Pilgrim Fathers Church in Rotterdam, Netherlands

In 1608, a group of English Brownists and Separatists decided to leave England for the Netherlands in order to escape conflict with the Church of England. The congregation, which numbered just over 100 people, settled in Leiden, a vibrant university town between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. After spending 11 years in Leiden, the congregation, fearful that their religious practice would be extinguished as their children assimilated into Dutch culture, decided to leave Holland.

They picked the colonies of Virginia as their destination and begun preparations for the voyage. In late July of 1620, the congregation left Leiden on a canal boat bound for Delfshaven, the port of the city of Delft. In Delfshaven, a ship called the Speedwell, provided by the London Merchant Adventurers trading company, which was funding the congregation's voyage, awaited them.

The night before they left the Netherlands, the congregation spent the night in prayer outside this church which was founded as Roman Catholic but had been converted to Reformist in the 16th century. This moment outside the church now known as Pilgrim Fathers Church is immortalized in Robert Weir's 1843 painting "Embarkation of the Pilgrims" which hangs in the U.S.

Capitol Rotunda. The Speedwell took the congregation to Southampton in England, where they joined the leaders who had returned to their native country in order to secure permits for settling the colonies, who were themselves sailing on the Mayflower.

Although the Speedwell was originally intended to also make the journey to America, it began to take on water and was forced to end her journey in Plymouth (the one in England). The colonists on the Speedwell joined those on the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims arrived in New England on November 9, 1620.