Myles Standish
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Myles Standish (c. 1584 - October 3, 1656), was an English-born professional soldier hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth colony. Arriving on the Mayflower, he worked on colonial defense. Later, he served as Plymouth's representative in England, and served as assistant to the governor and as the colony's treasurer. He was also one of the founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts (named after his ancestoral seat at Duxbury Woods, Chorley) in 1632. On February 17, 1621, he was appointed the first commander of Plymouth colony.
Myles Standish is often remembered for his bravery in battle and his reputation as the military captain of the Pilgrims, as well as a character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's fictitious poem The Courtship of Miles Standish.
The former Fort Standish, located on Lovell's Island, Massachusetts, was named in his honor.
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[edit] Early life
Standish was born about 1584 (though some put his birth later around 1587). According to Nathaniel Morton writing in New Englands Memorial (1669) and records from the town of Chorley, Myles was from Chorley, Lancashire, Great Britain. In the 20th century, researchers attempted to place his birth at Ellanbane, Isle of Man, rather than in Lancashire. This issue has been widely debated, even becoming the subject of a Wall Street Journal article in the Thanksgiving 2004 issue. The latest research by Dr Jeremy Bangs is online and referenced below.
The Standish name was well-known throughout North West England and there are many buildings still standing there today named for the Standish family. His alleged birth home, Standish Hall, was auctioned at the Empress Hall, Wigan, in March 1921, failing to make a reserve price of £4,800. The remaining part of the Hall was finally demolished in 1982. The other ancestral seat of the Standishes was Duxbury Hall, in Chorley, which still stands today in the form of the old barn. The 17th century hall was demolished but the coachhouse and lodge on Bolton road such as the ancient barn and walls of the fortress still exists today in Duxbury Park on the south side of the town.
The township of Standish was of importance during the Roman occupation of Britain, and the Standish family is known to have been there since the Norman Conquest. One Standish, Sir Rowland Standish, fought at Agincourt and brought back to Chorley the skull of Saint Lawrence in 1442.
Around the time of Myles' birth, the two principal branches of the Standish family became divided by religion. The senior branch, the Standishes of Standish, remained Catholics, while the Standishes of Duxbury embraced Protestantism. It is not known from which branch of the family Miles descended. While presumably a Protestant, he alone among the Pilgrim leaders never joined the separatist church at Plymouth.
In his will, Standish claimed to have been wrongfully deprived of his inheritance as a scion of the Standishes of Standish. Recent research by Helen Moorwood (Lancashire History Quarterly) suggests that he in fact descended from both the Standish and Duxbury branches of the family, and that his claims to various properties had been passed over in favor a more powerful cousin who fought on the parliamentary side during the English Civil War, and who eventually succeeded to the Duxbury estate. Moorwood's research, however, failed to establish the missing links in Myles' chain of descent. The confusion over Mylses' lineage comes in part from the reference to the Isle of Mann in his will, which is now widely thought to represent a farm called the the Isle of Mann Farm, in Croston, Chorley, Lancashire.
However, the confusion continues further as there is a third line of the Standish family that did in fact own property on the Isle of Man, speculation remains that Myles was a descendant of the Standish, Isle of Mann and Duxbury Standishes.
Although an enemy claimed that Myles started his military career as a drummer, other evidence suggests that he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1602, while presumably still in his teens. He is known to have served in the Low Countries (Holland), where English troops under Horatio Vere had been stationed to help the Dutch in their war with Spain. It was certainly there that he made acquaintance with the Pilgrims at Leyden, and came into good standing with the Pilgrims pastor John Robinson. Standish was eventually hired by them to be their Military Captain.
[edit] In America
After the Pilgrims hired Standish as Military Captain for the voyage to America, he was soon to be one of the members to sign the Mayflower Compact at Cape Cod November 11, 1620. After the voyage, Standish was elected Military Captain of the colony by the leadership of the Pilgrims.
[edit] Plymouth Colony
Soon after arriving at Plymouth, the first illness struck the Pilgrims and this sickness took his wife Rose’s life, on January 29, 1621; In 1623, a woman named Barbara came to Plymouth on the ship Anne, and Myles married her that same year. Myles and Barbara had seven children together. They were Charles (died young), Alexander (who married Sarah Alden, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens), John, Myles, Loara, Josiah, and Charles.
Through all the continued sickness, Standish was one of the seven that did not get sick; William Bradford quoted:
- But that was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three months’ time half of their company died, especially in January and February.... So as their died some times two or three of a day in the foresaid time, that 100 and odd persons, scarce fifty remained. And of these, in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendation, be it spoken, spared no pains night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed their meat, made their beds, washed their clothes clothed and unclothed them… Two of these seven were Mr. William Brewster, their reverend Elder, and Myles Standish, their captain and military commander, unto whom myself and many others were much beholden in our low and sick condition.
Standish was quick to make friends with the Indians, including one named Hobomok.
In the second year at Plymouth, Standish led a force to Wessagusett to save the settlement from Indian attack. This was the first time Plymouth had killed an Indian.
Edward Winslow quoted in Good News From New England about Standish:
- Also Pecksuot, being a man of great stature than the Captain, told him, though he were a great Captain, yet he was but a little man; and said he, thought I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage. These things the Captain observed, yet bare with patience for the present. . . On the next day he began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching his own knife from his neck, though with much struggling, killed him therewith. . . Hobbamock stood by all this as a spectator, and meddled not observing how our men demeaned themselves in this action. All being here ended, smiling, he brake forth into these speeches to the Captain: Yesterday Pecksuot, bragging of his own strength and stature, said, though you were a great captain, yet you were but a little man; but today I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground.
[edit] Duxbury
Standish was also the treasurer of the Colony of Duxbary from the year 1644 to 1649, which was named after the original Standish estate in Chorley, England. Standish had never joined the Plymouth church (though he attended every Sunday), and to his death supposedly never did. This was possibly because of the constant conflict over religious beliefs in his family.
Standish died in Duxbury Massachusetts on October 3, 1656. Nathaniel Morton wrote of his death:
- This year [1656] Captain Myles Standish expired his mortal life. . . .In his younger time he went over into the low countries, and was a soldier there, and came acquainted with the church at Leynden, and came over into New England, with such of them as at the first set out the plantation of New Plymouth, and bare a deep share of their first difficulties, and was always very faithful to their interest. He growing ancient, became sick of the stone, or stranguary, whereof, after his suffering of much dolorous pain, he fell asleep in the Lord, and was Honorably buried at Duxbury.
Standish’s last will and testimony states even though leaving his family in England that he had land in various parts of England. His will states: “9 I give unto my son & heir apparent Allexander Standish all my land as heire apparent by lawful Decent in Ormistick Borsconge Wrightington Maudsley Newburrow Crawston and the Ile of man (Isle of Man) and given to me as right heire by lawful Decent but Surruptuously Detained from mee great G(ran) dfather being a 2cond or youngerbrother from the house of Standosh of Standish. March the 7th 1655 by me Standish.” These lands now make up the Lancashire towns of Chorley and Ormskirk.
[edit] References
- Alexander Mackennal, Homes and Haunts of the Pilgrim Fathers, pg. 66-85, 1976.
- Russel Warner, Miles Standish of the Mayflower and his Descendents for Five Generations, 1996.
- Lawrence Hill, Gentlemen of Courage...Forward, pg. 175, 1987.
- Helen Moorwood, "Pilgrim Father Captain Myles Standish of Duxbury, Lancashire" (article), Lancashire History Quarterly, Volume 3 (1999).
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