Item List (15)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936), born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, became one of the leading literary figures of his age. A well-known poet, novelist, and journalist he was described by George Bernard Shaw as ‘a man of colossal…

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1860) was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, and the eldest child of 12 siblings (8 boys and 4 girls). For over two hundred years the Barrett family had resided in Jamaica as the owners of sugar plantations which profited…

Born in Liverpool, Adam Hodgson (1788–1862) was an English merchant, travel writer, and abolitionist. His father, Thomas Hodgson (1737–1817), profited from the Atlantic Slave Trade, with interests in Gambia, before moving into cotton manufacturing.…

Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849) was born in Masbrough, near Rotherham, Yorkshire. His father was a fiery Calvanist and radical known as "Devil Elliott" for his passionate sermons. Ebenezer Elliot inherited something of this radical politics but was also…

Born at Dowth Castle, near Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-1890) was a journalist, writer and civil rights activist. He worked as a recruiter for the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, also known as the IRB or Fenian…

The 1920 Mayflower tercentenary is notable for its religious character, particularly its non-conformity. Many of the people who led the way in organising the tercentenary celebrations were members of the Free Church Council, made up of Quakers,…

The riverside borough of Southwark in south London had a traditional link with the Pilgrim Fathers, who were said to have worshipped at one of the area’s first Protestant Separatist congregations before emigrating to Holland (thus the “Church of the…

In 1889, a huge Monument to the Forefathers was erected in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and interest in the Mayflower was hotting up on both sides of the Atlantic. Two years later in 1891 a delegation of American descendants and representatives made…

This event in Richmond, one of many in Britain staged for the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage in 1920, is an example of the importance of simply telling the story of the Pilgrim Fathers to audiences who did not necessarily have much…

The commemoration at Newcastle-under-Lyme for the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage took the form of an address by the Rev. A. Wilkes, of Tunstall, President of the North Staffordshire and District Free Church Federation. The chairman for the…