Friday, February 8, 2013

Pilgrim Museum in Leiden

Today I visited the Pilgrim Museum in Leiden, The Netherlands.  Much thanks to the director, Mr Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, for his time and vast information that he shared with us.

Sign on the door of the Pilgrim Museum.

The corner door is the entrance to the new room.  The next door to the right is the Pilgrim Museum.

Here I am seated at a table with books older than the United States.

This is a plat book from the 1500s showing property owners in Leiden.

This book contained a copy of the marriage record of Francis Cooke to Hester Mayieu in 1603.

A jack screw was utilized to make repairs on the Mayflower.
A jack screw was recently located and is displayed in the Museum.

An identical bowl is found on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean at the Pilgrim Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
I will have to visit there as well.

This is a bed.  It's so small and short because people slept sitting up in the 1600s.

People had to sleep sitting up because they burned peat for heat,
which emitted lots of black smoke, making breathing difficult.

The room next door was renovated, revealing a floor and fireplace from the 1400s.
I am sitting in a chair from the 1200s.

This floor is made of gravestones of priests buried at the church across the way.
Burials and cemeteries are not popular in The Netherlands.

This floor tile/former gravestone still displays a marking.

We walked to nearby Levendaal, the street where Francis Cooke lived before sailing on the Mayflower.
It is a short street with just a few structures standing on one side.

The middle of Levendaal.

The other end of Levendaal.

The modern corner structure is a synagogue.

This seems to be the oldest house left standing on Levendaal.
It is not known which house Francis Cooke lived in, as houses were not numbered until the 1800s.

6 comments:

  1. My ancestor was also a passenger on the Mayflower and lived on or at Levendaal in Leiden between 1611 and 1620. It seems likely our two ancestors were neighbors close to 400 years ago. I love your pictures.

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  2. I heard about this museum for the first time last fall. Great to see your post and photos! I have Walloon / Huguenot ancestors who lived in Leiden from before 1652 through the time they sailed to New Amsterdam in 1659. I also have Dutch ancestors who arrived in the mid-1640s in New Netherland and eventually settled in Long Island and New Jersey. These pictures are great for getting a better understanding of the interior of their homes as well. Thanks so much for posting!

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  3. Thanks for your comment, Caroline.

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  4. Hello Jody, wonderful pictures. I am also related to Francis Cooke, Hester LeMahieu. Your pictures from 2013 are so good. We have a porringer that appears to be a similar shape to bowl you displayed. It is some type of poured metal, one of my nephews is the one to carry it down through the family. Maybe I will find out someday exactly which person it came from, rather than going that it came from Priscilla Rogers or Rodgers (?) Again, thank you Caroline

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