Mayflower passengers John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley...he was born in Fenstanton in 1592 and she was born in Henlow in 1607. His parents Henry and Margaret lived and died in Fenstanton in 1635 and 1629.
John and his brothers all emigrated from England to New England before either of their parents died. I wonder how difficult that might have been for Henry and Margaret.
I am very curious to know what life was like in places like Fenstanton and Henlow during this time frame. Namely, what was their Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winters like for people living there? And what knowledge would people living in these places have? Were they literate? Would they be reading Spenser? Or know of Shakespeare?
But also, would they know about the great defeat of the Spanish Armada? How were they affected by the Nine Years' War? Would they, in these small villages, be privy to the death of Queen Elizabeth I, or to the Bye Plot or Main Plot or Gunpowder Plot? What would their views be on the accession of King James?
Fenstanton is, even now, a fairly small rural village, although it will soon become part of the Cambridge conurbation. The climate was pretty much as it is now, although there is evidence, like the Thames freezing over and sports like Fen Skating, that winter was colder than now. The area may have been malarial as well. Their level of literacy would be hard to assess. If they were landowning farmers they probably were literate, and, assuming that they were Puritans, that would make their literacy more likely.