Pilgrim Fathers

Southwark has many links with the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail for America in 1620. The story begins before then however. In 1586 a group of people were sent to The Clink for refusing to obey the religious laws of Elizabeth 1, thus beginning a tradition of religious dissent within Southwark.

Independents and Brownists

The dissenters founded a prison church under the guidance of John Greenwood, a clergyman, and Henry Barrowe, a lawyer. They called themselves 'Independents' but were also known as 'Brownists' because of the free thinking of Robert Browne, the headmaster at St Olave's School. Another clergyman, Francis Johnson, soon joined them. He had been ordered by the English Ambassador to Holland to buy and burn the books by Greenwood and Barrowe. Inspired by them he came to visit the authors and found himself being jailed with them!

Southwark Independence Church

In 1592 Greenwood, Barrowe and John Penry gained a temporary reprieve and began meeting at a house in the Borough and formally constituted the Southwark Independent Church. However the reprieve was short-lived and Greenwood and Barrowe were executed on 6th April 1593. John Penry was also executed, at a site near the present day junction between Albany Road and Old Kent Road, on 29th May 1593. Roger Rippon, whose house was used for worship, was arrested and died of disease in prison.

Settlement

On his eventual release Francis Johnson travelled to Newfoundland looking for a place where religious freedom might be possible. He finally settled in Holland where many of the Southwark dissenters had fled to. The remaining members of the group continued to meet in secret before being brought into the open by Henry Jacob in 1616. Jacob had been influenced by the writing of Johnson and in 1620 some members of the Southwark Church were given permission to sail to America. It was this group who went on The Mayflower.