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| The Elizabeth left Ipswich, Suffolk, England on April 10, 1634 |
The Elizabeth left Ipswich, Suffolk,
England on April 10, 1634. The ship's "master" was William Andrews.
Both the master and ship are known to have made subsequent trips although no record (other
than departure) of this particular voyage remains. Typically, ships making this
voyage weighed between 10 and 100 tons (the Mayflower was quite big at 180 tons) and
traveled at 7 - 10 knots with a passenger load of around one
hundred. Interestingly, Master William Andrews was known to be an Ipswich
man and he eventually settled in New England, on or after 1635.John Spring and his first wife, Elinor, along with their children, sailed
from Ipswich, England on The Elizabeth on April 10th,1634. The Spring family traveled under the patronage of Sir William Spring. Their destination was Watertown, Massachusetts, where the first woolen mill was located. England was hard hit by an economic depression during this time and new mills and trading routes were vital to the Spring cloth business. John Spring would be remembered as one of the founders of Watertown.
Another factor in the decision to leave England, was the religious and political turmoil England was facing.The Springs walked a fine line during the Tudor years and the English Reformation, and managed to keep their heads, switching beliefs from Catholic, to Protestant, to being active in the Puritan movement. During this time the family continued to their service in Parliament and continued to be of service to the royal family and were rewarded handsomely.
It was during reign of Queen Elizabeth I that Captain
Thomas Spring left Lavenham and moved to county Kerry, Ireland and began the lineage of
the Irish Spring family. He was sent by the Queen and received 2000 acres of land and a full garrison of soldiers for
his compliance.
Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Anne was executed two and a half years
after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Elizabeth had a older half-sister named Mary.
Mary was the only child of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of
Aragon. Mary and Elizabeth had a younger half-brother named Edward VI.
Edward was the son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour.
Edward VI succeeded Henry as King in 1547. Although
Edward reigned for only six years and died at the age of 15, his reign
made a lasting contribution to the English Reformation and the structure
of the Church of England.The last decade of Henry VIII's reign had seen a partial stalling of
the Reformation, a drifting back to more conservative values.
By contrast, Edward's reign saw radical progress in the Reformation. In
those six years, the Church transferred from an essentially Roman
Catholic liturgy and structure to one that is usually identified as
Protestant.In
particular, the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal
of 1550, and Cranmer's Forty-two Articles formed the basis for English
Church practices that continue to this day. Edward himself fully
approved these changes, and though they were the work of reformers such
as Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley,
backed by Edward's determinedly evangelical Council, the fact of the
king's religion was a catalyst in the acceleration of the Reformation
during his reign.When Edward became mortally ill in 1553,
he
attempted to remove Mary and Elizabeth from the line of succession.So
that upon his death, proclaimed their cousin Lady Jane Grey was at first
proclaimed queen. The
Privy Council received a message from Mary asserting her "right and
title" to the throne and commanding that the Council proclaim her queen,
as she had already proclaimed herself.The Council replied that Jane was
queen by Edward's authority and that
Mary, by contrast, was illegitimate and supported only by "a few lewd,
base people". Mary assembled a force of 20 thousand in East Anglia and
the Council realized it made a mistake, and proclaimed Mary queen. Mary
successfully defeated Jane within 13 days. Later, Mary would have her
cousin Jane beheaded.
In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg, Spain on his accession in 1556. In 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.
Queen Mary's attempts to undo the reforming work of her brother's reign faced major obstacles. Despite her belief in the papal supremacy, she ruled constitutionally as the Supreme Head of the English Church, a contradiction under which she bridled. She found herself entirely unable to restore the vast number of ecclesiastical properties handed over or sold to private landowners. Although she burned a number of leading Protestant churchmen, many reformers either went into exile or remained subversively active in England during her reign, producing a torrent of reforming propaganda that she was unable to stem. Nevertheless, Protestantism was not yet "printed in the stomachs" of the English people, and had Mary lived longer, her Catholic reconstruction might have succeeded, leaving Edward's reign, rather than hers, as a historical aberration.
On Mary's death in 1558, Elizabeth became queen and the English Reformation resumed its course, and most of the reforms instituted during Edward's reign were reinstated in the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. Queen Elizabeth replaced Mary's Councillors and bishops with ex-Edwardians, such as William Cecil, and Richard Cox, Edward's old tutor, who preached an anti-Catholic sermon at the opening of parliament in 1559. The theological developments of Edward's reign provided a vital source of reference for Elizabeth's religious policies, though the internationalism of the Edwardian Reformation was never revived.
In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg, Spain on his accession in 1556. In 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.
Queen Mary's attempts to undo the reforming work of her brother's reign faced major obstacles. Despite her belief in the papal supremacy, she ruled constitutionally as the Supreme Head of the English Church, a contradiction under which she bridled. She found herself entirely unable to restore the vast number of ecclesiastical properties handed over or sold to private landowners. Although she burned a number of leading Protestant churchmen, many reformers either went into exile or remained subversively active in England during her reign, producing a torrent of reforming propaganda that she was unable to stem. Nevertheless, Protestantism was not yet "printed in the stomachs" of the English people, and had Mary lived longer, her Catholic reconstruction might have succeeded, leaving Edward's reign, rather than hers, as a historical aberration.
On Mary's death in 1558, Elizabeth became queen and the English Reformation resumed its course, and most of the reforms instituted during Edward's reign were reinstated in the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. Queen Elizabeth replaced Mary's Councillors and bishops with ex-Edwardians, such as William Cecil, and Richard Cox, Edward's old tutor, who preached an anti-Catholic sermon at the opening of parliament in 1559. The theological developments of Edward's reign provided a vital source of reference for Elizabeth's religious policies, though the internationalism of the Edwardian Reformation was never revived.