William Adams (Japanese: ウィリアム・アダムス, kyūjitai: ウヰリアム・アダムス, Hepburn: Uwiriamu Adamusu) (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620), better known in Japan as Miura Anjin (Japanese: 三浦按針, "the pilot of Miura"), was an English navigator who, in 1600, was the first Englishman to reach Japan.

The 1620 agreement (first called the Mayflower Compact in 1793) was a legal instrument that bound the Pilgrims together when they arrived in New England. The core members of the Pilgrims' immigrant group were Separatists, members of a Puritan sect that had split from the Church of England, the only legal church in England at that time. Others in the group, however, had remained part of the Church of England, so not all of the Pilgrims shared the same religion.