The mayflower compact

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are  underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James,  by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King,  Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement  of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to  plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these  presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of  another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body  Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the  ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame  such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices  from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the  general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and  obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at  Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our  Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the  eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

(William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison, 75-6.)

John Carver

Edward Tilly

Digery Priest

William Bradford

John Tilly

Thomas Williams

Edward Winslow

Francis Cooke

Gilbert Winslow

William Brewster

Thomas Rogers

Edmund Margeson

Isaac Allerton

Thomas Tinker

Peter Brown

Miles Standish

John Rigdale

Richard Bitteridge

John Alden

Edward Fuller

George Soule

Samuel Fuller

John Turner

Richard Clark

Christopher Martin

Francis Eaton

Richard Gardiner

William Mullins

James Chilton

John Allerton

William White

John Craxton

Thomas English

Richard Warren

John Billington

Edward Doten

John Howland

Moses Fletcher

Edward Leister

Stephen Hopkins

John Goodman

The original document does not survive. It first appeared in Mourt’s Relation,  a pamphlet about the first year of settlement at Plimoth. In 1669  Plymouth’s town historian, Nathaniel Morton, reprinted the agreement in  his book, New England’s Memorial. Interestingly, he included a  possible list of the men who signed it, even though these men’s names  were not included in earlier copies of the Mayflower Compact.  According to Morton, the document was signed by 41 of the male  passengers – all but one of the freemen, three of the five hired men,  and two of the nine servants.