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Lincolnshire claimed a special connection to the Mayflower story because a number of the ship’s occupants had come from that part of the country, principal among them being William Bradford, who became the second governor of the Plymouth Colony. Thus Grantham’s non-conformist community went to some pains to ensure the success of their tercentenary celebration. One of the distinguishing features of the Mayflower tercentenary was its genuinely transatlantic character, a reciprocal arrangement facilitated in no small part by the non-conformist brethren. This was illustrated in the case of Grantham by the presence of one Rev. Thomas Simms of the National Council of the American Congregational Churches, which had delegated some of its minsters to travel to Britain for to attend celebrations there.
Like many other non-conformist communions, the day was marked by a mixture of light-hearted sociability, high-minded piety, and serious historical education. Sermons and lectures were delivered with great solemnity, but there was also a performance of a cantata, “The Ship of Adventure”, by a young people’s choir of sixty voices. It was through this cantata that the story of the Mayflower pilgrims was told, rather than through the oft-used method of a traditional lecture. The Rev. Simms passed on his heartfelt greetings from his fellow Americans and spoke eloquently on “the heartiness of the tercentenary celebrations”, and the spirit of brotherly goodwill that prevailed between Britain and the United States.
Interestingly, Simms sought to play down the notion of “Pilgrim Fathers”, emphasising the youth of a great many of the Mayflower’s passengers. Young men and women must heed the lessons of the Mayflower and lead the way towards “cementing together the two nations” for the good of the world.
Simms’s remarks broke with convention by being openly political in character. He blamed the changing ethnic make-up of the United States, Irish and German immigrants in particular, for stirring up anti-English feelings. Simms went on to say that the "Irish Question" was a particular sticking point for any future relationship because of the power of the Irish vote in America. It had to be solved if peace and long-term allegiance was to be secured. What his audience thought of this idea, very much easier said than done, is difficult to conjecture. It was by no means typical for a speaker to politicise the Mayflower in quite such stark terms. However, Simm’s later declaration that, contrary to the action of the American Senate, “the heart of the American people was in the League of Nations” aroused enthusiastic applause. As a public speaker, he was clearly not afraid to go against the grain.