Vrouwekerk
The Pilgrims did not have their own church building and therefore used the Pieterskerk, the Vrouwekerk, and other churches in Leiden for their baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
The Vrouwekerk was used by the Walloon community, with whom the Pilgrims had a lot of contact. Philippe de la Noye, a Huguenot born in Leiden in 1602, was baptized in the Vrouwekerk in 1603.
In the same year, De la Noye's aunt, Hester Mahieu, married a leader of the Pilgrims, Francis Cooke, in the Vrouwekerk. In 1621, De la Noye left for Plymouth aboard the Pilgrims' second ship, the Fortune. Cooke left for the Plymouth colony aboard the Mayflower in 1621, his wife following later.
These events proved to be of great importance to the history of the United States, as many famous Americans are descended from Philippe de la Noye (later anglicized to Delano) and from Hester Mahieu and Francis Cooke, including Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, director Orson Welles, and actor Richard Gere.