Meanwhile John Winthrop with many other Puritans emigrated to America
to escape oppression. According to tradition John Hampden (S436) and
his cousin, Oliver Cromwell, who was a member of the last Parliament,
embarked on a vessel in the Thames for New England. But it is said
that they were prevented from sailing by the King's order. The two
friends remained to teach the despotic sovereign a lesson which
neither he nor England ever forgot.[1]
[1] Macaulay's "Essay on Hampden," Guizot's "English Revolution," and
other well-known authorities, relate the proposed sailing of Hampden
and Cromwell, but several recent writers question its truth.