Item List (150)

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…

Born in Kentish Town, London, William Henry Bartlett (1809 - 1854) was a travel-writer, artist and engraver, who become one of the leading topographic illustrators of his generation. He travelled widely and produced works providing history and…

Lichfield played no part in the original story of the Mayflower, as far as we know - though leading Pilgrim Edward Winslow was born not that far away in Droitwich. Nonetheless, like other places, this small city was one of many to play a small part…

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.…

Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) was born in Liverpool to local merchant George Brown and Felicity Wagner, she was the fifth of seven children. Perhaps more than any other poet Hemans cemented the lasting popular appeal of the Mayflower myth through her…

Annie Webb-Peploe (1805–1869) was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, the daughter of Captain John Molyneux (1769-1832) and Ella Molyneux (1780-1836). In 1828 she married John Birch Webb (1776–1869), the vicar of Weobly, Herefordshire. The family took the…

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…

In 1920, Southampton had held one of Britain’s largest anniversary celebrations of the Mayflower voyage – only Plymouth could make a challenge to that supremacy. By the time the 1970 commemoration came around, however, Southampton’s Devonian rival…

Although the months of September, October, and November 1920 marked the high point of the Mayflower tercentenary, celebratory events continued to be held in the winter and even into 1921. In the case of Manchester, the performance of Hugh Parry’s…

Kenilworth was one of the great many towns that celebrated the Mayflower tercentenary in 1920 by holding a lecture. A lecture hardly seems like a celebratory event, but in fact a lecture on the story of the Pilgrim Fathers and their journey on the…