Griffin (ship)

This article is about the English ship on the Atlantic. For La Salle's ship on the Great Lakes, see Le Griffon.

Griffin was the name of a 17th-century ship known to have sailed between England and English settlements in Massachusetts. Several historical and genealogical references show the Griffin making such journeys in 1633 and 1634. The 1633 journey left at Downs, England and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts on September 3. This 1633 journey carried religious dissidents, including Thomas Hooker,[1] John Cotton, and others totaling 200 people. The ship Griffin weighed in at 300 tons and she saw the birth of at least one child, Seaborn Cotton, during the 1633 voyage.[2] In 1634 the Griffin carried Anne Hutchinson to the Massachusetts colony. Huthcinson's oldest son had preceded her the previous year, also on the Griffin.

There are at least several other ships known to have used the name Griffin in the following centuries. Most if not all such non-17th-century references probably refer to another vessel carrying the same name, such as Robert de La Salle's ship Le Griffon, which pioneered sailing the Great Lakes in the late 1600s.

References

  1. ↑ The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hartford, Connecticut, 1586-1908. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  2. ↑ Gooding, Alfred. "Address at the Dedication of a Memorial Stone". History of the First Congregational Church of Hampton, NH. Hampton, NH Library. Retrieved 30 April 2012.