Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I wonder whether any forum members have connections of any sort going back to the "Pilgrim Fathers", who emigrated from England to America in 1620 (which is only 68 years after the founding of CH). The 400th anniversary of this event is coming up.

The specific date that I shall be celebrating is 1 Aug 1620. This is when the core party of the English Pilgrim Fathers embarked on the ship Speedwell in the small port of Delfshaven, Holland (near Rotterdam), and headed to Southampton, England to rendezvous with the ship Mayflower. They had been living in self-imposed religious exile in Leiden, Holland for 11 years prior to this. In the end the Speedwell proved unseaworthy for the Atlantic crossing and the expedition was consolidated in Plymouth, England, on to the one ship, the Mayflower, which eventually made it across the Atlantic to Cape Cod in early November 1620.

I'm not a Mayflower descendent myself, but I do have a personal connection, in that my ancestry (London from 1800) is Delfshaven, Holland, from 1800 back to 1569 (maybe earlier). It is highly likely that some of my ancestors were on the quayside in Delfshaven to bid farewell to the people embarking on the Speedwell on 1 Aug 1620.

So, any other Forum member with Mayflower/Pilgrim Fathers connections?

Not quite but one of my forebears, Deacon Thomas Loring, arrived at Hingham in Massachusetts on 23 December 1634 which, taking the date of the Mayflower's arrival as 11 Nov 1620, is virtually the same amount of time after the Pilgrim Fathers' arrival, as their arrival was after the founding of Jamestown, the first English colony, on 13 May 1607.

Even today there are a lot of Lorings in New England and, in particular, in Massachusetts. Deacon Thomas and his descendants flourished in the New World and there were Lorings on pretty much both sides of the divide during most of America's subsequent internecine wars and conflicts: the revolutionary wars; the civil war; the 19th century conflict between slavers and abolitionists.

My own branch of the family is descended from Commodore Joshua Loring, a Royal Navy officer and former Commodore of the Great Lakes, who was a noted Loyalist in the revolutionary wars and was ultimately exiled to England after the (so-called) Patriots gained the upper hand. Our greatest claim to fame, or infamy, however, is that Joshua's daughter-in-law was the mistress of General Sir William Howe, the English Commander-in-Chief. His son, Lieutenant Joshua Loring Junior, was apparently quite happy with the relationship as Sir William paid off his gambling debts. Joshua Junior is not necessarily an ancestor to be proud of, but he and Betsy add a touch of colour to the family history. The relationship led to our very own verse in 'Yankee Doodle' which, by the mid 1770s, was widely used as a Patriotic song by the separatists: 'Sir William, he, snug as a flea, lay in bed a-snoring. He does no harm, as he stays warm, in bed with Mrs Loring'.

I am a great Ameriphile but I always enjoy teasing Americans who make much of their Irish-ness by pointing out that if they are 'Irish Americans' I can just as logically be seen as 'American Irish', Commodore Joshua's return from America being not that much more distant than most of their forbears' arrival in the United States. Unlike most of them, I actually have an Irish passport to demonstrate my lineage.

No real connection (my background goes back to Denmark via Northern France and probably some Spanish) but sometime in the 1950's I was taken to see the (facsimile) Mayflower being built by hand in Brixham, Devon and also a nearby town has a sign claiming to be the settlement of origin of the Mayflower passengers.

No direct connection other than William Mullins haled from my home town of Dorking.

There is a blue plaque on his old home in West Street, centre of our antique business.

"William Mullins (c. 1572 – 1621) and his family traveled as passengers on the historic 1620 voyage to America on the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. Mullins perished in the pilgrims' first winter in the New World, with his wife and son dying soon after."

There is a Shadrach Hopgood on the Speedwell whom my cousin believes is related to us, but I cannot trace the connection.

No, it was purely a case of mistaken identity.

During my first year at CH I went back to my old primary school in southeast London in my Housey uniform to meet my past school mistress again and show the class the unique uniform. Afterwards as I was walking back home along the streets a youth shouted to me from across the road "Oi mate! Where d' yer park the Mayflower?" At least it demonstrated that he had acquired a good working knowledge of history from his own education.

Unless he was referring to the Triumph Mayflower!

JustRob wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:34 am No, it was purely a case of mistaken identity.

During my first year at CH I went back to my old primary school in southeast London in my Housey uniform to meet my past school mistress again and show the class the unique uniform. Afterwards as I was walking back home along the streets a youth shouted to me from across the road "Oi mate! Where d' yer park the Mayflower?" At least it demonstrated that he had acquired a good working knowledge of history from his own education.

A fine heckler in the making there, all credit to him for getting within 67 years or so of the foundation date, a shame that standards of historical knowledge have fallen.