Plymouth was the England that John Billington had tried to escape, just under a different name. Instead of King James, there was Governor Bradford and his hired soldier, Myles Standish.
-- John Billington (Chapter 2)

Importance: John Billington resents the Puritans because he believes they are hypocrites. This quote is important because it points out the hypocrisy of escaping persecution in England only to come to Plymouth and oppress the servants and Native Americans.

Those hypocrites. Had we had theatre, had we been permitted any enjoyable pastime to release us from them, maybe that day would have gone differently. But there was no theatre in Plymouth—the hypocrites hated the way Shakespeare and Johnson had depicted them, the she-puritan who so overflows with the Bible that she spills it upon every occasion. They claimed the theatre was the bathhouse for Satan. All we had for amusement was punishment. The tears, pleadings, and confessions of court, the...
-- Eleanor Billington (Chapter 8)