Edward Winslow

Edward Winslow was born on October 18, 1595, at Droitwich, Worcestershire, England, the son of Edward Winslow and Magdalene Oliver.⁠[1]

He was baptized at Droitwich on October 20, 1595, and had four brothers, Gilbert, John, Josiah and Kenelm.⁠[2]

He was the eldest son of a relatively prosperous family.⁠[3]

His father was a salt manufacturer, and the family owned a salt pit.⁠[4][5]

From April 1606 to April 1611 he attended the King’s School of Worcester Cathedral. On August 19, 1613, he was bound for eight years to John Beale, a stationer in London, and he left his master in 1617.⁠[2]

At the King’s School he was one of ten students championed for a scholarship by the dean of the cathedral.⁠[5]

In 1617 he moved to Holland and joined John Robinson’s church at Leiden.⁠[6]

In Leiden he worked with Elder William BrewsterWilliam BrewsterWilliam Brewster (c. 1566–1644) was a Mayflower passenger and the Elder of the Separatist church at Leiden and then in Plymouth Colony, an office he held for the rest of his life.Open the full entry printing religious tracts that were illegal in England. One of them, Perth Assembly, criticized the king and his bishops, and King James ordered William Brewster’s arrest. Pilgrim Hall Museum’s biography judges that this danger likely strongly influenced his decision to leave Europe.⁠[3]

He married Elizabeth Barker in Leiden. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants dates the marriage to April 27, 1618; the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s biography places it after May 12, 1618 (New Style). The Leiden marriage record lists him as a printer.⁠[1][2][5]

He was deeply involved in planning the Mayflower voyage and helped write letters seeking funding; the negotiations with London merchants over financing were conducted by John CarverJohn CarverJohn Carver (died 1621) was one of the chief organizers of the Mayflower voyage and, after the signing of the Mayflower Compact in November 1620, the first governor of Plymouth Colony, serving until his death in April 1621.Open the full entry and Robert Cushman.⁠[3][5]

In the summer of 1620 he sailed with the Leiden emigrants on the Speedwell to Southampton to meet the Mayflower, and at Plymouth, England, the passengers transferred to the Mayflower, which carried 102 passengers.⁠[5]

With him were his wife Elizabeth, his brother Gilbert, and three servants who traveled with the family, George Soule, Elias Story and Ellen More.⁠[1]

On November 11, 1620, while the ship lay at anchor in Provincetown Harbor, he signed the Mayflower Compact. In November and December 1620 three expeditions were sent out in the shallop to explore Cape Cod; the General Society of Mayflower Descendants holds that he was undoubtedly on all three.⁠[1]

Elizabeth died at Plymouth on March 24, 1620/21.⁠[1]

The Great Sachem of the Wampanoag people was named Ousamequin; the English usually called him by his title, Massasoit. On March 22, 1620/21, Samoset came to Plymouth with Tisquantum (Squanto) and others and announced that Massasoit and his brother Quadequina were waiting nearby with sixty men.⁠[7][8]

Edward Winslow was chosen as the messenger. He gave gifts to Massasoit and Quadequina and conveyed King James’s friendship and offer of alliance and Governor John Carver’s wish to confirm peace. While Massasoit went to meet the governor he stayed with Quadequina, and the colonists held six or seven Wampanoag in exchange; Myles StandishMyles StandishMyles Standish (c. 1584–1656) was a Mayflower passenger and the military leader of Plymouth Colony; a former soldier in Holland, he later helped found Duxbury and served many times as an Assistant to the governor.Open the full entry and Williamson met Massasoit at the brook with half a dozen musketeers.⁠[8]

The two sides agreed on six articles of peace, including that neither would injure the other, that offenders would be handed over, that stolen goods would be restored, that each would aid the other against unjust attack and that visitors would leave their weapons behind. William BradfordWilliam BradfordWilliam Bradford (1590–1657) was a Mayflower passenger and the second and longest-serving governor of Plymouth Colony; his manuscript Of Plymouth Plantation is the most complete account of the Pilgrims and the colony’s early years.Open the full entry later wrote that the peace continued 24 years; the General Society of Mayflower Descendants’ article states that the articles were reconfirmed in various forms and upheld for close to 50 years, ending entirely with the outbreak of King Philip’s War.⁠[7][8]

He was the first colonist to meet Massasoit and shortly afterward the first to travel to Ousamequin’s home.⁠[3]

On May 12, 1621, he married Susanna White at Plymouth in the first wedding in Plymouth Colony. Susanna’s first husband, William White, had died in February 1621, leaving two sons, Resolved and Peregrine.⁠[1][9]

The wedding was a civil ceremony performed by Governor William Bradford.⁠[5]

Peregrine White (1620–1704) was the first child born to the New England colonists.⁠[6]

In March 1623, when news reached Plymouth that Massasoit was gravely ill, Edward Winslow was sent to him.⁠[1]

He described the journey in Good Newes from New England: his companion was John Hamden, a London gentleman wintering at Plymouth, and his guide was Hobbamock, and on the way they heard a report that Massasoit was already dead. When he arrived, Massasoit had lost his sight and said to him, “O Winslow, I shall never see thee again.” He gave the sick man a dissolved confection, cleaned his mouth and tongue and made a broth of duck with sassafras and strawberry leaves, and Massasoit steadily recovered. As they left, Massasoit privately informed Hobbamock of a plot by the Massachusetts against Weston’s settlement at Wessagusset and against Plymouth.⁠[10]

Pilgrim Hall Museum’s biography judges that the cure strengthened the alliance between the two sides.⁠[3]

In 1623 he went to England to sell a supply of boards and furs and to report to the colony’s investors; when he returned to Plymouth the next year he brought a patent for a fishing center at Cape Ann and three heifers and a bull.⁠[11]

These were the colony’s first cattle. In the land division of 1623 he had received four acres.⁠[1]

Good Newes from New England was published in London in 1624, with the author given on the title page as “E. W.” and printed by I. D. for William Bladen and John Bellamie.⁠[10]

The World History Encyclopedia’s article holds that the book’s primary purpose was to defend Myles Standish’s action at Wessagusset.⁠[12]

In 1627 he became one of the “undertakers” of the Plymouth Colony debt, sharing responsibility for trade with nearby Indigenous communities and a share in the profits from furs and other goods.⁠[3]

The cattle division of 1627 lists him with Susanna, their children and Resolved and Peregrine White.⁠[1]

In 1630 he replaced Isaac Allerton as Plymouth’s agent to the London investors. He also bought provisions from fishing ships on the MaineMaineMaine is a state in the northeastern United States, bordered by Canada and New Hampshire; its capital is Augusta and its largest city is Portland. It entered the Union on March 15, 1820, as the 23rd state, and had a population of 1,362,359 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry coast and helped create and defend fur-trading posts.⁠[11]

The New England Historic Genealogical Society’s biography lists the dates of his three elections as governor: January 1, 1632/3, January 5, 1635/6, and June 5, 1644.⁠[2]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry gives his terms as governor as 1633–1634, 1636–1637 and 1644–1645 and states that, except in those years, he was a member of the governor’s council from 1624 to 1647.⁠[6]

In 1643 he was one of the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.⁠[6]

In the 1639 list of freemen his name was moved from the Plymouth section to the Marshfield section, and he appears in the 1643 Marshfield list of men able to bear arms.⁠[2]

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants states that he had moved his family to Marshfield by 1634.⁠[1]

The family’s large estate at Marshfield, north of Plymouth, was called Careswell.⁠[9]

In 1634 he was sent to England to defend Plymouth’s part in the Hocking incident in Maine and ended up in prison for seventeen weeks.⁠[1]

On this visit he defended Plymouth’s jurisdiction over its Maine trading fort and proposed that New England create a united military front against the encroachments of the Dutch and French. The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that he was imprisoned for four months for being a Separatist in religion.⁠[11]

Mayflower 400’s profile states that his adversaries had him thrown into the Fleet Prison in London on the ground that he had performed marriage ceremonies without being ordained.⁠[5]

Pilgrim Hall Museum lists the years of his journeys to England as a colonial representative as 1623, 1624, 1635 and 1646.⁠[9]

In October 1646 he left on his last mission as the agent of Massachusetts Bay, and he did not return to New England in the remaining nine years of his life.⁠[6]

He went as agent for both MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry and Plymouth, to defend them against the attacks of their opponents in England, notably Robert Childe and Samuel Gorton.⁠[11]

In November 1646 John WinthropJohn WinthropJohn Winthrop (1588–1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who led a fleet across the Atlantic in 1630, founded Boston and was chosen governor 12 times between 1631 and 1648. His sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” likened the colony to “a city upon a hill.”Open the full entry called him “A fit man to be employed in our present affairs in England.” After he left, Susanna stayed at Careswell and oversaw the estate.⁠[3][9]

In England he published Hypocrisie Unmasked (1646) and New England’s Salamander (1647).⁠[1]

His Glorious Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England (1649) led to the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.⁠[6]

In 1651 an anonymous English artist of the school of Robert Walker painted his portrait in London in oil on canvas. It shows him in black and white clothing holding a letter, on which the only legible words are “From yr loving wife Susanna.” His son Josiah had come to London for his wedding to Penelope Pelham, and the couple were painted at the same time.⁠[13]

Pilgrim Hall Museum describes it as the only likeness of a Pilgrim made from life.⁠[13]

An editorial note in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial records several of his posts in this period: he had been appointed one of the Commissioners for compounding; from June 24 to December 19, 1654, when he left that employment, he was a Commissioner for managing estates under sequestration at 300 pounds a year; and on December 12, 1654, he was allowed a settled salary of 1,000 pounds a year, with 500 pounds advanced, as one of the Commissioners in the expedition under General Venables.⁠[14]

Mayflower 400’s profile states that he gained Oliver Cromwell’s favor and was appointed to parliamentary committees, including one overseeing the confiscation of property from royalty.⁠[5]

His will, dated December 18, 1654, describes him as “Edward Winslowe of London, Esquire,” bound on a sea voyage in the service of the Commonwealth. It left 10 pounds each to the poor of the church of Plymouth and the poor of Marshfield and named his son Josias executor and residuary heir.⁠[2]

In 1655 Oliver Cromwell appointed him a joint head of the expeditionary force that captured Jamaica that year. On May 8, 1655, he died of an unknown illness at sea between Hispaniola and Jamaica and was buried at sea in the Caribbean that month.⁠[3]

He was one of three commissioners sent by Oliver Cromwell.⁠[9]

The record quoted in the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s biography gives his age at death as “aged 59 years, 6 months, and 18 days”; his will was proved on October 16, 1655.⁠[2]

As to the cause of death, Wychavon District Council’s profile gives yellow fever and the World History Encyclopedia’s article gives fever. Mayflower 400’s profile states that Oliver Cromwell had wanted him to be governor of Jamaica.⁠[4][12][5]

He and Susanna had five children: a child born about 1623 who died young; Edward, born about 1624; John, born about 1626; Josiah, born about 1629; and Elizabeth, born about 1630/31. There is no further record of Edward and John.⁠[1]

Josiah Winslow served as governor of Plymouth Colony from 1673 to 1680, the first governor born in the colony, and died at Marshfield on December 18, 1680. Elizabeth died in Boston on December 23, 1697.⁠[1]

His brother Gilbert later returned to England; his brothers John, Josiah and Kenelm followed him to Plymouth Colony over the next decade.⁠[1]

Susanna was born about 1592 at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, and died at an unknown date between December 18, 1654, and July 2, 1675. In 1648, acting as her husband’s agent, she sold the indenture of an Indian servant named Hope to a Barbadian merchant. After his death she petitioned the British government for the balance of his salary.⁠[9]

Mourt’s Relation, published in London in 1622, was written by him and William Bradford shortly after the events it describes and was the first published account of Plymouth Colony.⁠[7]

The World History Encyclopedia’s article states that the colonists’ harvest celebration of autumn 1621 was first recorded by him in this book and that Native people took part in the festivities over three days.⁠[12]

A bronze statue of him stands outside the Heritage and Information Centre in his native Droitwich, depicting the moment he first set foot on land in America; the 1651 portrait hangs in Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.⁠[5]

Pilgrim Hall Museum’s biography states that Good Newes from New England is the best known of at least six works he wrote on the New England colonies.⁠[3]

Britannica’s article judges that his writings, though fragmentary, are of great value to historians of the Plymouth colony. The Encyclopedia of World Biography calls Mourt’s Relation and Good Newes from New England Plymouth’s first authoritative histories.⁠[6][11]

Pilgrim Hall Museum: Official website: https://www.pilgrimhall.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15]

General Society of Mayflower Descendants: Official website: https://themayflowersociety.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]