Acknowledgements, and a note about the book and its sources

Personal records are few and far between about the courageous people of modest origin who founded New England. So often these heroes and heroines are mere names in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial. Yet the Winslows and their friends were actors in momentous events. Settling in America and getting to know the Indians, they created a new society where they were not ruled by a monarch, and where they agreed the laws between themselves. But they also lived through the horror of Indian war, as greater numbers of Europeans eroded the trust of the early days.

When lives are poorly documented, lawsuits can be a means of getting information. Fortunately the Winslows married into the litigious Pelham family. Legal depositions at the National Archives in London, unseen for 300 years, shed rare light on the lives of the second generation of Winslows and their links to England.

William Bradford’s history of Plymouth Plantation, Edward Winslow’s own writing, the John Winthrop letters and his journal have been important authorities, as have the records of Plymouth Colony and the correspondence of Roger Williams. John Demos’s A Little Commonwealth inspired this book. Jeremy Bangs’s archival work on the Pilgrims in Leiden and New England, George D. Langdon Jr’s Pilgrim Colony and the research of Cynthia Hagar Krusell on the Winslows have been essential.

I have modernised all spellings for the reader’s convenience. Nowadays the terms Native American and American Indian are used interchangeably to describe the first inhabitants of North America. Native American has also come to mean Samoans and Micronesians, as well as Eskimos. I have elected to use the term ‘American Indian’ or the name of the tribe, as is preferred by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For clarity I have used the name Massasoit throughout the text in preference to Osamequin. I have also used the English names Alexander and Philip, for Massasoit’s sons Wamsutta and Metacom.

I am grateful to the following learned societies and institutions who permitted me to quote from the papers they hold: the Massachusetts Historical Society for Josiah Winslow’s letters in the Davis Papers; the Boston Athenaeum Library for letters from Nathaniel Morton to Penelope Winslow; the New England Historic Genealogical Society for John Easton’s letter describing the anxieties of Weetamoo, the Squaw Sachem of the Pocassets; the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, for items in the Curwen Family Papers; the National Archives in London for the Pelham family lawsuits; Christ Church, Oxford for permission to quote from ‘The Original Autobiography and Journal of William Wake Archbishop of Canterbury’, MS 541A (Parts 1 and 2).

I wish to thank the following individuals for their help: in America, especially Cynthia Hagar Krusell; the late Karin Goldstein; Craig Chartier; Aaron Dougherty of the Winslow House; Donna Curtin, Director of Pilgrim Hall Museum; Peggy M. Baker; Dr Walter V. Powell, Executive Director at the General Society of Mayflower Descendants; the late Alice Teal; Kathleen O’Connor; Betty Magoun Bates; Stephen C. O’Neill; Ann Young; Professor Francis J. Bremer; Cora Currier; Mrs Judy Smith. At the Massachusetts Historical Society: Anne E. Bentley, Curator of Art; Brenda Lawson; Elaine Grublin; Anna Clutterbuck-Cook; Sabina Beauchard; and Kim Nusco. At the Massachusetts State Archives: Jennifer Fauxsmith, Reference Archivist for tracking down the Winslow petitions. Elizabeth Bouvier, Head of Archives, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. At the Boston Athenaeum Library: Mary Warnement, William D. Hacker Head of Reader Services; Stephen Z. Nonack; Stanley Cushing, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. At the New England Historic Genealogical Society: Timothy Salls; Alicia Crane Williams; Mary Chen. Roberta Zonghi, Keeper of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library. Drew Bartley; Patti Auld Johnson and Patsy Hale, Archives & Special Collections, Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick. Andrew Smith at the Judicial Archives of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island for assistance with Freelove Pelham’s controversial will. Paul Royster at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. David Taylor; Laure de Gramont; Edward Jay Epstein; Alden Brewster; Michelle Marchetti Coughlin; Angus Trumble; Penelope Rowlands.

In England, Christopher Vane, Portcullis Pursuivant, for his superb detective work about the Wake family; also to Thomas Woodcock, Garter Principal King of Arms. Dr Nat Alcock, OBE gave vital help with the Pelham lawsuits; Hilary Marshall, Fellow of the Society of Genealogists, for her tireless transcriptions. Dr Stephen Roberts of the History of Parliament Trust for assistance with the MPs of the Interregnum; Dr Patrick Little; Professor Charles Mitchell. Sir Geoffrey Owen. The late Pamela Neville Sington for help with early American travel literature, and also Antony Payne.

Etain Kabraji Todds and Lord Phillips of Sudbury; the late Judge Francis Petre for showing me Ferriers, the former home of Herbert Pelham. Local historian Alan Beales of Bures Online. Jeremy Hill and Ida McMaster. The Reverend Canon Robin King, former vicar of Bures St Mary Church; Suffolk historian Clive Paine.

Dr Frances Willmoth, Archivist at Jesus College, Cambridge; Anna Reynolds of the Royal Collections; Karen Hearn, former Curator of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painting at Tate Britain; Mrs Clare Brown, Archivist at Lambeth Palace Library; Professor Hugh Thomas; the late Professor Barry Coward. Laura Lindsay of Christie’s London; Sir Stephen Sedley; Sir Ian Bosville Macdonald of Sleat and Christopher Simon Sykes for their assistance with the Bosville family. Mr Alan Palmer; Lord Mair, former Master of Jesus College, Cambridge; Charles Glass. The Duke Humphrey Library at the Bodleian Library, in particular Mike Webb, Curator of Early Modern Archives and Manuscripts; Rhodes House in Oxford; the Guildhall Archives; the British Library; the London Library; Mia Hakl-Law; Quincy Whitaker; the Leicestershire Record Office; Lord Hazlerigg; the Lincolnshire Archives; Liz Street, the Staffordshire Record Office; Essex County Record Office; the Suffolk County Record Office; Dr John Adamson; Dr David Scott; Timothy Otty QC; Dr Mike Macnair. Judith Curthoys of Christ Church, Oxford. Peter Hayward; Michael James; Dr Tom Charlton; Professor Munro Price; Laurence Kelly; Sir Geoffrey Owen; Celia Pilkington, Archivist of the Inner Temple; Geoffrey Robertson QC; Lord Waldegrave; Colin Cohen; Alison Samuel; Heather Holden Brown.

Clara Farmer at Penguin Random House and Charles Spicer at St Martin’s Press for all their help; Charlotte Humphery for her great assistance in the final stages, and Penelope Hoare for editorial suggestions.

American relations helped to inspire this book – Mary Frediani and her family, and the memory of Cornelia Fitzgerald and Cornelia Ensign Claiborne. I thank the late Betty Pollock for her enthusiasm, and Claiborne Hancock. Also the late Coleman Saunders for continuous interest in this project.

Especial gratitude to Ed Victor, and my family: my mother Antonia Fraser and stepfather the late Harold Pinter, my daughters Blanche, Atalanta and Honor, and my husband Edward Fitzgerald – without whom this book would not have been written.