The Leiden ConnectionMayflower Family Stories

The Mayflower & Leiden Quiz

Eighteen questions on the Mayflower voyage, the Pilgrim quarter in Leiden, and the six families followed on this site. Every answer links back to the page where the record actually lives.

Artistic impression

Category 1 of 3

The Mayflower

1. In what year did the Mayflower cross the Atlantic?

The Mayflower left Plymouth, England in September 1620 and reached Cape Cod that November.

2. What document did the Pilgrims sign aboard the Mayflower before going ashore?

Signed in November 1620, it's one of the earliest examples of self-government by colonists in North America.

3. Which ship set out from Delfshaven alongside the Mayflower but had to turn back as unseaworthy?

The Speedwell leaked repeatedly. Her passengers were folded into the Mayflower at Plymouth, England, before the Atlantic crossing.

4. Where did the Mayflower passengers eventually settle in North America?

They landed well north of their intended patent in Virginia and founded Plymouth Colony instead.

5. The English congregation first settled in Leiden around 1609. Roughly how many years had they lived there before the Mayflower sailed in 1620?

Leiden was home for roughly a decade — long enough that most of the records on this site come from the Leiden years, not the voyage itself.

6. Not every Mayflower passenger belonged to the Leiden congregation. What's the traditional term for the non-separatist passengers, as distinct from the "Saints"?

The "Strangers" travelled for economic or personal reasons rather than religious ones — a mix that shaped the Mayflower Compact itself.

Category 2 of 3

Leiden

7. Which Leiden street was renamed in honour of a Pilgrim printer, after formerly being known as "Stinksteeg"?

Read more on the William Brewstersteeg page.

8. What was the name of the court of small houses on the Kloksteeg where several Pilgrim families lived, now home to the Pilgrim Museum Leiden?

Read more on the Kloksteeg page.

9. Most records in this collection cluster around which Leiden church?

Read more on the Pieterskerk page.

10. William Bradford bought a house in 1612 on the historic Achtergracht canal. What is that stretch called today, after the canal was filled in?

Read more on the Achtergracht page.

11. Which street is named in more archive records than any other in this collection — fifteen in total, tied to the Cooke and Mahieu family?

Read more on the Locations in Leiden page.

12. Roughly how long does the self-guided, six-stop walk through the Pilgrim quarter take?

The whole loop is under a kilometre, but pausing to read each stop makes it closer to ninety minutes. Try it yourself on the Visit Leiden page.

Category 3 of 3

The Six Families

13. William Brewster's Leiden records include a 1619 "printing inquiry." What was his trade in the city?

Read the full story on the Brewster family page.

14. John Robinson, pastor of the Leiden congregation, never sailed on the Mayflower. In what year was he buried in Leiden?

Read the full story on the Robinson family page.

15. The Leiden records for James Chilton include a notarial statement from April 1619. What had happened to him?

Read the full story on the Chilton family page.

16. Francis Cooke and Hester Mahieu's records move between two different congregations in Leiden. Which two?

Read the full story on the Cooke & Mahieu family page.

17. What was Samuel Fuller's trade, as identified in the Leiden archive records?

Read the full story on the Fuller & Lee family page.

18. In what year did William Bradford become a citizen of Leiden, according to the family timeline?

Read the full story on the Bradford & May family page.

Unanswered questions count as incorrect.

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