Hi all,
Can you help me with what the typical profile of an emigration ship heading to North America from Britain in the early part of the 17th century. This is quite a wide ranging question but I would be very grateful for any information you can provide me. Indeed I would be grateful to be pointed to sources covering emigrant ships to the new world.
What would the occupants of the ship be made up of? Would there be women, children, whole families? Multiple generations? Older folk? How many people would likely be on one emigrant ship? Would the captain/crew be merchant sailors intent on returning home or would they intend also to remain in the new world? Could the crew have made this trip a dozen times or is that unlikely?
What would they take with them to make a success of the new world? Would they take livestock and crops with them to survive? If so how many of what exactly? Horses perhaps? Cattle? Sheep? Would they take tools and tradesmen to help build new homes/buildings/defences on arrival?
Also, how long would this journey take. What is the likely attrition rate during the journey, would lots of people die? Just a handful? None? (assuming a fairly uneventful crossing). What are the stopping points (if any) en route.
What is the typical reason in this period for people to be emigrating - the possibility of making a better life? Escape from religious persecution? Could it be a mixture of all these things?
And finally, roughly where is my destination in the first couple of decades of the 17th century. Are we talking Virginia? New England?
Many thanks.
EDIT: One more related question. Is there typically a time of year they would leave Britain / aim to arrive. Would they try to avoid travelling/arriving in Winter or were people arriving year round.
It would entirely depend on which colony they're heading to, but in New England colonies, they will most likely be families, generally some farmers, some merchants or artisans (Coopers, Shoemakers, etc). The gender ratio was pretty even, some single adult men would come, few single adult women came along (by single I mean both unmarried and not with any relatives btw). Some older folk would be present, mostly coming along with their adult children and their families since they were relying on them in their old age. They brought some of the essentials, and the rest was pretty much relied upon by later ships bringing cargo, with the early settlers in the meantime just trying to build their new homes and establish farms, and relying on the Natives early on of course (before relations went really sour). The trip could take a few weeks or months, and some would die aboard the boats of course, usually the very old or young, anyone who was particularly immunocompromised really. The reasons for leaving Britain at this time were multiple, mostly, they hoped to find a better life, because they felt persecuted in Britain, there was crowding and less good farm lands and harvests, people wanted to find a better life. Many Puritans actually moved to Holland first, and then came over to New England after a few years when the colonies were being established in Plymouth and such. A good book that could help with this as well, for other details and colonies: "American Colonies: The Settling of North America" by Alan Taylor. It should hopefully be easy to find in a book store or library if you would like to consult it.