Plaque, All Saints Church (Babworth, 1955)

William Brewster and William Bradford, according to most historians, worshipped at All Saint’s, Babworth, under the preacher Richard Clifton, until each broke with the established church in the early 17th century. The church dates to around the 15th century, with restorations in the mid-19th and mid-20th century.

In 1955, a special return pilgrimage of 104 American Pilgrim descendants (plus 48 guests) toured Holland and England to visit the birthplaces, churches and departure points of their ancestors. Led by the Governor-General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Society, Lieutenant-Colonel Waldo Morgan Allen, they came ‘in the name of Anglo-American friendship’ and to perpetuate the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers. In All Saints, as part of this trip, they gifted and unveiled a bronze plaque – embossed with the Mayflower – to mark the occasion. The Rev Jessop welcomed the new Pilgrims and said “We can safely say the Pilgrim movement started here in the Recotry and church at Babworth under the direction of Clyfton’. The young people in the group were presented with bibles, and Allen was given a picture of a 16th century silver chalice supposedly used by Bradford and Brewster.

E. Frances Reyer, The Mayflower Descendants’ Return to the Pilgrim Country of England and Holland, 1955 (unpublished memoir), 31. ‘150 American visitors’, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian (24 September 1955), 9.