The Mayflower Compact - 1620
"Perhaps no other writing from the Puritan Era had so far-reaching an effect as this document, which laid the foundations of Massachusetts liberties, for which New Englishmen fought against the Empire in the 1680's and during the American Revolution, and which became a pattern of the United States Constitution. It is remarkable as a code of law, in that it lays out a structure of jurisprudence in terms of liberties rather than restrictions. In this it echoes the Magna Charta [sic], and foreshadows our Bill of Rights. Drawing upon the Magna Charta [sic] and English Common Law, it was largely the work of one man, the remarkable Puritan thinker and writer, Nathaniel Ward . . . "
The text above represents a direct quotation from The Winthrop Society (source information website).
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620
John Carver |
Edward Tilley |
Degory Priest |
William Bradford |
John Tilley |
Thomas Williams |
Edward Winslow |
Francis Cooke |
Gilbert Winslow |
William Brewster |
Thomas Rogers |
Edmund Margeson |
Issac Allerton |
Thomas Tinker |
Peter Browne |
Myles Standish |
John Rigdale |
Richard Britteridge |
John Alden |
Edward Fuller |
Georoe Soule |
Samuel Fuller |
John Turner |
Richard Clarke |
Christopher Martin |
Francis Eaton |
Richard Gardiner |
William Mullins |
James Chilton |
John Allerton |
William White |
John Crackston |
Thomas English |
Richard Warren |
John Billington |
Edward Dotey |
John Howland |
Moses Fletcher |
Edward Leister |
Stephen Hopkins |
John Goodman |
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