Pilgrim Fathers Set Sail

Date: September 6, 1620 • Location: Plymouth, United Kingdom

The Pilgrim Fathers sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)

The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English colonists who traveled to North America on the ship Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith named this territory New Plymouth in 1614, sharing the name of the Pilgrims' final departure port of Plymouth, Devon, England. The Pilgrims' leadership came from religious congregations of Brownists or Separatists who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.