Thanksgiving (United States) as early as 1607, with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia holding a thanksgiving in 1610. In 1619, 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia. The group's London Company charter specifically required "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." Three years later, after the Indian massacre of 1622, the Berkeley Hundred site and other outlying locations were abandoned and colonists moved their celebration to Jamestown and other more secure spots.
Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony) was retold by historians Nathaniel Morton (in 1669) and Cotton Mather (in 1702), and both paraphrased Bradford's passage and used his word "pilgrims". At Plymouth's Forefathers' Day observance in 1793, Rev. Chandler Robbins recited this passage. The name "Pilgrims" was probably not in popular use before about 1798, even though Plymouth celebrated Forefathers' Day several times between 1769 and 1798 and used a variety of terms to honor Plymouth's founders. "Pilgrims" was not mentioned, other than in Robbins' 1793 recitation. The first documented use that was not simply quoting Bradford was at a December 22, 1798 celebration of Forefathers' Day