Even as they boarded the ship Hercules in the spring of 1635, Nathaniel and Lydia Tilden could not have expected to live long in New England. At a time when few English men and women lived past the age of sixty, Nathaniel was nearly fifty-two and Lydia had recently turned forty-seven. Their family bore eloquent witness to the unpredictability of life: Of the dozen children Lydia had borne, five already lay in their graves. The remaining three sons and four daughters would accompany their parents westward across the Atlantic.

The Tildens were leaving the town of Tenterden, located in England's southeasternmost county of Kent. The small community of scarcely 500 inhabitants had been the home of three generations of the family. Although many of his neighbors made their livings through the manufacture of broadcloth, Nathaniel was a prosperous farmer. As the years passed, he achieved considerable local prominence; in 1622, for instance, he was chosen mayor of his town. Yet just over a decade later, Tilden and his family decided to abandon their settled life in Tenterden. Nathaniel rented out his house and lands, gathered his family and seven servants, and began a thirty-mile journey to the port of Sandwich, where the New England-bound Hercules lay at anchor.