Bibles at the Pilgrim Hall Museum at Plymouth

Absolutist authors arbitrarily affirm that the Pilgrims only brought the Geneva Bible to America on the Mayflower, that it is the only Bible they would have brought, and that they would not have brought or used a King James Bible. One consideration calls this into question.

Having posted several times re the Geneva Bible,[i] I found the following quite intriguing. The Pilgrim’s Society was founded in 1820, incorporated by the State Legislature of Massachusetts. Then resolutions were passed to build a Pilgrim Hall, which was completed in 1824.[ii] The Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts maintains four very early Bibles – three Geneva Bibles and one King James Bible. There is general agreement that two of these were brought to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

The following information comes from “Four Early Bibles in Pilgrim Hall” by Charles C. Forman (Pilgrim Society Note, Series One, Number Nine, April 1959).

“Among the books in Pilgrim Hall are four Bibles of unusual interest. One belonged to Governor William Bradford, the Pilgrim Governor, and one to John Alden.[iii] These are among the very few objects existing today which we feel reasonably sure ‘came over in the Mayflower.’ Of the history of the other two we know little, but they are Geneva Bibles, the version most commonly used by the Pilgrims.”

William Bradford’s Bible

“Governor Bradford’s Bible is a Geneva Bible...The Table of Contents lists the Apocrypha, but the actual books are no longer present, and may never have been included...The early pages of this Bible, up to Genesis XII, are gone, but the title page of the New Testament gives the name of the printer and the date: Christopher Barker … London … 1592.’”

John Alden’s Bible

“No. 90 in the Pilgrim Hall catalogue designates the Bible which once belonged to John Alden. Some of the leaves are missing, but the colophon at the end of Revelation shows that the New Testament was printed in London by Robert Barker, ‘Printer to the Kings most excellent Majestie,’ in 1620. The Concordance was printed by Bonham Norton and John Bill in 1619. This is not a Geneva Bible, but the ‘King James’ or ‘Authorized’ version.”

The Bibles at Pilgrim Hall supply a few other interesting facts about the Geneva Bible:

“Bradford’s Bible is printed in black letter, or ‘Old English,’ type, except for the marginal notes, conclusive evidence that the familiar statement that the Geneva Bible was always printed in Roman type is inaccurate.”

“The Bibles in Pilgrim Hall show that different editions of the Geneva Bible varied considerably in detail; that the material bound together also varied, either by the owner’s choice or the caprice of the bookseller; and that the firm of Barker in London printed both King James and Geneva Bibles, sometimes using the same decorative material for both.”

It cannot be proven beyond a shadow of doubt that Alden brought his Bible with him on the Mayflower. (Neither can it be proven regarding Bradford’s Bible, for that matter.) The careful position of the Pilgrim Hall Museum is that they do not have absolute proof that there were any Bibles on the Mayflower. However, it is reasonable to believe that a deeply religious people would bring Bibles with them, and almost inconceivable that they would not.

A cautious approach to history would be that some Geneva Bibles probably came over on the Mayflower, and that probably at least one King James Bible did so as well. Absolute proof cannot currently be provided.

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[i] HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
[ii] “The mission of the Pilgrim Society and Pilgrim Hall Museum is to achieve worldwide awareness of the Pilgrims’ significance, and the story of early Plymouth, as an enduring narrative of America’s founding.”
[iii] John Alden was a cooper and carpenter, and may not have been a Separatist or Puritan at the time he came to America. On the other hand, he signed the Mayflower Compact.