Mayflower Compact

This bas-relief depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact is on Bradford Street in Provincetown directly below the Pilgrim Monument.

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower, seeking religious freedom. Many of the passengers knew that earlier settlements in the New World had failed due to a lack of government, and the Mayflower Compact was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the rules and regulations of the government for the sake of survival. The government, in return, would derive its power from the consent of the governed.

History of the Mayflower Compact

It was signed on November 11, 1620 (O.S.) in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The Pilgrims used the Julian Calendar which, at that time, was ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar, signing the covenant "ye .11. of November" (literal). Having landed at Plymouth (so named by Captain John Smith earlier), many of the Pilgrims aboard realized that they were in land uncharted by the London Company. For this reason the Mayflower Compact was written and adopted, based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model and the settlers' allegiance to the king.

The Mayflower carried 102 passengers. 41 of these passengers were Pilgrims seeking a new situation where they could practice their religion in the manner they chose. The Pilgrims called the rest of the passengers "Strangers". These 61 people included merchants, craftsmen, skilled workers and indentured servants, and several young orphans. William Brewster and the other Pilgrim leaders organized the voyage and gathered these “strangers” to increase the chances of success. The voyage lasted more than two months. When they finally sighted land the captain of the Mayflower knew right away that they were far north of their destination so headed southward. This proved too dangerous and they were forced them to turn back and drop anchor in a harbor at the tip of Cape Cod.

Unrest started immediately. William Bradford later wrote that several “strangers” made “discontented and mutinous speeches.” Bradford went on to explain that the “Strangers” did not want to follow rules because “none had power to command them”. The Pilgrim leaders, with staunch determination to establish a colony amidst the brewing rebellion, knew they needed a temporary government authority. In England, such authority came from the king but in America it could only come from the people themselves. While still aboard the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and "Strangers" made a written agreement or compact among themselves.

It is assumed that William Brewster, who had a university education, wrote the Mayflower Compact. The pattern of church self-government used by the Pilgrims to establish their Separatist churches in England and Holland served as a model for political self-government in the Mayflower Compact. Almost all the adult male colonists, including two of the indentured servants, signed the document.

By signing the Mayflower Compact, the colonists in no way intended to declare their independence from England. The opening line of the Compact refers to both Pilgrims and "Strangers" as "loyal subjects" of King James. The Mayflower Compact is very short. It simply united the signers into a "Civil Body Politic" for the purpose of passing "just and equal Laws . . . for the general good of the Colony." However, those few words conveyed the idea of self-government for the first time in the New World.

The compact is often referred to as the foundation of the Constitution of the United States, in a figurative, not literal, way, although is often mistakenly thought to be the first Constitution in America. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut actually hold this honor. As a side note, the 'dread soveraigne' referred to in the document used the archaic definition of dread; meaning awe and reverence (for the King), but not fear.

Text of the Mayflower Compact

Bradford's transcription of the compact

The original document was lost, but the transcriptions in Mourt's Relation and William Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation are in agreement and accepted as accurate. Bradford's hand written manuscript is kept in a special vault at the State Library of Massachusetts. Bradford's transcription is as follows (Contains original 1630s spelling):

In y^e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, y^e loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King James by y^e grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y^e faith, e&

Haveing undertaken, for y^e glorie of god, and advancemente of y^e Christian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y^e presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y^e ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e generall good of y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd y^e ·11· of November, in y^e year of y^e raigne of our soveraigne Lord King James, of England, France, & Ireland y^e eighteenth, and of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. Ano: Dom. 1620.

Signatories

Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Plymouth Museum.

The list of 41 male passengers who signed was supplied by Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton in his 1669 New England's Memorial. There are no surviving first-hand accounts of this information.

1. John Carver
2. William Bradford
3. William Brewster
4. John Alden
5. John Howland
6. Stephen Hopkins
7. Edward Winslow
8. Gilbert Winslow
9. Myles Standish
10. John Allerton
11. Isaac Allerton
12. John Billington
13. Thomas Tinker
14. Samuel Fuller
15. Richard Clark
16. Richard Warren
17. Edward Leister
18. Thomas Rogers
19. Thomas Williams
20. Peter Brown
21. John Turner
22. Edward Tilly
23. John Craxton
24. Thomas Rogers
25. John Goodman
26. Edward Fuller
27. Richard Gardiner
28. William White
29. Edmund Margeson
30. George Soule
31. James Chilton
32. Francis Cooke
33. Edward Doty
34. Moses Fletcher
35. John Rigdale
36. Christopher Martin
37. William Mullins
38. Thomas English
39. Richard Bitteridge
40. Francis Eaton
41. John Tilly

External Links

• The Mayflower Compact

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