It is appropriate to begin this on-line history today, for it was 390 years ago today (July 22, 1620) that the Pilgrims embarked in the Mayflower, en route to the new world. And that is essentially where our history begins.
From the book Robert Cushman of Kent: Deposition of Thomas Cowchman of the parish of Rolvenden (co. Kent), having lived there twelve years and before that in the parish of Hawkhurst, aged forty years, dated 25 September 1578. (Depositions at Canterbury, 1578.)
The Will of Thomas Couchman of the parish of Rolvinden, co. Kent, husbandman, 10 february 1585 [1585/6] — To be buried in the churchyard of Rolvinden. To the poor men’s box of Rolvinden 2s. To my son Rychard Couchman £10 at the age of one and twenty years. to my daughter Sylvestre Couchman £6. 13s. 4d. at the age of twenty years or day of marriage. If any of my said children die under age, reversion to the survivors. To my godchild Thomas Bredman 12d. To my godchildren Thomas Colye, Thomas Gabriell, Marion Hasleman, and Jone Couchman a sheep each. If my wife Ellen shall marry again before my children have received their portions, then her husband shall give security to Robert Gibbon for the payment of the said portions, and if he will not, then my wife shall pay unto the said Robert Gibbon the said portions, and he shall lay it out for the use and profit of my said children, until they be of age to receive it. Residuary legatee and executrix: my wife Ellen. Overseer: Robarte Gibbon. [Signed] Signum Thome Couchman. Witnesses: Robart Gibbon, Leonard Wylson, and Symon Lingen. Proved 12 May by the executrix. (Archdeaconry of Canterbury, vol. 46, fo. 120)
Cushman Entries in the Archdeacons’ Transcripts of the Parish Registers of Rolvenden, co. Kent, 1560-1612:
1568 July The same Day agayn (XVIIJ) was maryid Thomas Cuchiman and Elynour hubbarde maydin.
1572 Alys daughter of Thomas Cutchman baptized 20 April.
1574 Alys daughter of Thomas Cutchiman buried 9 May
1574 Sylvister daughter of Thomas Cutchiman baptized 30 October.
1575 John son of Christopher Croochiman baptized 8 May.
1577 The IX daye of the same month of February was baptized Robert Cutchman the sone of Thomas Cutchman [1577/8]
1582 Margaret daughter of Thomas Cuchman baptised 25 March.
1583 Margaret daughter of Thomas Cuchman buried 5 February [1583/4].
1584 Henry son of Thomas Cowchman baptized 26 July.
1585 Henry son of Thomas Cowchman bired 11 April.
1585 Thomas Cowchman householder buried 14 February [1585/6].
1587 Emanuell Evernden and Ellyn Cowchman widoe married 17 October.
1589 Emanuell Evernden householder buried 3 December.
1593 Stephen Ev’renden of Tenterden broadweaver and Sylvester Cowcheman were maryed 7 November.
From the Registers of the Parish of St. Alphege, Canterbury:
1606 Robert Cushman unto Sara Reder dwelling with in Pr’cinct’s of Christchurche [the Cathedral] married 31 July.
1607 Thomas Cushman sonne of Robart baptized 8 February [1607/8].
From the Visitation Books of the Archdeacon of Canterbury: 1603, 14 November, the churchwardens of St. Andrew’s, Canterbury, present Robert Cushman, servant to George Maisters, for the like as the common fame goeth (i.e., “for that he doth say he will not come to his parish church, because he cannot be edified and saith he can and will defent it by the word of God”). When he appeared, 15 October 1604, in the Court of the Archdeacon, he was warned that he would have to acknowledge his offence in the parish church of St. Andrew, Canterbury, on some Sunday in the time of service, according to the schedule (not given), and then to certify the Court afterwards. Not doing this, he was excommunicated 12 November 1604. On 28 June 1605 he appeared and asked to be absolved, and on 7 July 1605 this request was granted. (Vol. for 1598-1608, part 2, fo. 31.)
From the Roll of the Freemen of the City of Canterbury:
1605 Robert Couchman, “grosser,” freeman by apprenticeship to George Masters.
Canterbury Marriage Licenses:
1593 Thomas Tilden of Tenterden, yeoman, and Ellen Evernden of Rolvenden, widow, 6 November.
[Carla's Note: Elynore "Ellen" Hubbarde, widow of Thomas Cushman, thereafter married and survived the death of Emanuell Evernden, after which she married her 3rd husband, Thomas Tilden.]
1610 Thomas Shingleton of Sandwich, shoemaker, and Mary Clarke of the same parish, virgin, at St. Mary Bredman’s, Canterbury, 28 January [1610/11].
[Carla's Note: Thomas Shingleton was a shoemaker. He died sometime before 5 Jun 1617, the date she became Robert Cushman's second wife.]
Translation from the Dutch Records at Leyden: Robert Cushman, woolcomber, from Canterbury in England, widower of Sarah (Reder) Cushman, dwelling in a little alley of the Nunsgate, accompanied by John Keble his friend, with Mary Shingelton from Sandwich in England, widow of Thomas Shingelton, accompanied by Catherine Carver her friend.
They were married before Andries Jasperson van Vesanevelt and Jacob Paedts, Sheriffs, this fifth of June, 1617.
[Footnote: This translation is reprinted from the Mayflower Descendant, vol. 10, p. 193, where may be found also a printed copy and a facsimile of the original Dutch record, which is entered in the Leyden records, Echt Book B, fo. 64. The record is preceded by words which in the English translation read: “Entered on 19 May, 1617.” The entries show that the banns were published three times — 20 and 27 May, and 3 June 1617.]
Extract from an article in the July 2000 edition of the NEHGS Register, p. 356: Robert Cushman was connected to Sandwich St. Peter’s by his m. to Mary (Clarke) Shingleton from Sandwich. The Shingleton m. record states that they were “of the same parish,” which was most likely St. Peter’s Sandwich. Although no baptismal record for Thomas has been discovered, Edwarde, Christover and Suzan, three children of a Thomas Shingleton, were baptised in 1588, 1590 and 1595, respectively. Mary was also baptised in St. Peter’s. Her father was a St. Peter’s churchwarden; he is recorded as such as early as 1601 with Christopher Verall. The unusually named Bonnyface, son of Christopher Clarke, was prob. Mary’s older brother. From London 8 May 1619, Robert Cushman wrote to Bradford, “I think to go down into Kent and come up again about 14 days or 3 weeks hence.” It is possible that his destination was Sandwich to visit his in-laws.
From Henry Wyles Cushman’s “Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the CUSHMANS: The Descendants of Robert Cushman, the Puritan, From the Year 1617 to 1855” published in 1855 at Boston by Little, Brown and Company, hereinafter called HWC’s Cushman Gen.
[Carla's Note: For ease of reading, I have placed his footnotes at their reference points.]
Robert Cushman, the ancestor of all the Cushmans in the United States, was born in England, probably between the years 1580 and 1585.
[Footnote: We come to that conclusion from the fact that in 1621 he had a son, Thomas, 14 years of age. At that period, therefore, he must have been from 35 to 40 years of age. Says Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, published in 1767, “I think I may, with singular propriety, call their lives a pilgrimage. Most of them left England about the year 1609 — young men between 20 and 30 years of age.”]
In his religious opinions he was a Nonconformist or Puritan, and was one of that band of Pilgrims who left their native country for the sake of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
In order to understand correctly the principles, character and acts of the men who made the first settlement in New England, at Plymouth, which subsequently have had such a predominating and controlling influence in the civilization of the whole world, it is (probably) necessary to glance at the political and theological position of England for one or two centuries previous to that event: About the year 1534, the reformation of the Roman Catholic religion, by Calvin and Luther and their colleagues, having extensively prevailed in England, the Protestants gradually divided into two classes. One of these united with the English government — contended for hereditary prerogative and monarchical rights — claimed that the civil government, per sé, was the head of the Church; that the Church, of right, owed obedience and subserviency to the crown; and thus Church and State were united, constituting the established Church of England, which has continued to this day.
On the other hand, another body of men, strong in intellect and of deep religious feeling, advocated the entire separation of Church and State. [Carla's Note: People such as Puritans John and Agnes (Keene) Locke and their son, John Jr., an enlightened thinker destined to become the philosopher and physician widely known as the Father of Liberalism.}
They had seen and felt the corruption and tyranny of Papacy, and they were deeply grieved to see the Church, which they had venerated and loved, taking any of the forms or symbols of “the old dragon of Rome.”
Protestants in religion, they were also deeply tinctured with republican views of government; and thus, while opposing the established Church, they imbibed hatred to the crown which sustained that Church.
Such was the state of things generally during the reign of Elizabeth, one of the ablest and wisest of the English sovereigns. In the early part of the sixteenth century, the dread of a common enemy, the Papal Church, kept these two parties of Protestants from any open rupture. But during the latter part of that century, the breach between them was widened. There was no external force to keep them together. A separation—very natural and inevitable—was the consequence.
[Footnote: “The settlement of New England was a result of the Reformation, not of the contest between the new opinions and the authority of Rome, but of implacable differences between Protestant dissenters and the established Anglican Church.” — Bancroft’s History of the U. S.]
Persecution on the part of the civil government and the hierarchy confirmed them more fully in their opinions, and made them more determined in their acts. Says Macaulay, “It found them a sect—it made them a faction.”
As the controversy increased, the persecutions became more violent. Stripes, fines, imprisonment, death even, were often suffered by these men for the faith that was in them. At first they were called seceders, non-conformists, dissenters, and afterwards Brownists and Puritans. And it is a singular and quite a suggestive fact that the name of Puritan, which in later periods became so popular and renowned, was first given them as a term of reproach and disrespect.
[Footnote: In 1564, their lordships began to show their authority, by urging the clergy of their several dioceses to subscribe the liturgy, ceremonies and discipline of the church, when those that refused were first called Puritans—a name of reproach derived from the Cathari or Puritani of the third century after Christ. A Puritan was, therefore, a man of severe morals, a Calvinist in doctrine, and a non-conformist to the doctrines and ceremonies of the church, though they did not totally separate from it.” — Neal’s History of the Puritans.]
The era of the English Puritans, properly begins in 1550, when Hooper for a time refused to be consecrated in the ecclesiastical habits. An old writer quoted by Prince says, "They are called Puritans who would have the Church radically reformed; that is, purged from all those inventions which have been brought into it since the age of the Apostles, and reduced entirely to the scripture purity.”
Toward the close of the sixteenth and the early part of the seventeenth centuries, the persecution of those who dissented from the established Church of England was carried to the greatest extent. They were treated as criminals, and were subjected to all sorts of indignities and punishment. “I will have one doctrine and one discipline, one religion in substance and ceremony,” said King James in 1604.
[Footnote: “For some were taken and clapped up in prisons, others had their houses watched night and day, and hardly escaped their hands; and the most were fain to fly and leave their houses and habitations and the means of their livelihood.” — Bradford in Young.]
In order to show the manifest injustice of the course pursued by the English government and the Anglican Church towards the Puritans, we insert here a concise statement of the doctrines maintained and the principles held by these men. The Puritan doctrines were:
But the severities against the Puritans, instead of reconciling them to the Church, drove them further from it; for men do not come to be beat from their principles by the artillery of canons, injunctions and penal laws — nor can they be in love with a Church that uses such methods of conversion.
As a natural result, therefore, of the persecutions of the Crown, Church and Government of England, these men became more thoroughly convinced of the errors of the established Church and of the truth, soundness and importance of their own religious views and worship. They were men such as have been found in all ages of the world, of radical minds and deep religious feelings, who place the will of God as they understand it, before everything else in the world, and who will sacrifice office, property and the dearest relations of life, and will even suffer death in the most cruel forms, rather than disobey the “higher law” of conscience and of God. Such men are seldom found among courtiers, officers of government, or men of great wealth or power, but in the middling walks of life. The main body of them came from the small freeholders in the country and the shopkeepers and mechanics in the towns. [Footnote: Maculay’s History of England.]
In the north of England, in the rural districts, and particularly in the counties of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, men of such organizations were more generally found. A common sympathy made them acquaintances and associates, and suffering in a common cause, united their hearts and hands in a common organization for the purpose of religious worship. They manfully resolved, “whatever it should cost them, to enjoy liberty of conscience.”
Two churches were therefore formed in the northeastern part of England, composed of members, we may suppose, widely separated, uniting at some central point for religious worship, in such a manner as they thought was right. Of one of these churches, Mr. John Smith, “a man of able gifts, and a good preacher,” became pastor. The members of this church emigrated to Holland; but “adopting some errors in the low countries,” they finally disbanded and it became extinct.
Of the other church, the Rev. Richard Clifton, “a man of grave deportment and a successful preacher,” had the pastoral care. To this church belonged the Rev. John Robinson, afterwards its pastor, along with Elder Brewster, Gov. Carver, Gov. Bradford, Robert Cushman, Isaac Allerton and others who made the first settlement at Plymouth.
This church commenced holding its meetings at the house of Elder Brewster, in the town of Scrooby, about the year 1602; and as a consequence, the power of the hierarchy, that controlled the government, was brought more directly and severely upon them.
At this day (1854-55) of perfect religious freedom, it seems most astonishing that men should have been fined, imprisoned, whipped, almost starved, and even burned at the stake, merely for their religious belief, and that but a little more than two centuries ago. In truth, it may be said of the church, as well as of civil governments, that “Man’s inhumanity to man/Makes countless thousands mourn.”
The men who formed Mr. Robinson’s church were, many of them, persons of good education and of superior minds and judgments. It is a source of much regret that the early history of these men is comparatively unknown. Recent investigations have brought to light something in that particular; and it is most ardently hoped that further examinations will give us more knowledge of the origin of the men, who with great truth it may be said, were the founders of our Republic.
To such an extent were the persecutions of the Puritans carried, increasing with every passing year, that during the years 1607 - 1609, they resolved, "with joint consent, to remove to Holland, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men. Hard was their lot to leave their dwellings, their lands and relations, to go, they knew not where, to obtain a living, they knew not how.”
But though persecuted, they were not dismayed; though distressed, their courage did not forsake them. Resolved to go, they were not even allowed to depart in peace. The strong arm of the law barred every harbor and vessel against them. Yet with a perseverance that would overcome all obstacles, they finally succeeded, and left forever their native land, actuated by the highest of human motives, “the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.”
[Footnote: “1609. This spring more of Mr. Robinson’s church, through great difficulties from the pursuers, got over to Holland, and afterwards the rest, with Mr. Robinson and Mr. Brewster, who are of the last, having tarried to help the weakest over before them.” See: Bradford, in Prince’s New England Chronology.]
They first settled at Amsterdam, but seeing the evils and contentions of Rev. Mr. Smith’s church, after remaining there about a year, they removed to Leyden, and there made a permanent settlement. “There they grew in gifts and grace; they lived in peace and love and holiness. Numbers came to them from England; they had a great congregation, at one time numbering three hundred communicants.”
[Footnote: “1610. This year comes out a justification of separation from the Church of England, by John Robinson, — 476 pages in quarto — and about this time and the following year, many come to this Church at Leyden, from divers (sic) parts of England, so as they grew a great congregation.” See: Prince.]
Having remained at Leyden eight or nine years, they began to examine their situation and to think of emigrating to America. They foresaw the obvious fact, that in course of time they must become merged with the Dutch, by whom they were surrounded. With the most lofty notions of religious liberty, with a deep conviction of the value and importance of religion to the souls of men, and its influence in moulding the character as well as the institutions of the age, and with an anxious desire “to spread the Gospel among the Heathen,” they began to think of emigrating in a body to this, then, uncultivated and uncivilized land. But how could it be done? was the question.
[Footnote: “After the Puritans at Leyden had resolved on their terminus quo, the next and not less difficult question was the terminus ad quaere.”]
A company had been formed in England under the Royal sanction, called the Virginia Company, whose authority extended over a considerable portion of the North American Continent. After a long consultation and much consideration, “after their humble prayers unto God for his direction and assistance,” it was finally resolved to make an application to that Company at London for liberty to settle in the Company’s territory in North America, and “to see if the King would give them liberty of conscience there.”
For that purpose, Mr. Robert Cushman and Deacon John Carver two of the most active, reliable and judicious members of their community, were selected to go to London in the year 1617 and open negotiations for that purpose. And this is the first mention that is made, in the history of that period, of Mr. Robert Cushman.
[Footnote: “Mr. Carver, one of the deacons, and Mr. Cushman, one of the members of the Church, were dispatched to England as agents of the exiled Company, to seek permission of the King to settle in some parts of Virginia.” — Ashton’s Memoir of Rev. John Robinson.]
[HWC's Commentary: It is deeply regretted that the early history of Robert Cushman and his colleagues, in the great work of establishing religious liberty and of founding a nation, is so little known. And it should here be noticed that Gov. Bradford, Morton’s Memorial, and other contemporaneous writers, are all scrupulously particular in adding to his name the honorable prefix of “Mr.,” an undoubted indication at that time, of a conventional superiority and a comparatively high degree of education, talents, and of the Christian profession and virtues.]
[Carla's Note: More is known of Robert Cushman now, of course, most of which is available in publications of the Mayflower Society. But isn't it strange that the very man who negotiated with the King, arranged for the ships, liaised with the colonies, sent his son to Plymouth, and even gave the very first sermon in the Massachusetts colony, is not mentioned in the history books?}
Returning to HWC's text: Messrs. Cushman and Carver went to England, probably in the spring or summer of 1617; but they soon found their mission a difficult one. The Virginia Company were willing and desirous to have them go to their colony on the James River in Virginia. They would grant them a patent to the soil, “with as ample privileges as they had granted or could grant to any.” And some of the “chief of the Company” were of the opinion that the King would grant “their suit for liberty in religion.”
[Footnote: Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one of the leaders of the second or Plymouth Company, says, “It was necessary that means might be used to draw into those enterprises some of those families that had retired themselves into Holland for scruples of conscience, giving them such liberty and freedom as might stand to their likings.” And that advice was harkened to, &c. -- Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvi. 73.]
The Virginia Company, thinking to make a profit by it, urged the King, through one of his principal Secretaries (Sir Robert Naunton), to grant their request. He would give them liberty to settle in America; for, in truth, he was anxious to get rid of them. But it was a sina qua non with the Puritans, to have freedom of religious worship, or not to move. Hence they contended stoutly for that point. “But it proved all in vain. He would connive at them and not molest them. But to allow or tolerate them by his public authority, under his seal, they found it would not be granted.” [Footnote: Bradford’s Journal.]
After a long and tedious negotiation, Messrs. Cushman and Carver returned to their friends at Leyden, with the best terms they could make, and “to what issue things had come.” But the result was entirely unsatisfactory. They had no confidence either in the honesty or the toleration of King James.
The Envoys of the Leyden Church probably returned in Nov. 1617, for they carried with them a letter from Sir Edwin Sandys.
[Carla's Note: England's idiosyncratic pronunciation of Sandys is Sands, much as Samuel Pepys' name is pronounced Peeps; I have never understood that.]
Sandys' letter was directed to Mr. John Robinson and Mr. Willim Brewster, dated Nov. 12, 1617, in which he says, “After my hearty salutations, -- The agents of your congregation, Robert Cushman and John Carver, have been in communication with divers (sic) select gentlemen of His Majesty’s Council for Virginia; and by the writing of several articles, subscribed with your names, have given them that good degree of satisfaction which hath carried them on with a resolution to set forward your desire in the best sort that may be for your own and the public good; divers (sic) particulars whereof we leave to their faithful report, having carried themselves here with that good discretion, as is both to their own and their credit from whom they came. And whenever, being to treat for a multitude of people, they have requested further time to confer with them that are to be interested in this action about the several particulars which in the prosecution thereof will fall out considerable, it hath been very willingly assented; and so they do now return unto you.
[Footnote: From the expression “they do now return unto you,” it is evident the Agents must have returned to Leyden soon after this letter was written, of which they were, undoubtedly, the bearers--that is, between Nov. 12, the date of the letter, and Dec. 15, the date of Robinson’s and Brewster’s answer to it. -- Young’s Chronicles.]
"If, therefore, it may please God so to direct your desires, as that on your parts there fall out no just impediments, I trust by the same direction it shall likewise appear that on our parts all forwardness to set you forward shall be found in the best sort, which with reason may be expected. And so I betake you with this design, (which I hope verily is the work of God,) to the gracious protection and blessing of the Highest.
Your very loving friend, EDWIN SANDYS, London, Nov 12, 1617."
After a full, deliberate and prayerful consideration of the terms offered by the Virginia Company and the King, the Leyden Church sent again the same agents, Messrs. Cushman and Carver, to urge upon the King the great point with them, “Freedom to worship God.”
The fact is evident from the reply of Messrs. Robinson and Brewster to the foregoing letter of Sir Edwin Sandys. Their answer was as follows:
“Right Worshipful, — Our humble duties remembered, in our own, our messengers and our churches’ name, with all thankful acknowledgment of your singular love, expressing itself, as otherwise, so more especially in your great care and earnest endeavor of our good in the weighty business about Virginia, which the less able we are to requite, we shall think ourselves the more bound to commend in our prayers unto God for recompense. We have, with the best speed and consideration withal that we could, set down our requests in writing, subscribed, as you willed, with the hands of the greatest part of our congregation, and have sent the same unto the council, by an agent, a deacon of our church, John Carver, unto whom we have also requested a gentleman of our company to adjoin himself; to the care and discretion of which two we do refer the prosecuting of the business. Now we persuade ourselves, right worshipful, that we need not to provoke your godly and loving mind to any further or more tender care of us, since you have pleased so far to interest us in yourself, that, under God, above all persons and things in the world, we rely upon you, expecting the care of your love, the counsel of your wisdom and the help and countenance of your authority.”
• • •
This interesting letter, the largest part of which we omit, was dated “Leyden, the 15th of December, 1617,” and was, undoubtedly, carried to England by Messrs. Cushman and Carver.
[Footnote: There is a general impression that Cushman and Carver went to England but once in the early part of this negotiation. But from an examination of Gov. Bradford’s Journal and the correspondence between Robinson and Brewster and Sir Edwin Sandys and others in England, it is evident that the agents, Messrs. Cushman and Carver, went over to England from Holland on that mission, first in the summer of 1617, and afterwards the bearer of Robinson’s and Brewster’s letter, which we have given above, in Dec. 1617. Says Gov. Bradford’s Journal, “These things being long in agitation, and messengers passing to and again about them, after all their hopes they were long delayed by many obstacles that fell in the way. For at the return of these messengers into England, they found things far otherwise than they expected.”]
But they had no better success than before. For, says Gov. Bradford’s Journal, “The Virginia Council was now so disturbed by factions and quarrels amongst themselves, as no business could well go forward.”
But these men were not to be dismayed with disappointments or discouraged by the want of present success. For, says Bradford’s and Brewster’s letter, “We verily believe, and trust the Lord is with us, unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves in many trials, and that he will graciously prosper our endeavors according to the simplicity of our hearts therein. … And it is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves home again.”
Persevering in this matter, therefore, the Leyden Church, after a considerable delay, appointed two other agents to go to England and urge their requests. Those agents were Robert Cushman and William Brewster.
[Footnote: William Brewster, not William Bradford, as Judge Davis in his edition of Morton’s Memorial has it, as will fully appear by a subsequent letter of Robert Cushman.]
They probably went over in the early part of 1619, and pursued the great object of their desires with a zeal, perseverance and ability worthy of the cause.
To accomplish an object to the Puritans so important, to carry on a negotiation with a weak, dishonest and pusillanimous administration, and to procure a grant of what was then so universally denied by nearly all governments, was indeed a great task, and required a skill at diplomacy which but few men possessed.
Yet notwithstanding “the great discouragements the agents met with, from the King and Bishop’s refusing to allow them liberty of conscience,” they persevered. “Trusting in God and in themselves,” they were not dismayed.
On the 8th of May, 1619, Robert Cushman wrote the following letter to Rev. Mr. Robinson and the Leyden Church:
"I had thought long since to have writ unto you; but could not effect that which I aimed at, neither can yet set things as I wished. Yet, notwithstanding, I doubt not but Mr. Brewster hath written to Mr. Robinson; but I think myself bound also to do something, lest I be thought to neglect you.
"The main hindrance of our proceedings in the Virginia business is the dissensions and factions, as they term it, amongst the Council and Company of Virginia, which are such as that ever since we came up no business could by them be despatched. The occasion of this trouble amongst them is, that a while since Sir Thomas Smith, repining at his many offices and troubles, wished the Company of Virginia to ease him of his office in being treasurer and governor of the Virginia Company. Whereupon the Company took occasion to dismiss him, and chose Sir Edwin Sandys treasurer and governor of the Company, he having sixty voices, Sir John Wolstenholme sixteen voices, and alderman Johnson twenty-four. But Sir Thomas Smith, when he saw some part of his honor lost, was very angry, and raised a faction to cavil and content about the election, and sought to tax Sir Edwin with many things that might both disgrace him and also put him by his office of governor. In which contentions they yet stick, and are not fit nor ready to intermeddle in any business; and what issue things will come to, I know not, nor are we yet certain. It is most likely Sir Edwin will carry it away; and if he do, things will go well in Virginia; if otherwise, they will go ill enough always. We hope in two or three Court days things will settle. Mean space I think to go down into Kent, and come up again about fourteen days or three weeks hence; except either by these aforesaid contentions, or by the ill tidings from Virginia, we be wholly discouraged; of which tidings as followeth.
"Capt. Argall is come home this week. He, upon notice of the intent of the Council, came away before Sir George Yeardley came there, and so there is no small dissension. But his tidings is ill, although his person be welcome. He saith Mr. Blackwell’s ship came not there until March; but going toward winter they had still northwest winds, which carried them to the southward beyond their course; • • • Mr. Blackwell is dead, and Mr. Maggner, the captain. Yea, there are dead, he saith, a hundred and thirty persons, one and other, in the ship. It is said there was in all a hundred and eighty persons in the ship, so as they were packed together like herrings. They had amongst them a flux, and also want of fresh water; so as it is here rather wondered that so many are alive, than that so many are dead. The merchants here say it was Mr. Blackwell’s fault to pack so many in the ship; yea, and there was great murmuring and repining amongst them, and upbraiding of Mr. Blackwell for this… Yea, the streets at Gravesend rang of their extreme quarreling, crying out one of another, “Thou hast brought me to this. I may thank thee for this.” Heavy news it is, and I would be glad to hear how far it will discourage. I see none here discouraged much, but rather desire to learn to beware by other men’s harms, and to amend that wherein they have failed; as we desire to serve one another in love, so take heed of being enthralled by other imperious persons, especially if they be discerned to have an eye to themselves. It doth often trouble me to think that in this business we are to learn, and none to teach. But better so than to depend upon such teachers as Mr. Blackwell was. Such a stratagem he made for Mr. Johnson and his people at Emden; much was their subversion. But though he then cleanly yet unhonestly (sic) plucked his neck out of the collar, yet at last his foot is caught.
"Here are no letters come. The ship Captain Argall came in is yet in the west parts. All that we hear is but his report. It seemeth he came away secretly. The ship that Mr. Blackwell went in will be here shortly. It is as Mr. Robinson once said; he thought we should hear no good of him.
"Mr. Brewster is not well at this time. Whether he will go back to you or go into the north, I yet know not. For myself, I hope to see an end of this business ere I come, though I am sorry to be thus from you. If things had gone roundly forward, I should have been with you within this fourteen days. I pray God direct us, and give us that spirit which is fitting such a business.
"Thus having summarily pointed at things which Mr. Brewster, I think, hath more largely writ of to Mr. Robinson, I leave you to the Lord’s protection. Yours in all readiness, &c., Robert Cushman, London, May the 8th, 1619."
On the 4th of September, 1619, a Mr. “Sabin Starsmore,” a Puritan, writing from his chamber in Wood-street counter, a London prison, to Dea. Carver, says respecting his imprisonment, “Somewhat I have written to Mr. Cushman, how the matter still continues,” &c.
After great procrastination and long and tedious negotiation, the prospects of the Leyden Church brighten, and success seems to crown the labors and the trials of their agents. A patent is finally obtained under the grant seal of the Virginia Company, and “connived at” by the King and his ministers, by which they were allowed to settle in America. And although religious liberty, in terms, was not granted them, yet if they behaved themselves quietly and were faithful subjects of his majesty, King James I, they were not to be molested, although their creed and form of worship were essentially unsound and heretical.
The patent was not taken out in the names of any of Mr. Robinson’s Church — probably on account of their living out of the realm — but in the name of John Wincob, a religious gentleman who intended to emigrate with the Puritans.
[Footnote: Nothing is known of John Wincob, except that he was a protégé of the Countess of Lincoln, and was probably her Steward, or private Secretary.]
“But Providence so ordered it,” as Gov. Bradford’s Journal says, “He never went, and nothing further is known of this patent."
[Footnote: Hubbard’s History says, “Where it is, or how it came to be lost, is not known to any that belong to the Colony.” It was probably dated the latter part of the year 1619.]
But a determination to emigrate had so completely filled the minds of the Leyden Puritans that they were not to be daunted by misfortunes or rebuffs. They felt that their cause was right, and that God would finally, in his own good time, aid and prosper them.
Thus situated, they looked for other ways to accomplish their objectives. The project of settling in the New World began to be somewhat popular; it gains friends and friendly opinions. “Mr. Thomas Weston, merchant of London, and other friends and merchants, make proposals for their transmigration, and they were requested to prepare to go.” [See Prince’s Chronology.]
On receipt of these things by one of the messengers, they had a solemn meeting and a day of humiliation to seek the Lord for his direction. Their pastor, Rev. Mr. Robinson, took for his text, 1st Samuel, 23:3 and 4. “And David’s men said unto him, See, we be afraid here in Judah. How much more if we come to Kilah, against the host of the Philistines. Then David asked counsel of the Lord again.” From that text he taught many things very aptly and befitting to their present occasion and condition, to strengthen them against their fears, and encourage them in their resolution.” [Footnote: Bradford’s Journal.]
Having determined to emigrate to America, the question arose, who should go first; for so large a number could not all go at once. Winslow’s Brief Narrative says, “The youngest and strongest part to go, — and they that went should offer themselves freely.”
As the largest number could not go, it was arranged that their Pastor, Rev. Mr. Robinson, should remain, and their Ruling Elder, William Brewster, should go; and that those who go first were to constitute an absolute Church of themselves. “The Church at Plymouth thus became the First Independent or Congregational Church in America.” [Footnote: Young’s Chronicles.]
The great object that was ever uppermost in the minds of the Puritans, undoubtedly was “freedom of religious belief and worship.” Yet their secular wants in their new home, as well as means for the purpose of getting there, must be provided for. To accomplish the latter, a kind of joint stock company was formed, composed of those who were to emigrate, on the one hand, and those who were to furnish the capital, on the other. The latter were called “The Merchant Adventurers,” of whom little is known. Capt. John Smith, writing in 1624, says, “The adventurers who raised the stock to begin and supply this plantation, were about 70 — some gentlemen, some merchants, some handicraftsmen; some adventuring great sums, some small, as their estate and affections served.
These dwell mostly about London. They are not a corporation, but knit together by a voluntary combination, in a society without constraint or penalty, aiming to do good and plant religion. [Footnote: Smith’s History of Virginia.]
The conditions on which those of Leyden engaged with the merchants, the adventurers, were hard enough at the first, for the poor people who were to adventure their persons as well as their estates. Yet were their agents forced to change two of them, although it was very unsatisfactory and distasteful to them. The altering of these two conditions were very afflicting to them who were concerned in the voyage. But Mr. Cushman, their principal agent, answered their complaints peremptorily, that unless they had so ordered the conditions, the whole design would have fallen to the ground. [Footnote: Bradford’s Journal.]
The Puritans submitted, therefore, from necessity; but the sequel of the transaction shows that while the adventurers made but little profit from the investment, “yet those that adventured their lives in carrying on the business of the plantation, were much the greatest sufferers.”
The contract between the adventurers and those who were to emigrate, is contained in ten articles of agreement. They provide generally, that “their joint stock and partnership shall continue for seven years; that every person that goeth, over sixteen years of age, shall be rated at £10; and that £10 shall be accounted a single share. At the end of seven years the entire property of the Association is to be equally divided among the adventurers.”
[An Interesting Observation by Henry Wyles Cushman: The two conditions, the alteration of which was so “afflictive” to those who were to form the settlement, related to a division of their houses, improved lands and gardens; and 2d, that the planters should have two days in the week for their own private employment. These two provisions were in the original agreement, but were stricken out, as Robert Cushman told them, from absolute necessity. We can easily see that it must have been a severe trial to submit to such hard terms. But necessity they said, having no law, they were constrained to be silent.]
Hard as were these terms, they were the best that could be obtained; and it is fortunate for the cause of civil and religious liberty in after ages, that they knew little how hard they would prove to those who consented to accept them.
We have given a more particular account of the preliminary contract and arrangements of the Puritans, because the subject of this article—Robert Cushman—was the principal agent and manager in that affair. And from what he did we may form a tolerably accurate opinion of his abilities and character, and his standing with his associates.
The agents of the Leyden Company, Messrs. Cushman and Brewster, having formed the Association or Joint Stock Company in England, which was to furnish the money, went back to Leyden with the articles of agreement, ten in number, Mr. Weston, a wealthy merchant of Leyden with them, “and the people agree with him on articles, both for shipping and money, to assist in their transportation.”
[Footnote: Thomas Weston, one of the most active of the Merchant Adventurers, advanced £500 to promote the interest of Plymouth Colony; but afterwards became inimical to his former friends.]
The preliminaries being then all arranged, and the persons selected who were to commence this hazardous and uncertain enterprise, “they send Mr. Carver and Mr. Cushman to England to receive the money and provide for the voyage—Mr. Cushman at London, Mr. Carver at Southampton. Those who are to go first, prepare with speed, sell their estates, put their money in the common stock, to be disposed of by their managers for making general provisions. There was also a Mr. Christopher Martin, chosen in England to join unto Messrs. Carver and Cushman.
[Footnote: Mr. Martin, his wife and two children, came over in the Mayflower. His name stands the ninth in the subscription to the compact, signed at Cape Cod, Nov. 11, 1620, O. S., and he died Jan. 8, 1621. — Young’s Chronicles.]
Martin came from Billerica, in Essex, from which county came several others, as also from London and other places to go with them.” [Footnote: Bradford’s Journal.]
But in this great and difficult work, like most others, delays and disappointments often occurred; they are among the incidents of humanity, designed, undoubtedly, for our benefit; and the Pilgrims could not expect to be exempt from the ordinary laws of our creation. But to them, doubtless, it was as troublesome as to those who live 230 years later. [Carla's Note: Remember, he's writing in 1854-55.]
“June 4, 1620. Mr. Robinson writes to Mr. Carver, and complains of Mr. Weston’s neglect in getting shipping in England; for want of which they are in a piteous case at Leyden. And Samuel Fuller, Edward Winslow, William Bradford and Isaac Allerton write from Leyden to Messrs. Carver and Cushman, June 10, that the coming of Mr. Nash and their pilot is a great encouragement to them.”
The shipping that Mr. Robinson so much desired was undoubtedly a vessel to carry the emigrants from Leyden to Southampton. The Speedwell was finally obtained in Holland for that purpose. She was commanded by an English captain by the name of Reynolds, and it was their design to keep her in their new settlement for the purpose of trade and commerce.
June 10, 1620. Mr. Cushman, in a letter from London to Mr. Carver at Southampton, says that Mr. Crabe, a minister, had promised to go, but is much oppressed, and is likely to fail; and in a letter to the people at Leyden, that he had hired another pilot, one Mr. Clark, who went last year to Virginia; that he is getting a ship; hopes he shall make all ready at London in fourteen days, and would have Mr. Reynolds tarry in Holland and bring the ship thence to Southampton.”
[Footnote: Clark was master’s mate on board the Mayflower. Clark’s Island, in Plymouth Harbor, was named after him.]
[Henry Wyles Cushman Sets the Record Straight: It is a singular fact that the truth of history is falsified in the great painting of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven in Holland, by Weir, now in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, where Mr. Carver is represented as one of the foremost and most conspicuous characters in the painting; when in fact he was at that time at Southampton, actively engaged in making arrangements for their final departure. See Bradford's Journal.]
[Carla's Note: I don't know which character represents Mr. Carver. If you know for sure, please leave a comment. No guesses, please.]
But let's return to Henry Wyles Cushman: The time for their departure was at hand. “After much travail and turmoils and debates which they went through, things were gotten ready for their departure from Leyden.” The little ship, the Speedwell, had been purchased, and was lying at Delft Haven, a commodious port on the Maas, twenty-four miles south of Leyden, all ready to transport those who were to go from the Leyden Church to meet others and a larger ship at Southampton.
The Speedwell was a ship of only sixty (or as Smith & Purchase say, of seventy) tuns burthen—smaller than the average size of the fishing smacks that go to the Grand Bank for cod-fish—too small, it would seem, to cross an almost unknown ocean. Yet it was of the ordinary size of vessels of that day for such purposes.
In the meantime, Cushman had been actively engaged in the part assigned to him. He had hired at London a larger vessel, the Mayflower, “of burden about nine score,” and had sent her round to Southampton, there to meet his comrades from Holland.
The Speedwell being ready, they had a day of solemn humiliation, their pastor taking for his text, Ezra, 8th chap. 21st verse: “And there, at the river, by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance.” Upon which he spent a good part of the day very profitably and suitably to their present occasion. The rest of the time was spent in pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency, mixed with an abundance of tears.
The Rev. Mr. Robinson’s farewell discourse, a portion of which is included in “Winslow’s Brief Narrative,” contains sentiments far in advance of the age in which he lived, and which show him to have been a man of an enlarged, noble and truly Christian mind. As the ages advance, and men approximate nearer to a practice of the pure principles of Christ, such views as Mr. Robinson expressed to his little band of Puritan hearers, will be more and more appreciated, and will render his name “a burning and shining light” among the distinguished divines of the Christian Church. We give a single extract from that remarkable discourse:
“We are now, ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether ever I shall live to see your faces again. But whether the Lord hath appointed it or not, I charge you before God and his blessed Angels to follow me no further than I follow Christ; and if God should reveal anything to you, by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word.”
Blessed words! prophetic language! progressive thoughts! most Christian precepts! soon may the day arrive when such sentiments ahsll universally prevail. Then the millenium will be near at hand.
But the sad hour which was to separate these long tried and true friends, was at hand. “Farewell is a sad word, but it must be said,” was the remark of the eloquent Kossuth. To them it was desolate indeed; for it had but a slight hope of any future re-union.
On leaving Leyden, where they had resided, they were accompanied to Delft Haven by their friends “to see them shipped and to take leave of them. So they left that goodly and pleasant city, which had been their resting place for near twelve years. But they knew they were PILGRIMS — a term that belongs exclusively to the Plymouth Colonists — and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”
It is probable that nearly the whole company accompanied those who were to depart, as far as Delft Haven, twenty-four miles, and there took a final farewell. “The night before they went was spent with little sleep,” says Bradford, “but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and other real expressions of true Christian love.”
The next day, 22d July, 1620, O.S., everything being ready and the wind fair, they went on board, “when doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting.” Hoisting sail, and with a prosperous wind, they soon arrived at Southampton, where they found the larger ship, the Mayflower, lying ready with all the rest of their company.”
[Footnote: Southampton is a seaport town in the southwesterly part of England, about seventy-three miles from London by land, and about two hundred miles by water, and it is about three hundred miles from Delft Haven in Holland. It was the rendezvous of seven of Winthrop’s fleet, in 1630, and is now (mid-1800s) the stopping place of the mail steamers from Bremen to the United States.]
Mr. Cushman and Mr. Jones, mate of the Mayflower with certain others who were to accompany them from England, had been waiting at Southampton for them seven days. [Footnote: Jones’ River, in Kingston, Mass., was named for him.]
“After a joyful welcome and mutual congratulations, with other friendly entertainments, they fell to parley about their proceedings. Seven hundred pounds sterling are laid out at Southampton, and they carry about seventeen hundred pounds venture with them; and Mr. Weston comes hither from London to see them dispatched.”
At length the hour of their departure draws nigh. The whole company were called together, and a farewell letter from their late Pastor, Rev. Mr. Robinson, is read to them. It contained the most affectionate and godly counsel, couched in language singularly appropriate and proper — and, says Bradford, “it had good acceptation with all and after-fruit with many.
Then they ordered and distributed their company for either ship, and chose a Governor and two or three Assistants for each ship, to order the people by the way and see to the disposing of the provisions.”
Everything being in readiness, on Saturday the 5th day of August, O.S. 1620, the two vessels, Mayflower and Speedwell, set sail, having on board 120 persons besides the officers and sailors. Robert Cushman and his family were among that number. How many his family consisted of at that time we have no knowledge. In the spring of 1621, when he went over to Plymouth, we have reason to suppose he had no wife and but one son—a boy then fourteen years of age. “But alas,” said Bradford, “the best enterprises oftentimes meet with many discouragements. They had been at sea but a short time before Capt. Reynolds, master of the Speedwell, complained that he found his vessel so leaky that he durst not go further to sea. Both vessels, therefore, put back, and on the 13th of August went into Dartmouth, one of the nearest English ports.
[Footnote: Dartmouth is a small port in the southwestern part of England, on the British Channel.]
After remaining there eight days and thoroughly repairing the lesser ship, she was judged sufficient for the voyage by the workmen that mended her, and both vessels again unfurled their sails and proceeded on their voyage on Monday the 21st of August. But difficulties are yet in their way. The Puritans are not to be exempt from the ordinary laws of humanity. They are to be made strong and powerful by trials, disappointments, vicissitudes. They had not sailed more than two or three days, a distance of some 300 miles, when Capt. Reynolds again became alarmed, and pronounced his ship unseaworthy and in danger. Thereupon both ships bore up again and went into Plymouth.
Bradford says it was afterwards ascertained that it was not so much the leaky and unsound condition of the Speedwell, that caused her master to report her unsafe, as it was his treachery and cowardice; for on searching her again “no great matter appeared.”
These things thus falling out, it was finally resolved by the whole to dismiss the lesser ship (Speedwell) and part of the company with her, and that the other part of the company should proceed in the bigger ship (Mayflower). And here a difficult task arose, to determine who should go and who should remain; for a part must be left behind, as the Mayflower could not carry the whole. Prince says, “they agree to dismiss the Speedwell and those who were willing to return to London — though this was very grievous and discouraging; Mr. Cushman and family returning with them.”
The probabilities are, that in determining who should go, the strong, resolute and healthy were selected; and the others of an opposite health and temperament remained. Robert Cushman, having been one of the chief managers of the enterprise, was undoubtedly selected to return to London with those who were in the Speedwell, for the purpose of taking care of them and of facilitating their trans-shipment at a future time. His deep interest in the plan of emigration, his zeal and self-sacrificing spirit, and his strong attachment to the Puritan cause, all show, most conclusively, that it was not from any wavering mind or pusillanimous spirit, or from any discouragement whatever, that caused him to return; but on the other hand, the success and best interests of his associates required it.
Those who went back, undoubtedly needed a leader and head. For such a station he was admirably qualified. However “grievous and discouraging” it was to him, as Bradford remarks, duty was his ruling principle. If he could do more good and prosper the enterprise by remaining in England for the present, managing the affairs of the Company there, and providing for those who could not go in the Speedwell, he was ready to do it. A review of his life, so far as we have any knowledge of it, satisfactorily shows us that such was the temper, spirit and action of the man.
Some historical writers have committed an error in imputing unworthy motives and feelings to those who returned to London in the Speedwell, which Dr. Young, in his valuable work, ”Chronicles of the Pilgrims,”has faithfully refuted. As Robert Cushman was one of that number, we quote Dr. Young’s remarks in extenso.
Neal, in his History of New England, says: “Mr. Cushman and his family and some others that were more fearful, went ashore and did not proceed on the voyage.” Baylies, in his History of Plymouth, also says, “about twenty of the passengers were discouraged and would not re-embark.” There is no ground for such an imputation on the courage or perseverance of any of the emigrants; and it is a matter of regret that Mr. Bancroft (in his History of the United States) should have lent to it the sanction of his authority. He says, “the timid and the hesitating were all freely allowed to abandon the expedition. Having thus winnowed their numbers of the cowardly and the disaffected,” &c. Yet Robert Cushman, one of the most energetic and resolute of the Pilgrims, “who was as their right hand,” as Gov. Bradford said, and who came over in the next ship, the Fortune, in Nov. 1621, was among those thus “winnowed.” The dismissal of a part was a matter of necessity, as the Mayflower could not carry the whole. Bradford, as quoted by Prince, says, “they agree to dismiss her (the Speedwell) and those who were willing to return to London, though this was very grievous and discouraging.” And he further says, “it was resolved by the whole to dismiss the lesser ship and part of the company with her.” “It was the captain and crew of the Speedwell, not his passengers, who were unwilling to go.” — Young’s Chronicles. The reputation and character of Robert Cushman is thus fully vindicated and placed in its true light.
Having thus determined who should go in the Mayflower, “another sad parting took place. The Speedwell goes back to London and the Mayflower proceeds on her voyage.” On Wednesday the 6th of September, O.S., 1620, “their troubles being blown over, and now all being compact in one ship, they put to sea again with a prosperous wind.”
Robert Cushman having returned to London, we now leave this little Pilgrim band of one hundred persons (twenty having returned in the Speedwell)
[Footnote: One hundred sailed, one died on the passage, and one child was born; so that exactly one hundred arrived at Cape Cod. This is conclusively shown by referring to the list of those who signed the compact at Cape Cod, and the number of persons in the family of each, taken from Gov. Bradford’s manuscript. See also Dr. N. B. Shurtleff’s Historical Tract, The Passengers of the Mayflower.]
For some months we hear nothing of Mr. Cushman, either from Bradford’s Journal or by contemporaneous correspondence. He was, we may reasonably suppose, actively engaged, as he was wont to be, in having the care of his Pilgrim associates and in promoting the interests of the Puritan cause. But early in the year 1621 the subject of emigration to America received considerable public attention. The hope of great profits from the fur trade and the fisheries excited the ambition of some, while a desire to extend the benefits of Christianity and civilization among the aborigines of North America, induced others to turn their attention westward, across the Atlantic, and to encourage emigration to that unknown land. Mr. Cushman being the devoted friend and agent of the Pilgrims who had gone before him to their new residence, and being desirous to persuade others to “go and do likewise,” wrote and published in England an article on the subject of settling in America...(which shows) the state of the issue before the public of England, as well as something of his ability and industry.
On the 6th of May, 1621, the good ship Mayflower, arrived home at England, from her voyage to America, and brought the first intelligence from Bradford, Brewster, Allerton and their associates to their Puritan friends in England, and to the “Merchant Adventurers” who had furnished the vessel and outfit for the voyage.The first success of the settlement at “New Plymouth, in New England," having thus been satisfactorily ascertained, Robert Cushman made early arrangements to transport himself and family, and others who had been left behind the year before, to the New World.
The Fortune, a small vessel of fifty-five tons burthen — less in size than our small fishing vessels which go to the Grand Banks for codfish — was chartered for a voyage to New England. She sailed from London early in July, but owing to bad weather she could not clear the British Channel till the end of August. She carried out thirty-six passengers, including Robert Cushman and his son Thomas.
[Footnote: Fortunately, an accurate list of the adult passengers of the Fortune has been preserved. See Young’s Chronicles; Farmer’s Genealogical Register, &c.]
On Friday the 9th day of November, O.S., 1621, the Fortune arrived off Cape Cod, some eight or ten leagues from Plymouth. Some friendly Indians, decrying the vessel coming up Plymouth Bay, communicated the intelligence to the Colony, who supposed “it to be a Frenchman," for we expected not a friend so soon. The Governor, thereupon, commanded a great piece to be shot off to call home such as were abroad at work. Whereupon every man, yea, boy, that could handle a gun, were ready with full resolution, that if she were an enemy we would stand by our just defense, not fearing them. But God provided better for us than we expected.
[Footnote: The Fortune had a long passage of over ten weeks after she left the British Channel.]
“These (the passengers in the Fortune) came all in health, not any being sick by the way, otherwise than by sea-sickness, and so continue to this time, by the blessing of God. Good-wife Ford was delivered of a son the first night she landed, and both of them are very well.” [Footnote: Bradford’s Journal.]
The meeting of Robert Cushman and his thirty-five associates, with those from whom they had separated fifteen months before, must have been one of great joy, mingled with much that was painful and sad. At their last parting at Plymouth in old England, the one hundred who sailed in the Mayflower were in good health; now one half of that number had been laid in the grave. Such scenes must have been a very severe trial of their faith, their patience, and their unfailing trust in God.
But the little vessel, the Fortune, must soon return. Before Mr. Cushman left London, he probably had made an arrangement to return with her and report to the Adventurers the condition and prospects of the Colony; and it was undoubtedly the wish of Gov. Bradford to have him do so and to continue as the Agent of the Pilgrims. It would seem, from the fact that he brought his only son (probably all his family) with him, and from his subsequent correspondence, that he designed to settle permanently in this country as soon as the interests of the colony would allow it.
During his stay at “New Plymouth,” he had observed some uneasiness of feeling; — some dissatisfaction with the arrangements made in England for their transportation and support; —some abatement of that “noble flow of public spirit which was necessary for their preservation and safety.” Although not a clergyman, or even a “Teaching Elder,” he prepared and delivered, on Wednesday the 12th day of December, the day before he sailed for England, a sermon suitable to the occasion. This sermon, together with its prefatory dedication, “To his loving friends, the Adventurers for New England,” has become quite noted, from its ability and from the fact that it was the first sermon delivered in New England, that was printed.
[Footnote: In a note, Dr. Young remarks, “In the course of Robert Cushman’s short stay of a month at Plymouth, he delivered a discourse to the Colonists, which was printed in 1622, but without his name. In a tract printed at London in 1644, entitled 'A Brief Narrative of some Church Courses in New England,' I find the following allusion to this discourse: 'There is a book printed, called A Sermon, preached at Plymouth, in New England, which, as I am certified, was made there by a comber of wool'."]
Dr. Belknap remarks that “this discourse may be considered as a specimen of the prophesies of the brethren. The occasion was singular; the exhortations and reproofs are not less so, but were adapted to the existing state of the Colony. Judge Davis says that “the late Isaac Lathrop, of Plymouth, who died in 1808, aged 73 years, often mentioned an intimation, received from an aged relative, as to the spot where this sermon was delivered. It was at the common house of the plantation, which is understood to have been erected on the southerly side of the bank where the town brook meets the harbor.” It was delivered in the “Common House of the Colony,” -- a framed building, 20 feet square — which stood on the south side of Leyden street, in Plymouth, just where the steep descent of the hill commences, on the ground covered by the present residence of Capt. Samuel D. Holmes.
[Footnote: In the year 1801, some men who were digging a cellar on this spot, found several tools and a plate of iron, seven feet below the surface of the ground. These interesting relicts were carefully preserved.]
Let us for a moment picture in our minds the condition of
Plymouth at the time of the delivery of that discourse, and imagine the audience that assembled to hear it, just as the speaker was about to leave on his return to England. It was then just about one year since they first landed. But fifty of the whole number who came in the Mayflower were then living. Thirty-six had arrived in the Fortune. So that his audience could not have exceeded sixty to seventy persons, of all ages and both sexes. “The Common House” was the place where they held their religious meetings and their municipal gatherings. We may suppose that it was rude in its construction and unfinished in many parts. Its roof was “thatched,” -- and to us it must have presented a unique appearance and indicated a semi-civilized community.
There, in that little building, were gathered together the hopes of the Puritan; the germ of a mighty Republic; the beginnings of a civilization of which the mind, in its farthest reach, cannot conceive the end.
Their friend, their coadjutor for many years, their companion through many trials, was about to depart, and as it proved, it was a last farewell. He desired to speak to them words of consolation, of hope, of advice, before he left. On the 12th of December, therefore, that little community assembled to hear the parting words of one on whom they had oftentimes relied. On his right, in the “Common House,” we may suppose, was seated with great dignity and decorum, the Governor, William Bradford, whose wisdom was their support in many dark and doleful days. Near him was his “Assistant” in the government, Isaac Allerton, who with Bradford, then constituted the whole administration of the civil power of the Colony. On his left sat Elder Brewster, the perfect personification of religious devotion and trust in God. Nearly in front was, probably, the place of Capt. Standish, who then exercised the military command of the Colony; and who, in every move and look, indicated that he felt the importance and the dignity and the honor of his office. Edward Winslow, a pillar of the little community, must have been in a conspicuous place. Ranged around them were others.
The question, then, may properly be asked: If Robert Cushman was such a leading mind among the Puritans at Leyden, and subsequently was so active and influential in their emigration to the first settlement at Plymouth, why has he never been as noted in history as his colleagues Carver, Bradford, Brewster and others?
The following letter, written by one of the most distinguished of the name — Rev. Robert W. Cushman, D. D., late of the Bowdoin Street Baptist Church, at Boston — to a kinsman, will explain that apparent anomaly as far as it can be done after a lapse of nearly two and a half centuries.
"Boston, Feb. 24th, 1846
"To Joseph Cushman, Esq.:
"My Dear Namesake:
"I rejoice that you have undertaken to call the attention of the descendants of our common ancestor to the debt which as citizens of this country, they owe to his memory; and that you propose to erect, by means of a contribution from them all, so far as they can be reached, a monument on the spot near the Plymouth Rock, where he delivered his memorable discourse to his brother Pilgrims before his departure.
"We sometimes speak of 'the caprices of fortune.' I have often thought how strange and how unjust, sometimes, are the accidents of fame. How strange, how passing strange that the man who was the chief instrument in the first settlement of New England — as is clear from his being the uniformly appointed agent of the Pilgrims to the Virginia Company and to the King, whoever else was associated with him in the different missions — the man whom Governor Bradford himself, his colleague in the second mission, calls 'our right hand;' the man who first vindicated the enterprise to the world through the Press, and made the first public appeal that was ever made to the Protestant Christians of England, in behalf of the religious interests of the Aborigines of America; the man who, to save the Colony from the perils to which he saw it exposed, wrote and delivered, though neither Minister nor Elder, the first Sermon ever published from a New England man, and the first ever written on New England soil; the man whose devotion to his 'loving friends the Adventurers' led him, after securing with great difficulty the Mayflower and a skillful pilot for her, who had been on the American coast, to take his own passage in the rickety Speedwell; and, after her third failure, to disembark to look after and share the fate of those who must be left behind; and, after he had crossed the ocean, to return and live and die not only 'separate from his brethren,' but separate from his only son, that he might watch over their interests near a jealous and intolerant throne — that this man, I say, should have been overlooked by seven generations, while scarcely a fourth-rate politician has risen to bluster about 'liberty' and 'glory for America,' whose name has not been honored and perpetuated as the appellation of some portion of its territory is, I confess, a painful comment on the 'gratitude of Republics,' and the justice of posterity. While Carver and Brewster — successively his associates in negotiation — together with Standish, and Winslow, and Hopkins, and I know not how many others of the first Pilgrims in humble life, have been remembered and honored in the names of towns — while the very pilot, the benefit of whose skill he surrendered, has been immortalized in one of our islands; while even the loafer Billington, who 'slipped in' among the Pilgrims of Southampton and 'was of no benefit to the colony,' has been saved from merited oblivion by Billington Sea; and while geography and history have been vying with each other, and painting has violated the truth in her eagerness to render homage to the fathers of the nation, the name of Cushman -- a name to which New England and the country owe more, if we speak of generative influence, than almost any other of the page on American history — is still unborne by any country, town, island, mountain, lake, river, or rill in America.
[Footnote: I allude to the National Picture at Washington, which places Carver among its figures of the Pilgrims at the embarkation in Holland, when, in fact, he was waiting their arrival at Southampton.]
"All this is to be attributed to what I have called one of the accidents of fame; the injustice of which, however, is the more grievous, inasmuch as the very acts — the staying behind to take care of those who had been left, and his return to and continuance in England as the Argus of the Colony — which enhanced his title to grateful remembrance, were the cause of his being thus forgotten by posterity. But he, no doubt, if cognizant of earth’s affairs, is better satisfied that it should be so than you and I are. 'I seek no name,' said he, 'though the memory of this action shall never die.' "I hope it may suffice, however, that past generations have shown such tender regard to his modesty, and that, by a union of all who know his blood to be flowing in their veins, a monument at least, standing where the ashes of his fellow pilgrims slumber, may tell to the generations following the part he bore in giving civilization, christianity and freedom to the western world.
"Yours most truly,
"ROBERT W. CUSHMAN"
Such was the life of Robert Cushman during the eight years in which we have any account of him. Enough during that period has transpired to give us a good idea of the character of the man, — his education, religious principles and habits, and his labors and sacrifices in behalf of the Puritan cause.
From the fact that he was the first Agent of the Pilgrims to negotiate with the Virginia Company, the King and the hierarchy of England, in connection with Mr. Carver, who was the first Governor of the Colony, and was a man of great wisdom and discretion, and was continued in that agency the next year, in connection with Elder Brewster, who was the very head and pillar of the Puritan movement; that by his diplomatic skill and sagacity he finally obtained a Patent and afterwards made an agreement with the Merchant Adventurers, by which the Puritans were enabled to emigrate to America; that he was left, very reluctantly and much against his will, to take charge of the passengers of the Speedwell, as being the one best able to provide for, and keep together that portion of the flock, that were, from necessity, left behind; that he went to New England in the second ship that carried over emigrants, and left his only son there in the family of Gov. Bradford; that he continued the faithful and unwearied friend and Agent of the Colony, and was in frequent correspondence with the Governor and other prominent members of that community; and that at the time of his decease, in the very prime and meridian of life, he was in expectation of coming here to settle and here to end his days. From all these circumstances, we may reasonably infer that he was one in the first movers and main instruments of the Puritan dissent of England, their pilgrimage to Holland, and their final settlement in America. And when we consider the immense consequences of that movement in effecting the highest interests of man, in every department of life, how much the political, religious and civil rights of the whole world, even, have depended on the success of that enterprise, impartial justice as historians and biographers requires us to place high up in the Temple of Fame the leaders of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England.
From the book Robert Cushman of Kent: Robert Cutchman or Cushman, baptized at Rolvenden, co. Kent, 9 Feb. 1577/8, was, in all probability, identical with Robert Cushman, the agent of the Leyden Pilgrims in England. In 1603 we find him in Canterbury, co. Kent, as servant to George Masters. He was presented, 14 Nov. 1603, by the churchwardens of St. Andrew’s Parish, “for that he doth say he will not come to his parish church, because he cannot be edified and saith he can and will defend it by the word of God.” Not doing the penance imposed on him by the ecclesiastical court, he was excommunicated 12 Nov. 1604, but on 28 June 1605 he appeared before the court and asked for absolution, which was granted to him on 7 July 1605, when he was received again into the Church. In the same year, 1605, he became a freeman of Canterbury, the record of his admission describing him as Robert Couchman, “grosser,” a freeman by apprenticeship to George Masters. He married first, in the parish of St. Alphege, Canterbury, 31 July 1606, Sara Reder, who dwelt in the precincts of the Cathedral and whose parentage has not been discovered. Their son Thomas was baptized in the parish of St. Andrew, Canterbury, 8 Feb. 1607/8, this date serving to identify him with Elder Thomas Cushman of the Plymouth Colony, who died 11 Dec. 1691, “neere the end of the 84th yeare of his life.” No further record of this Cushman family, after the baptism of the son Thomas, is found at Canterbury.
Probably soon after the date of baptism Robert Cushman with his family joined Rev. John Robinson’s colony in Holland. When his wife Sara died is unknown, but he married secondly, at Leyden, 5 Jun 1617, Mary (Clarke) Shingelton, widow of Thomas of Sandwich, co. Kent, shoemaker, the license for her marriage to her first husband, which was to be celebrated at St. Mary Bredman’s, Canterbury, being dated 28 Jan. 1610/11. Although Robert Cushman appears as a grocer at Canterbury, he is called a woolcomber in the record of his second marriage at Leyden; but this change of occupation is perhaps explained by the following passage in Bradford’s History:
“They [the Pilgrims] removed [from Amsterdam] to Leyden, a fair & bewtifull citie, and of a sweete situation, but made more famous by ye universitie wherwith it is adorned, in which of late had been so many learned men. But wanting that traffike by sea which Amsterdam injoyes, it was not so beneficiall for their outward means of living & estats. But being now hear pitchet they fell to such trads & imployments as they best could; valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any other riches whatsoever. And at length they came to raise a competente & comforteable living, but with hard and continuall labor.”
Under these circumstances, what was more natural than that Robert Cushman should turn to a branch of the clothmaking trade, the principal business of the Weald of Kent, where he was born and where he spent his early years? ...
From “The Mayflower” by Kate Caffrey, p.37: [Describing the community of Leyden, Holland]...1615...found the English families all living close to one another in a little network of streets overshadowed by the great bulk of the Pieterskerk [St. Peter’s Church]. One of the leading Separatists, a wool carder from Canterbury called Robert Cushman, had bought a fairly large house in the Nonnensteeg (Nuns Alley) and settled in this his second wife Mary Singleton; William Brewster lived in the Stinksteeg, which name needs no translation.
From “The Mayflower” by Kate Caffrey, pp.47-50: Two distinguished members, an English merchant in his 50s named John Carver and Robert Cushman, whose qualities of leadership had already raised them to positions of responsibility among the Leyden English, were chosen to go from Leyden in 1617 to open negotiations with the Virginia Company. ... Their reception was more than favorable: anxious for eager colonists, the company welcomed them, willingly promised a charter with all possible rights and privileges, and said the King was sure to grant them religious freedom. James I, who does not seem to have read the Seven Articles very carefully, expressed the keenest interest in the proposed voyage, and approved the idea of the Pilgrims’ enjoying, as they had tactfully put it, liberty of conscience under his gracious protection. ...
Cushman and Carver, finding God going along with them, promptly struck a setback when James told them to consult the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. The King could not imagine taking any action involving religious questions, however remotely, without consulting dignitaries of the Church of England; but the two men from Leyden, privately resolved not to entangle themselves with bishops on any account, returned instead to the Virginia Company and told them that the King’s reaction seemed favorable. The Virginia Company met in February 1619 to decide that the Pilgrims could have their patent, though exactly how long it might take to discuss and draw up they did not at that moment say.
Carver and Cushman at once threw open the expedition to any friendly merchants who might be interested. ...
Although the Pilgrims had got their patent, or charter, they were kept waiting by all sorts of irritating delays for its details to be properly worked out. On May 8, 1619, Cushman reported to Leyden in a letter reflecting his understandable exasperation. A squabble had broken out among the Virginia Company officials. Sir Thomas Smith, pleading pressure of business and overworry, had resigned as treasurer. The company accepted his resignation and elected a successor. In the ballot Alderman Johnson, with 24 votes, and Sir John Worstenholme, with 16, lost to Sir Edwin Sandys, who received 60 votes. Sir Thomas at once protested that Sir Edwin was unfit to hold the office, as he thought anybody but he would have been, and the wrangle that resulted occupied the company’s attention to the exclusion of other business, while Cushman kicked his heels disconsolately on a three-week visit to Kent, hoping that Sir Edwin would prevail and they could get on with the important business.
From Holland and the Hollanders by Junius Henri Browne • Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, NY • Vol. 44, Issue 260, Jan 1872, pp. 169 & 170: If any of your ancestors, beloved reader, came over in the Mayflower, or had any thing to do with the ill-fated Speedwell—and they must have done both if you have a drop of New England blood in your veins—you will go to Delft, and imagine the precise spot where Robert Cushman, John Carver, William Brewster, and their associates embarked from the haven in their little vessel on the memorable July 22, 1620. You remember what ill fortune they had: if you don’t, you had better read up on the subject in order to do full honor to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers, about whom we have concerned ourselves much more than they ever concerned themselves about us. While you are gazing in puritanic admiration and enthusiasm at the identical spot where they went aboard, we, who are not pilgrim-descended, will walk around the town.
[Carla's Note: Acerbic wit? Or do I detect a twinge of envy?]
GENERATION FOUR IS IN THE WORKS.
Although my grandest passion encompasses all things theatrical (my other blog is 
