<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were early European settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present - day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States . The Pilgrims' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist separatist Puritans who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th--17th century Holland in the Netherlands . The Pilgrims held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but, unlike other Puritans, they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church . As a separatist group, they were also concerned that they might lose their English cultural identity if they remained in the Netherlands, so they arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America . The colony was established in 1620 and became the second successful English settlement in North America (after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607). The Pilgrims' story became a central theme of the history and culture of the United States . </P> <P> By this time, non-English European colonization was also underway in other parts of North and South America, including New Spain, Viceroyalty of Peru, New Netherland, New France, Essequibo, Brazil and Barbados . </P>

When did the pilgrims come to north america