Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 were English Puritans from the East Midlands and London areas. Seeking religious freedom, they first fled to Leiden, Netherlands, before sailing on the Mayflower to North America.
Their ancestral and cultural roots were firmly in England—specifically in the separatist congregations of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. Plymouth, Massachusetts, became the first permanent English settlement in New England.