Severe Illness Was, We
Know, Answerable For The Absence Of A Few, Some Of Whom Died A Few
Days Later.
The fact seems rather to be, as noted, that age - not social status
was the determining factor as to all otherwise eligible.
It is
evident too, that the fact was recognized by all parties (by none so
clearly as by Master Jones) that they were about to plant themselves
on territory not within the jurisdiction of their steadfast friends,
the London Virginia Company, but under control of those formerly of
the Second (Plymouth) Virginia Company, who (by the intelligence
they received while at Southampton) they knew would be erected into
the "Council for the Affairs of New England." Goodwin is in error
in saying (Pilgrim Republic, p. 62), "Neither did any other body
exercise authority there;" for the Second Virginia Company under Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, as noted, had been since 1606 in control of this
region, and only a week before the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod (i.e.
on November 3) King James had signed the patent of the Council for
New England, giving them full authority over all territory north of
the forty-first parallel of north latitude, as successors to the
Second Virginia Company. If the intention to land south of the
forty-first parallel had been persisted in, there would, of course,
have been no occasion for the Compact, as the patent to John Pierce
(in their interest) from the London Virginia Company would have been
in force.
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