The new churches faced imprisonment, like other Brownists, and in the autumn of 1607, the Scrooby congregation decided to emigrate to the Netherlands. A large Brownist congregation, the Ancient Church, had moved to Amsterdam from London in 1593, led by Francis Johnson and Henry Ainsworth, and were able to worship as they chose. The churches of Robinson and Smyth secretly packed their belongings, and set out on foot for the sixty mile journey to the port town of Boston in Lincolnshire. Awaiting them was a sea captain, who had agreed to smuggle them out of the country.