Twenty Incredible Images and Maps Inside . . . The 400th Anniversary (1620 – 2020) edition of Before the Mayflower: A Novel

Enjoy the enhanced reprint of Before the Mayflower, with custom, original maps, along with maps from the 17th century. Your journey into the 17th century is now complete with art and images from the period, along with modern images and a geographic guide in your travels.

Some examples are shown below:

 

If you were living in civilized places like England or the Netherlands, why would you consider boarding the Mayflower, bound for the New World? The Atlantic crossing would be a nightmare, with the threat of storms, pirates, and cramped, dark conditions. Even if you reached land, you were destined for a wild place, lacking shelter and filled with uncertainty. Your odds of survival hovered at fifty percent.

Enter the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a time of transition from Queen Elizabeth to King James in England, and in the Netherlands, the Dutch Golden Age. The story of the thirty-three years leading up to the famous Mayflower voyage is told in this meticulously researched novel, combining known names like Brewster and Bradford, with the fictional London family of printer Nicholas Okes.

The printing press connects the characters, with some obeying the King’s rules, and others fleeing to the Netherlands for religious freedom and printing forbidden works. Romance ripples through the families, leading them to the docks in Southampton, waiting in the shadow of the ships. Who will venture aboard, and will it be for love, land, or religious freedom?

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Before the Mayflower is not only a moving story on the Pilgrims in England and The Netherlands before they embarked on their most important journey to the New World, but is also interesting because of the vivid and accurate descriptions of several locations in the vicinity of the dwellings of the Pilgrims in the University town of Leiden. The Pieterskerk, the Botanical Garden and the Anatomy Theater of the university really come to life in this novel by J.L. Rose. The visitor unknown to the city of Leiden may use Before the Mayflower as a guide to follow into the footsteps of the Pilgrims during their 11-year stay in the city.
Drs. Kasper van Ommen
External Relations/Scaliger Institute
University Library Leiden

J.L. Rose pulls her readers into the secretive community of 17th century English Separatism, telling a story as vivid and vibrant as the magnificent Dutch paintings from the period. She follows an obscure group of religious dissenters as they move briefly from England to Holland before voyaging to America, and forever changing world history as they do. Rose has brought to life a fascinating history, woven rich in details and high drama as only a master storyteller can.
Desiree Mobed, Executive Director
Alden House Historic Site

J.L. Rose has written a wonderfully immersive story, fluently and convincingly uniting the origin story of the Pilgrims with a tale of family, love and destiny. Her narrative and language really bring to life a distant period in history, in a way that is both richly detailed and genuinely heartfelt. Seeing 17th century Leiden through the Pilgrims’ eyes was both a new, enriching experience and what is called in Dutch een feest der herkenning (a feast of recognition).
Ward Hoskens
Curator and Conservator
Pieterskerk
Leiden, the Netherlands

Before the Mayflower reads as a movie. It visualises details of the past which is not even that long ago when you walk in the Netherlands through the same streets. It gives a good insight in the life at that time, the reason why people went to America. As a guide in several museums I try to give the base of America and the rest of the western world extra attention. The fact that freedom of religion is still something unusual in many parts of the world. The idea of freedom of religion in the Netherlands started pretty simple. For the nobility at that time it was unimaginable that your were killed for your believe. In our modern times it would be good to realise how religious refugees tried to be safe in the past. Which difficulties they had before they actually put their lives in danger again to finally worship what was important to them.
Marcella van Zanten
Expert Museum Guide, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Arriving at the decision to cross the Atlantic Ocean on the ship Mayflower in 1620 is a story all its own, filled with risk and romance. The thirty-three years preceding the voyage are revealed in Before the Mayflower, a novel highlighting the path of those English on the ship who spent more than a decade prior in Leiden, the Netherlands.

About the Author

A Williams College graduate, the author is a former historical interpreter in the seventeenth-century English Village of Plymouth Colony at Plimoth Plantation. While she was at Williams, a course in seventeenth-century Dutch art spawned an interest in the Golden Age of Dutch history, ultimately connecting her to the group of English who separated from the King’s Church and sought refuge in Leiden, in the Low Countries, from 1609-1620. Only a fraction of that congregation sailed on the Mayflower, but their path is remarkable, deserving its own place in history. The author resides in Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA, with her husband, twins, and dog, Marco.