About

Direct relatives born around the time Columbus arrived in the Americas became the grandparents of JESSE DE FOREST and MARIE DU CLOUX. They lived in Northeastern France and engaged in the textile business.  They grew up in an era when the very rich and powerful Catholic Church was selling Indulgences.  Early protestants like Martin Luther and John Calvin rebuked these practices. Protestantism advocated and pressured people to reject the Catholic Church and begin practicing Protestantism. 

In the area of Northeastern France and western Belgium called Wallonia Catholics called converts to Protestantism Huguenots. Catholic radicals jailed and executed Huguenots and other protestants. The violence culminated in the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre where extremists killed 10-20 thousand Protestants.  JESSE DE FOREST and MARIE DU CLOUX married and fled France for a more religiously tolerant Netherlands.

ELIZABETH TILLEY’S ancestors and less than half of the English population in the 14^th Century survived the Great Famine and Black Death.  Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church. Protestants broke into varying factions including Separatists and Puritans. Exploration and colonization of America by Europeans caused the establishment of commercial trade ventures like the Virginia Company. It also resulted in the corruption of Native Americans like Pocahontas and Squanto.

The Tudor leadership of King James I was stressed due to the conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants. The consequence of this was alternating support and violence against protestants and the establishment of the King James Bible. ELIZABETH TILLEY became the daughter of JOHN and JOAN TILLEY during the early 17^th Century. ELIZABETH, her parents, the FORD FAMILY, and JOHN HOWLAND fled the continuing English religious violence for the Netherlands.

The Netherlands was an appealing place for protestants to seek relief from persecution. Seven Dutch provinces in the Spanish Netherlands formed a mutual alliance and revolted against Spanish rule. That alliance established the Dutch Republic in 1581. The small republic of around 1.5 million inhabitants distinguished itself by providing religious and social tolerance.  They also controlled a vast network of seafaring trade routes through its trading company, the Dutch East India Company.

The leaking Speedwell carried the FORD and TILLEY families from the Netherlands to Southampton, England to connect with the Mayflower. The TILLEY family transferred from the Speedwell joined by JOHN HOWLAND. The FORD family stayed on the Speedwell. After three attempts at sailing together, the unseaworthy speedwell was abandoned at Plymouth, England along with the FORD family. The crowded Mayflower continued through turbulent seas where John Howland fell overboard and was rescued.  Blown off course by the relentless storms, the passengers were relieved to see the shoreline. Without royal permission to land where they were, they drafted the Mayflower Compact to give them legal standing. JOHN TILLEY and JOHN HOWLAND committed their signatures to it.

JOHN TILLEY and JOHN HOWLAND’s first contact with the Indigenous people was one of violence as was their first contact with clams. The natives shot at them with arrows, the clams made them violently sick.  

The first winter the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and ward off sickness. Fifty of the original 102 Mayflower passengers died that winter including the parents of ELIZABETH TILLY. The Carvers took her in. The next spring Squanto and other Natives helped the Pilgrims plant food. Before fall, the Carvers died giving control of their American estate as well as stewardship of ELIZABETH TILLEY to JOHN HOWLAND.

Despite their first fall harvest being less than expected and insufficient for the coming winter they decided on a celebration. This harvest celebration is now known as Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were pleased when shortly after the celebration the immigrant ship Fortune showed up with the FORD family and 30 others. The FORD family was traumatized when they learned about half the Mayflower passengers had died. JOHN HOWLAND and ELIZABETH TILLEY were shocked when they realized the Fortune did not bring any supplies or food. They would now have to share what meager food they had with the new arrivals. 

The Pilgrim leaders saw that the communal way of living demanded by the investors was a miserable failure. They chose instead to accept individual accountability for growing food and raising livestock. They executed a division of land and division of cattle. JOHN COOPER was trying to set up a practical civil system.