author

Thomas Blossom

A member of the Leiden Separatists and an early Pilgrim, he is remembered less for a large body of writing than for the vivid letters he sent across the Atlantic during the difficult first years of Plymouth Colony. His story links the failed voyage of the Speedwell, the later crossing in 1629, and the small circle of believers who helped shape early New England.

1 Audiobook

The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo

The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo

by Thomas Blossom, Nathan Kelsey Hall

About the author

Born around 1580 in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire, Thomas Blossom was part of the English Separatist community that left for Leiden in the Netherlands in the early 1600s. He married Anne Elsdon in Cambridge in 1605, and later joined the congregation led by John Robinson, the same religious community closely associated with the Pilgrims.

Blossom is best known from the migration story around the Speedwell and Mayflower era. Sources indicate that he was aboard the Speedwell in 1620, but after that troubled voyage failed, he returned to Leiden rather than continuing on to New England at that time. He remained in contact with Plymouth Colony, and a surviving letter he wrote to Governor William Bradford in December 1625 gives a personal glimpse into grief, separation, and the hopes of the Leiden group.

He and his family finally crossed to New England in 1629 on a later ship also called the Mayflower, then settled in Plymouth. William Bradford later described him warmly as a trusted old friend from the Holland years. Blossom died in Plymouth in 1633, remembered today as one of the lesser-known but very human voices connected with the Pilgrim migration.