Thomas Hastings and his first wife, Susan, sailed from Ipswich, England on The Elizabeth in April 1634. While his English home has yet to be established, his fellow passengers on The Elizabeth may provide some useful clues. It is well known that the "Great Migration" immigrants tended to travel in groups - family, church or community. Given this, the origins of his fellow travelers are highly relevant.
From the matrix below, we can easily see that virtually all of his fellow passengers were from the East of England. Most were from the East Anglia region northeast of London. This is consistent with what is known of the more general immigration patterns of the "Great Migration." There were a few key factors that caused so many of our ancestors to leave East Anglia. The region had been the economic power house of England but it was hard hit by an economic depression in the first half of the 1600s. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Puritan movement developed deep roots in East Anglia and its bordering counties. Dedham, Essex, for example, (see John Sherman below) was considered a "hot bed" of Puritan agitation. The Church of England eventually tired of this and helped drive the militants to the new world.
| Passenger(s) | Origins |
| John & Phobe Bernard | West Bergholt, Suffolk & Dedham, Essex |
| William & Sarah Blomfield | |
| Humphrey & Bridgett Bradstreet | Ipswich & Capel St. Mary, Suffolk |
| John Clearke | London with Stratford, Suffolk connections |
| John & Anne Crosse | Suffolk |
| William Cutting | vicinity of Great Bromley, Essex |
| Robert & Mary Day | |
| John Firmin | probably Sudbury, Suffolk |
| Henery Glouer | |
| Robert & Katherine Goodall | Framlingham, Suffolk |
| Henery & Anne Gouldson | Wickham Skeith, Suffolk |
| Henery & Susan Kemball | Rattlesden, Suffolk |
| Richard & Ursula Kemball | Rattlesden or Hitcham, Suffolk |
| Thomas & Elizabeth Kilborne | Wood Ditton, Cambridgeshire |
| Edmond & Mary Lewis | |
| Isaake & Sarah Mixer | Capel St. Mary, Suffolk |
| George & Elizabeth Munnings | Rattlesden, Suffolk |
| John Palmer | |
| Danyell Pierce | Norfolk |
| Thurston & Elizabeth Raynor | Elmsett, Suffolk |
| Robert Sherin | |
| John Sherman | Suffolk & Dedham, Essex. Ties to Kemball families. |
| Thomas & Elizabeth Skott | Rattlesden, Suffolk. Thomas was brother-in-law of Richard Kemball |
| Samuel & Elizabeth Smithe | |
| John & Elinor Spring | Probably Lavenham, Suffolk |
| Martin & Martha Underwood | Great Bentley, Essex with Suffolk roots. |
| Richard & Rose Woodward | Worked in Suffolk but original home unknown. |
| Joseph Mosse or Morse | Dedham, Essex |
| Sarah Reynolds | |
| Susan Munson | Origins unknown. She traveled in the employ of Thomas Hastings |
| Rebecca Isaacke | |
| Anne Dorifall | |
The Elizabeth left Ipswich, Suffolk, England on April 10, 1634. The ship's "master" was William Andrews. Both the master and ship are known to have made subsequent trips although no record (other than departure) of this particular voyage remains. Typically, ships making this voyage weighed between 10 and 100 tons (the Mayflower was quite big at 180 tons) and traveled at 7 - 10 knots.