history says the pilgrim fathers set sail from plymouth , ive also heard they sailed from boston lincolnshire?

which is correct

If you look at a map of England you will see that Boston is on the South coast of England, and Plymouth is on the West coast.

The ship would have set off from Boston and traveled underneath England where the seas are gentle, it would then have taken on passengers and supplies in Plymouth before setting sail for America.

In those days you only sailed to the US from the West coast of England as it was too dangerous to sail up and around Scotland from the South coast.

Long story. The simple answer is that they sailed from Plymouth, but that was not the original port of embarcation. Originally, the puritan colonists set sail from Delfshaven in the Netherlands. (That is because they had emigrated from England several years earlier, and settled in Leiden, in the Netherlands.) However, they had trouble with their ships (the Mayflower and the Speedwell), and had to make port several times for repairs. After leaving Delfshaven, they put into Southampton for repairs, then Dartmouth, then Plymouth. They then abandoned the Speedwell (which was hopelessly unseaworthy) and set sail only in the Mayflower -- from Plymouth.

They set sail from Boston, Lincolnshire because the Pilgrim Father's movement started at Babworth Nottinghamshire.

When they landed in America, they named the place Plymouth Colony after the English city.

As far as I remember from my school days back in the 1940s and 1950s the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Boston to Holland - which was then very largely a Puritan Protestant country. Then, from Holland they sailed to Plymouth, replenished their supplies, took on more 'pilgrims' and then sailed to the British Colony of North America, arriving somewhere near Boston Harbor, Mass.

http://www.websaints.com/Events/NoMakeupTour/boston_area/plymouth_rock_med.jpg

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/The-Pilgrim-Fathers.htm

Anyway, if they were headed for Boston, they were off course, because where they landed is about an hour's drive from Bostonia.