Pilgrim Elders - Myles Standish

Myles Standish (born around 1584, died October 3, 1656) was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military adviser for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, as assistant governor, and as treasurer of Plymouth Colony.

Standish and Habbomock marching on Nemasket

Standish was associated for most of his life with a congregation of Protestants known as Separatists. Unlike Puritans, who sought to reform the Church of England, Separatists believed that the Church of England was beyond reform and wished to break from it to form independent congregations. One group of Separatists formed in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, led by ministers Richard Clyfton and John Robinson, and by a lay minister or "elder" named William Brewster. English authorities outlawed and persecuted such congregations. In 1608, the Scrooby congregation relocated to Holland in the Dutch Republic, where freedom of religion was permitted. The group eventually settled in Leiden, Holland, where it remained for 12 years.

The Mayflower Compact by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

Although they enjoyed religious freedom in Holland, the members of the Scrooby congregation were troubled by the foreign culture of Leiden and they wished to raise their children in a strictly English environment. In 1620, with the permission of King James I of England and backing from a group of financial investors in London known as the Merchant Adventurers, the Scrooby congregation departed for the New World aboard the Mayflower to establish a colony in North America.


One of Standish's last military actions on behalf of Plymouth Colony was the botched Penobscot expedition in 1635. By the 1640s, Standish relinquished his role as an active soldier and settled into a quieter life on his Duxbury farm. Although he was still nominally the commander of military forces in a growing Plymouth Colony, he seems to have preferred to act in an advisory capacity. He died in his home in Duxbury in 1656 at age 72. Although he supported and defended the Pilgrim colony for much of his life, there is no evidence to suggest that Standish ever joined their church. However, Standish was one of the forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact which states the colony's purpose was to advance the Christian faith for the Glory of God. Forty-one of the ship's one-hundred and one passengers signed the Compact in the cabin of the Mayflower while anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor within the northern tip of Cape Cod.

Several towns and military installations have been named for Standish and monuments have been built in his memory. One of the best known depictions of Standish in popular culture was the 1858 book, The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Highly fictionalized, the story presents Standish as a timid romantic. It was extremely popular in the 19th century and played a significant role in cementing the Pilgrim story in American culture.

-- information taken from the books 
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick 
and
Captain Myles Standish by Tudor Jenks

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