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Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

Virtual Tour Detail

The Mayflower Compact

Pligrims and Puritans

The Pilgrims were a small group of English Separatists who founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620. They broke away from the Angelican Church and wrote the Mayflower Compact–America's first written agreement regarding self-government.

The Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. It included settlements at Boston, Cambridge, and Salem. They wanted to "purify" the Angelican Church&endash;rejecting its ritual and hierarchy, but never completely leaving it. Some apply the term "Puritan" to both groups.