The Puritans were people who wanted a "pure" Church but disagreed on how to accomplish that goal. The descendants of the Plymouth Separatists may insist that they were not Puritans but historians consider them to have been Puritans. I suppose that instead of giving a summary of the material I should have given quotes and sources: Wirth, Fremont P.; "The development of America"; American Book Company, 1948; page 53"There were many people in England who were dissatisfied with the doctrines and practices of the Anglican Church, or Church of England, because there were still vestiges of the Roman Church to be seen in it. The Catholics, however, were loyal to the Church of rome and refused to accept the Church of England. The dissatisfied Protestants were called Puritans, and consisted of two groups. (1) The Nonconformists believed in an established church, and were willing to remain in the Church of England, but worked for changes in the form of worship. They were interested in securing simpler ceremonies. (2) The second group of Puritans, however, insisting on immediate changes, decided to withdraw from the Church of England, and were called Independents, or Separatists." ... "In order to escape the persecution of the king, a group of Separatists, called Pilgrims, left their home at Scrooby, England! ..." Cairns, Earle E.; "Christianity Through the Centuries; A History of the Christian Church"; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI; 4th ed, 1961; pages 392-394Concerning the Virginia Colony: "The colony did not prosper economically until the communal experiment was ended in 1619, and land and the privilege of electing a representative governing body were granted to the colonists by the Company. Increasing numbers of Puritan Anglicans migrated to the colony. Alexander whitaker, who had Puritan leanings, became the leading minister of the Anglican Church in Virginia between 1611 and 1617." [Note: This was before the Mayflower sailed to New England.] Following the account of the Scruby congregation and the founding of Plymouth which ends with; "The church was the center of spiritual and social life in their community." the next paragraph starts with:"The larger number of Puritans settled in Salem and Boston after 1628. ..." [Cairns considered the Separatists of Plymouth to be Puritans.] Blum, John M; et al; "The National Experience; A History of the United States"; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.; New York' 4th ed., 1977; pages18-19p. 18 "Puritanism has come to mean prudishness, cruelty, fanaticism, superstition, Philistinism, and hypocrisy. Actually, the puritans who settled New England had no greater share of these human qualities than did their contemporaries, or their descendants."...Page 19 "The Puritans all agreed on what was wrong with the English Church, but they desagreed on how to make it right. Though they all relied on the Bible for guidance, they extracted different opinions from it about how God wanted his churches to be run. Those who settled New England belonged to a group that came to be known as congregationalists." ... "Their dissatisfaction with the Church of England led them to the problem of all reformers: whether to remain inside the corrupt institution and try to reform it from within or to separate from it and start a pure new ! one. In 1583 an early Congregational leader, Robert Browne, advocated the latter course in a pamphlet appropriately titled 'Reformation without Tarrying for any.' His followers, known as Separatists, deserted the English Church to meet in little churches of their own - of necessity in secret becasue the government did not acknowledge or permit any church other than the established one. But most Congregationalists were not Separatists." Warm regards,ThurmonTSFA Historian "Mary Petrie" <mlpetrie@earthlink.net> wrote: >As a descendant of Gov. Bradford of the Mayflower, I would like to clarify>some information given. The Pilgrim descendants are very particular that>they not be confused with the Puritans. They were Separatists, true. They>left Scrooby and went to Leiden, Holland to escape persecution. The concern>they had there was that their children were learning to be be Dutch and were>losing their English Heritage. There is speculation that they knew they>were off-course and landed in Cape Cod on purpose. They were very tolerant>and did not require that everyone attend their church. They wore>brightly-colored clothes when they could. They enjoyed singing and dancing.>They were nothing like the Puritans in these areas. The Pilgrim name was>given much later. The Mayflower Compact was probably one of the most>far-reaching documents of the time in terms of how they were to govern>themselves. They lived very peacefully with the Indians for many years>until King Philip's War, which! lasted a short duration. Then peace settled>in again.>>I don't contribute much as my Sackett line is short -- Mary Sackett m.>Alexander McKay -- but I love to read the 'chatter' about the line. There>are some really interesting people. As to the above, I just wanted to set>the record straight. If anyone in the Seth McKay-Larissa Lamb descent wants>to know how to connect to Gov. Bradford, I'd be pleased to send you the>connection.>>Thanks,>Mary Lou Petrie>California __________________________________________________________________Introducing the New Netscape Internet Service. Only $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register Netscape. Just the Net You Need. New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet ExplorerSearch from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp