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Pilgrim Museum

Pilgrims in Leiden

In 1608 a group of English Separatists from Nottinghamshire succeeded in leaving the country. They boarded a Dutch ship just off the English coast. The friends and relations they left behind got the government's permission, after a spell in jail, to join them in Holland. The group settled in Amsterdam. A considerable number of them left Amsterdam in 1609 to move to Leiden, the second city in Holland and home of its famous university. The reverend John Robinson and about a hundred others sent a petition to the Leiden city council to ask for permission to settle in the city. Although strictly speaking permission to settle wasn't needed, the petition was answered by a letter, dated 12th of February 1609, which contained the following meaningful passage: 'No honest persons are refused free and liberal entry to the city...to make their home here.'Robinson and his companions bought a piece of land near the Pieterskerk (St. Peter's church), called the Groene Poort (Green Close). They built 21 little houses, so that it became known as the English Alley. Later (1683) the houses were razed and the Jean Pesijn almshouses were built on this spot. Pilgrims who were crucial to the history of the group, apart from John Robinson, are William Brewster and his adopted son William Bradford. William Brewster was an elder of the church and the most important person behind the publishing activities of the Pilgrim Press (1617-1619). He used to live in a side alley of the Pieterskerkkoorsteeg (St. Peter's Church Choir Alley) that has been renamed William Brewstersteeg (William Brewster Alley).William Bradford was, for many years, the governor of the Pilgrim colony in North America. His manuscript Of Plimouth Plantation is still the most important source of knowledge of the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims left many traces in the Leiden archives. They lived and worked here, entered into contracts and made wills, studied at the university and were buried in the city.