My mother has a copy of the "Breeches" (Geneva) bible, first published in 1557 (sure, hers is a reprint from 1607, regular folk could never afford a first editi

My mother has a copy of the "Breeches" (Geneva) bible, first published in 1557 (sure, hers is a reprint from 1607, regular folk could never afford a first edition). The Douay-Rheims translation was published in 1582. The King James version might be considered definitive by many, but it's nowhere close to the first English translation. In fact, King James' version was less popular than the Geneva bible and wasn't selling well until His Majesty banned the competition and punished those caught with a copy. The famous refugees that migrated from England to America in 1620 on the Mayflower carried Geneva bibles, not King James bibles.