to follow
their own beliefs and practices provided they were discreet. Amsterdam provided
a level of freedom unimaginable back home.
Naming in Blood (Baxby Mystery #2) is available on Kindle Unlimited and to buy at UK Link and US Link