NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE PILGRIMS, The. Organized at Providence, R I., Monday, 21 Dec. 1908, by 10 gentlemen, most of whom were of Mayflower ancestry. The plan and purposes of the Society originated with Thomas W. Bicknell of Rhode Island, who had, for a year, consulted with men and women of Pil grim ancestry in several States as to the needs and work of such a society. The term °Pilgrim" was used in the broad sense to include all those who settled in any one of the American colonies, between 1607 and 1700. This period the English historian Green calls the °Pilgrim Century° in the great western trans-Atlantic settlement. During that century, many thou sands of the yeoman class, with a sprinkling of nobility, crossed the ocean and made per manent homes on the eastern coast of America, between the Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico, and their descendants, numbering many millions, are located in all the States of the Union.
The objects of the Society are to perpetuate the memory and to foster and promote the prin ciples and virtues of the Pilgrims; to publicly commemorate, at stated times, principal events in the history of the Pilgrims, and to erect durable memorials of historic men and events; to encourage the study and research of Pilgrim history, especially as related to the foundation of civil government on the principles of soul liberty; to foster and to establish such depart ments of study and of organization as shall seem best to promote social rights, civic virtue, industrial freedom, political equality, the su premacy of just laws, the value and sacredness of the ballot, the purity of the home, temperate and godly living, and the dependence of indi viduals, communities, states and nations on the guidance of Almighty God, as taught by the Pilgrims. Any person of good moral character,
in lineal descent from Pilgrim ancestry in any colony prior to 1700, is eligible to membership. The officers are a governor-general, a deputy governor-general for each State, seven assist ants, a secretary-general, a treasurer-general, a captain, an elder, an historian and a board of commissioners of seven members, of which the governor-general and the secretary-general are members, ex officiis. These officers constitute the General Court of the Society. They are elected annually in the month of December of each year, hold office for one year or until their successors are elected. The secretary-general, who is the executive of the General Court, is elected by that body.
Local chapters and State societies are formed under the direction of the secretary-general. The headquarters of the National Society are in Providence, R. I. Thomas W. Bicknell, the founder of the Society, is the secretary-general.