An Immigrant

The families talked about leaving for a year or more.
They were unhappy with their life in the mother country
For a number or reasons, and saw a deliverance
From the stifling requirements of life at home.

The king's rule was absolute, and his actions
Were sometimes arbitrary and capricious.
Whether or not you were religious,
You had to belong to the prescribed church.

A rebellion was brewing from the dissidents
Which later led to civil war and death of the king.
Some of the malcontents left in a small ship
Years before to settle in a savage, unknown land.

You could become a free man in the king's realm,
But you could not rise above your station in life.
The trade or occupation you followed
Was simply passed down from father to son.

The families did not own their homes,
Being perpetual tenants on land that
The old king seized from the church and
Gave to his supporters a century before.

It was the promise of land that did it.
Some developers came back from the new country
And recruited new settlers with the promise
Of owning land for homes and farms.

Richard was reluctant, his wife Ursula even more so.
It was her brother Tom that championed the move.
What do do with their widowed mother was
Solved by Martha's decision to go with them.

So they signed on to a voyage on the Elizabeth,
Left their home in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England,
To sail to Boston in 1634, with their five children,
Tom Scott, Richard's brother Henry, and their families.