Richard More - the Reluctant Pilgrim

Since 1695 Captain Richard More has been lying in a quiet corner of the burial ground in Salem, Massachusetts.
His gravestone - he is the only First Comer to have one - simply says - A Mayflower Pilgrim
Yet despite living his early years in the care of Elder William Brewster, Richard was no pilgrim.
His sensational 80 year life was one full of sex, scandal and deceit.
Born into a life of luxury with a wealthy family in the English county of Shropshire, Richard's world fell apart when he was only four, as his father Samuel declared he and his brother and two sisters were not his children, but fathered by a local laborer who had long been having an affair with his mother. His mother, Katherine, fought desperately to keep her children but after long and painful court battles, she lost.
Desperate to get his 'bastard' children as far away as possible, Samuel paid an agent to 'place' the children with a group of religious people escaping England, on a ship called the Mayflower, to make a new life away from persecution in the lands being settled across the Atlantic Ocean, in Virginia.
They never made it to Virginia, but set up their colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Richard subsequently went back to England to serve an apprenticeship, but returned to Massachusetts in 1635, living most of his life in Salem.
This is the story of Richard's amazing life and what happened to his siblings and family in the UK and USA. Richard More was certainly not a saint...but he definitely was a sinner!