Mayflower Compact
The
Mayflower Compact was the first governing document
of
Plymouth
Colony. It was drafted by the
Pilgrims
while they were still aboard the
Mayflower
and prior to their embarkation onto the shore. It was signed on
November
11,
1620 in
what is now Provincetown Harbor near
Cape
Cod.
Original spelling and uneditted text from the History of
Plymouth Plantation by William
Bradford (1590-1657), second governor
of Plymouth:
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten,
the loyal subjects of our dread sovereigne Lord, King
James, by the grace of God, of Great
Britaine, France,
and Ireland
king, defender
of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God
and the advancement of the Christian
faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the
first colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia,
doe, by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence
of God, and one of 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 to
enacte, constitute, and frame such just and equall laws, ordinances,
acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time as shall be
thought most meete and convenient for the generall good of the
Colonie unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd
the II. of November, in the year of the raigne of our sovereigne
lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth,
and of Scotland
the fiftie-fourth. Anno. Dom. 1620.
The Compact was signed by the following 41 passengers:
- John
Carver
- Digery Priest
- William Brewster
- Edmund Margesson
- John
Alden
- George Soule
- James Chilton
- Francis
Cooke
- Moses Fletcher
- John Ridgate
- Christopher Martin
- William Mullins
- Thomas English
- John Howland
- Stephen Hopkins
- Edward Winslow
- Gilbert Winslow
- Miles
Standish
- Richard Bitteridge
- Francis Eaton
- John Tilly
- John Billington
- Thomas Tinker
- Samuel Fuller
- Richard Clark
- John Allerton
- Richard Warren
- Edward Liester
- William Bradford
- Thomas Williams
- Isaac Allerton
- Peter Brown
- John Turner
- Edward Tilly
- John Craxton
- Thomas Rogers
- John Goodman
- Edward Fuller
- Richard Gardiner
- William White
- Edward Doten