From Isaac Allerton of the Mayflower…4 Generations: [14-year-old] Thomas came to Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621. He was Elder of the Plymouth Church from 6 Apr 1649 until his death.
The will of Thomas Cushman Sr. of Plimouth dated 22 Oct 1690, sworn 16 Mar 1691/2, names wife Mary Cushman; sons Thomas, Isaac, Elkanah and Eleazer Cushman; daughters. Sarah Hoaks and Lidiah Harlow; the three grandchildren in Lin (Lynn), the children of daughter Mary Hutchinson, deceased.
From Robert Cushman of Kent by Robt. E. Cushman & Franklin P. Cole, published in 1995 by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants: A brief account of Thomas Cushman’s life and death is preserved in the Plymouth Church Records, (Vol. I, Pt. II).
He was chosen [as successor to William Brewster] and ordained Elder of this church, April 6, 1649. He was near 43 years in this office. His sickness lasted about 11 weeks.
He had been a rich blessing to this Church scores of years. He was grave, sober, holy and temperate, very studious and solicitous for the peace and prosperity of the church, and to prevent and heal all breaches.
He died December 11th, 1690, near the end of the 84th year of his life. December 16 was kept as a day of Humiliation for his death ...
A liberal contribution was made that Fast Day for the Elder’s widow as our acknowledgement of his great services to the Church whilst living. [Footnote: The widow was, of course, Mary Allerton, great-grandmother of all American Cushmans.]
To read Thomas Cushman's Petition to the General Court of New-Plymouth, extracted from the Mayflower Society publication Robert Cushman of Kent,
Unfortunately, the date of Thomas Cushman’s petition to the Court of Plymouth is not supplied with the document. A clue to its date, however, is its stated reason for being, namely, that, as Thomas declares, the Lord has given him “many children” and that he is loath to contemplate their eventual departure from Plymouth Colony for want of land.
Of the “many children,” the first child of Thomas and Mary Allerton Cushman, according to record, was a son, Thomas junior, born the 16th of September 1637. This obviously accounts for the signature of Thomas Cushman as “senyor.” The date of the birth of Thomas Jr. indicates the probable latest date, otherwise unknown, for the marriage of Thomas Cushman and Mary Allerton as some time in December of the year 1636. On this premise, Thomas, at the time of his marriage, would have been thirty-one, and Mary, his wife, about twenty-six years of age. If seemingly belated, then to be noted is the fact that Thomas’s grandfather, Thomas Couchman of Rolvenden, Kent, likewise was at least thirty at the time of his marriage to Eleanor Hubbarde of that parish, 18 July 1568. Likewise, was his father not married until 1606 in his twenty-ninth year.
The first child, Thomas Jr., was followed by two daughters in succession, Sarah and Lydia, neither of whose birth dates are supplied in the Cushman Genealogy; and so far as the records show, the fourth child and second son, Isaac, was born February 8, 1647/48. From these things, including the absence of birth dates for the female children of Thomas Cushman’s family, it is evident that separatist congregationalism of the Plymouth Church rejected that Canon of the Church of England which, since 1538, had prescribed a recording in parish registers of the date infant baptisms, or others, together with those of all marriages and burials of either parishioners or strangers. Instead, it appears, record keeping of births was transferred at Plymouth to some office of the Magistracy -- as in Leyden, Holland -- and that church records of baptisms had not become operative by mid-17th century in Plymouth Colony or that female birth dates were not recorded, or that records were carelessly handled.
Thomas Cushman’s petition was grounded in his claim to a gift of “many children” who would need farming land for continuing life in the colony. Likewise, it was implied that the grandchildren of Robert Cushman deserved fair consideration. It is barely possible that four living children might have sufficed for Cushman to speak publicly of “many children” with the birth of the fourth child, Isaac, in 1648. It would be better justified with the birth of the third son, Elkanah, born 1st of June 1651 and, more so, with the birth of Fear, a sixth child and son, born 10th February 1653. But it would indeed be a claim to “many children” to which an exception could hardly be taken with the birth of Eleazer, the seventh child and a son, born 20th February 1656/57. The eighth child was Mary, a daughter, the date of whose birth is not preserved to us.
On this ground, we may reasonably surmise that Thomas Cushman’s petition to the General Court for farming land for his “many children” was hardly justifiable prior to the birth of Elkannah in 1651, or better, that of Feare in 1653.
In the interest of arriving at a probable date for Thomas Cushman’s petition to the “Honourable Court” of Plymouth Colony, assembled, two possible dates are about equally plausible. The first is the annual meeting of the Assembly in the year 1651, the second, in the year 1657. They were years when, not Wm. Bradford, but Mr. Thomas Prince was elected to the office of Governor, indeed, by the 5th of June 1657, Wm. Bradford had died.
Both years were late enough to justify Cushman’s claim of “many children,” which would have been hardly a secret. Furthermore, the nature of Cushman’s claim for appropriate recognition of his father, Robert Cushman’s, central role in the founding of the colony, beginning in 1617, and, thus, the just dessert of his grandchildren for land to dwell upon, was on its face reasonable. Yet, had Wm. Bradford been in the chair presiding over the meeting, the appeal of Thomas Cushman to history would have been rather superfluous. Moreover, it might have appeared a bit jarring because, as a public statement, it might, for some, have implied willful neglect. Yet such a supposition of either ignorance or neglect would hardly have been entertained by Thomas Cushman who, from his fourteenth year in December 1621, had been received into the home of Bradford and, as a ward, had been reared in the Governor’s household.
If, however, we alter the presiding officer and dramatis personnae and envision Thomas Prince as in the chair for meeting of the Assembly in either 1651 or 1657, what is the altered dynamic? While much older than Thomas Cushman, Thomas Prince too had come to New Plymouth on the ship Fortune in 1621 along with Thomas and his father, Robert. Prince, moreover, had not come without interview and agreement with Robert Cushman in London, hence Prince had some experience of Cushman’s agency in the migration. But more than thirty years had passed by either 1651 or 1657, and the membership of the Assembly was composed mainly, perhaps entirely, of second generation settlers. By 1657, “the Pilgrim fathers” were all gone. Though some younger contemporaries survived to be sure, none of the “first Beginners” -- to recall the words of Nathaniel Morton -- now remained. This Thomas Cushman knew quite well as he formulated his petition for land to the Assembly. He certainly could not count upon such vivid recollections as would be the case either with Gov. Bradford or Thomas Prince regarding the person and role of his father in the few but immensely important years of the founding process between 1617 and 1625.
And finally, if, as Nathaniel Morton tells us, Wm. Bradford had died shortly before the June Assembly of Plymouth freemen, that fact alone could have easily cleared the way, as it also justified, Thomas Cushman’s appeal to history before time’s passage should further dim the community of recollection and of obligation to a principal founder, long departed, and on behalf of his grandchildren.
If, as may well be the case, Thomas Cushman’s petition went before the Colony Court in the year 1657 for deliberate consideration, he had already, by action of the Plymouth Church congregation, been Ruling Elder since 1649, or for eight years. Albeit, with proper decorum he adopts in Court the appropriate role of a humble suppliant in his petitioning. This manner and posture, suited to his political status as “freeman,” is a clear indication of an acknowledged disjunction between church and state, functionally conceived, on the part of the chief ecclesiastical officer of New Plymouth. With a little reflection, it discloses to the discerning one of the manifest differences between the Plymouth and the Bay and Connecticut colonies from the early seventeenth century onward. Plymouth never drifted in the direction of theocracy unlike its sister colonies. It was fundamentally and from the start the American exemplum of the “free churches” and/or the separation of church and state.
From HWC’s Cushman Gen: Thomas arrived at Plymouth in good health, in Nov., 1621. In a few days his father returned to England, leaving his only son in the family of his particular friend, Gov. Bradford. ... If it is true that, “As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined,” then we have the very best evidence that Gov. Bradford was faithful to the trust imposed in him by his absent friend. In a letter from Gov. B. to Robert Cushman, dated June, 1625, he says, “Your son is in good health (blessed be God). ... I hope God will make him a good man” And such proved to be the case as his history will show.
1627. At a public Court held on the 22d of May, it is considered by the whole company, that the cattle which were the company’s, to wit--the cows and the goats--should be equally divided by lot to all persons of the same company.” The cattle and goats were, therefore, divided into twelve lots, and thirteen persons appointed to each lot.
The eleventh lot fell to Gov. Bradford and those with him, among whom was Thomas Cushman, then in the 20th year of his age. “To this lot fell an heifer of the last year, which was of the great white back cow that was brought over in the Ann, and two she goats.” [Footnote: The first cattle imported from England were “a bull and three heifers,” by Edward Winslow, in 1624.]
Jan. 1, 1633. These following were admitted into the freedom of the society, viz: Mr. William Collins, Thomas Willett, John Cooke and Thomas Cushman.” He was then twenty-five or twenty-six year of age.
July 1, 1634. “At a generall Court holden before the Governor and Councill, Thomas Cushman plantife agaynst John Combe, Gent. defendant, being cast and adjudged to pay the sayd summe of ten pounds to the plaintife or his Assigns at or before the first of Aug. or else to deliver to him a sufficient cow cafe weaned or weanable.” [Footnote: Plymouth Colony Records; Court Order 3, vol. 1.]
1635. Thomas Cushman first served as a Juryman.
1635 or 36 (about). He m. Mary Allerton, the third child of Isaac Allerton, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620. ... In that matrimonial relation they lived together the long period of fifty-five years: she surviving him nearly ten years.
1637. There was granted “to Thomas Cushman the remaynder of the marsh before the house he liveth in wch Mrs. Fuller doth not use and the little pcell at the wading place on the other side Joanes River.” It is supposed that he removed to Jones River (now Kingston) about this time, which was not long after he was married, and that there he lived and died.
1645. He purchased “Prence’s farm” at Jones River (now “Rocky Nook” in Kingston (by exchanging land at Sowams on Naragansett Bay in Rhode Island) for it, for £75. It was first owned by his father-in-law, Isaac Allerton.
The exact locality of his house is now pointed out, and a spring of water near it has for many years received the cognomen of “the Elder’s Spring,” from Elder Thomas Cushman, whose house stood near it. It is located in that part of Kingston now called “Rocky Nook,” about fifty rods northerly from the present traveled highway, on the border of the marsh. A description and the boundaries of the land as given in the early Colony Records, show, beyond a doubt, that the tradition respecting that spring and the location of the Elder’s house, must be correct. Men and things have changed in the course of two hundred years: yet the topography of that vicinity remains the same.
The “Elder’s Spring” is often visited by antiquarians, and by those who have sprung from the stock of the Pilgrims, and who venerate their deeds. The writer of this has drank from that pure spring, where his venerable ancestor allayed his thirst in days of yore; and he hopes he has thus become inspired with something of the Pilgrim’s faith, and a fearless determination, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and judgment;” and in the strong and emphatic language of another , “has sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” [Footnote: Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Dr. Rush, dated at Monticello, Virginia, Sept. 23, 1800.]
1649. The office of Ruling Elder of the Church at Plymouth, having become vacant by the death of the venerable Elder Brewster, Thomas Cushman was appointed to that office and continued in it to his death, — a period of over 43 years. He was ordained to that office by appropriate ceremonies and religious services, on Friday the 6th of April, 1649.
In order to show the importance of the office of Ruling Elder, that was held for so long a period by our worthy ancestor, we give, from Prince’s Chronology, the following summary of the religious tenets of the Plymouthean Fathers, so far as they relate to Church government:
“They maintained that every Christian congregation ought to be governed by its own laws, without depending on the jurisdiction of Bishops, or being subject to the authority of Synods, Presbyteries, or any ecclesiastical assembly whatever. They maintained that the inspired scriptures only contain the true religion, and that every man has the right of judging for himself and worshipping according to his apprehension of the meaning of them.
“Their officers were Pastors or teaching Elders who have the power of overseeing and teaching, and of administering the sacraments, &c.
“2d, Ruling Elders who are to help the Pastor in ruling and overseeing.
“3d, Deacons who are to take care of the treasury of the Church; distribute to the needy and minister at the Lord’s Table.”
We thus see that Thomas Cushman held a highly responsible and important office in the hierarchy of the Plymouth Colony.
April 4, 1654. Mrs. Sarah Jenny, by her Will, gave “To Elder Cushman the Bible which was my daughter Susannah’s.” [Footnote: Sarah, wife of John Jenny, who came over in the ship Ann, in 1623. He was a member of Rev. Mr. Robinson’s Church at Leyden.]
From an Account of the Church of Christ in Plymouth, by John Cotton, Esq., a member, published in 1760, we take the following statement of the duties and character of Elder Thomas Cushman:
“About four or five years after Mr. Brewster’s death, (he d. Tuesday, 16 April, 1644), the Church chose Mr. Thomas Cushman as his successor in the office of Ruling Elder, son of that servant of Christ, Mr. Robert Cushman, who had been their chief agent in transacting all their affairs in England, both before and after their leaving of Holland, till the year 1625. And this his son, inheriting the same spirit and being completely qualified, with gifts and graces, proved a great blessing to the Church; assisting Mr. Rayner (Pastor of the Church at Plymouth) not only in ruling, catechising and visiting, but also in public teaching, as Mr. Brewster had done before him: it being the professed principle of this Church in their first formation ‘to choose none for governing Elders but such as are able to teach;’ which abilities (as Mr. Robinson observes in one of his letters) other reformed churches did not require of their Ruling Elders.”
Extract from a Deed of land: “Two acres of marsh meadow bee it more or lesse lying before the house and land of the Elder Cushman at Joaneses Riever next unto a pcell of meadow which was Phineas Prats.” (Footnote: Plymouth Records.]
March 29, 1653. Ousamequin (Massasoit) and his oldest son Wamsitto convey by deed a tract of land in Rehoboth to Thomas Prence, Thomas Cushman and others, for which they pay the sum of thirty-five pounds sterling. This is another evidence of the justice of our fathers. They showed their faith by their works:
“About the year 1650 to 1660, the Quakers proved very troublesome to the Church and subverted many. The Lord was pleased to bless the endeavors of their faithful Elder, Mr. Cushman, in concurrence with several of the abler brethren, to prevent the efficacy of error and delusion; and (though destitute of a Pastor) the body of the Church were upheld in their integrity and in a constant opposition to their pernicious tenets. And we desire, say the records, that the good providence of God herein may never be forgotten, but that the Lord may have all the praise and glory thereof; for how easily might these wolves in sheep’s clothing have ruined this poor flock of Christ, if the Lord had not interposed by his almighty power and goodness; improving this our good elder as a special instrument in this worthy work, both by teaching the will of God every Lord’s day, for a considerable time, plainly, powerfully and profitably; and seconding the same by a blameless life and conversation.
“After Rev. Mr. Rayner left, the worship of God was carried on by their Elder, Mr. Cushman, assisted by some of the brethren: insomuch that not one Sabbath passed without two public meetings.” [Footnote: Cotton’s account of Plymouth Church.]
Elder Cushman, having been raised and educated in the family of Gov. Bradford, was ever his intimate and confidential friend. He was, therefore, the principal witness to his Will, which was proved at Plymouth, June 3, 1657. The Governor’s estate was also inventoried by Thomas Cushman.
June 30, 1669. Mr. John Cotton, Jr., son of the famous Rev. John Cotton, Pastor of the first Church in Boston, was ordained as Pastor of the first Church in Plymouth. “Elder Thomas Cushman gave the charge and the aged Mr. John Howland (whose daughter had married his son, Thomas Cushman, Jr.) was appointed by the Church to join in imposition of hands.”
[Footnote: It was for a time the practice in Congregational ordinations for laymen to bear a part in the solemnities, by laying on of hands. Dr. Elliott in his Biographical Dictionary, gives us the following anecdote: When Israel Chauncy, son of the President, was ordained minister of Stratford, Conn., in 1665, one of the lay brothers, in laying on hands, forgot to take off his mitten, and this was ridiculed by the Episcopalians by styling it the leather mitten ordination. -- Dr. Thacher’s History of Plymouth.]
“The Ruling Elder (Cushman) with the new Pastor, made it their first special work to pass through the whole town, from family to family, to enquire into the state of souls.”
The first volume of the records of the first Church at Plymouth, contains the following notice of Elder Cushman’s death: 1691. It pleased God to seize upon our good Elder, Mr. Thomas Cushman, by sickness, and in this year to take him from us. He was chosen and ordained Elder of this Church, April 6, 1649; he was neere 43 yeares in his office, his sickness lasted about eleven weeks; he had bin a rich blessing to this church scores of yeares, he was grave, sober, holy and temperate, very studious and solicitous for the peace and prosperity of the church and to prevent and heale all breaches: He dyed, December 11, neare the end of the 84th yeare of his life; December 16: was kept as a day of humiliation for his death — the Pastor prayed and preached. Mr. Arnold and the Pastor’s 2 sons assisted in prayer; much of God’s presence went away from this church when this blessed Pillar was removed.
"A liberal contribution was made that fast day for the Elder’s widow, as an acknowledgment of his great services to the church whilst living.”
In another place we find the following in the Plymouth Church Record: “1691. Elder Thomas Cushman dyed December 11: having within two months finished the 84th year of his life.”
And at a later period, we find on those records the following:
“August 7, 1715. A contribution was moved and made, both by the church and congregation to defray the expense of Grave Stones sett upon the grave of that worthy and useful servant of God Elder Thomas Cushman; the whole congregation were very forward in it.”
He died on Friday the 11th day of Dec., 1691, and we may, therefore, reasonably conclude that his funeral was attended on the following Sunday. He was buried on the southerly brow of Burying Hill, in a very beautiful locality, commanding a full view of Plymouth harbor, of the town, of the green hills in the distance, and of the Meeting House, in which for more than seventy years he had prayed and worshipped.
The grave stone, erected by the Plymouth Church, twenty-four years after his death, is a plain slab of mica slate, about 3-1/2 feet in height, and was probably imported from England.
It is now in a good state of preservation, and although it has stood nearly one hundred and forty years, the inscription is yet distinct and legible. Such a tribute as that to his memory, by the Church of which he was a member, speaks volumes in his praise.
At his grave stands a board with this inscription, of recent origin, undoubtedly, designed to direct the stranger to the grave of one of the most noted of the Old Pilgrims:
It will be noticed that the day of his death by the Church Records is Dec. 11th, — but by his grave stone it is Dec. 10th; which is correct is unknown.
About a year before his death, Elder Cushman made his Will. As a part of his history, we give it entire. From the quantity of real estate devised to his children, and the amount of the inventory of his personal property — a copy of which is subjoined — we must infer that the Elder was prosperous in temporal things, as well as in spiritual. His personal estate amounted to £50, of which £4 was in books. Considering the value of the money at that time — much greater than now — he must have been quite wealthy.
To read the Will of Elder Thomas Cushman Sr., as contained in the Probate Records for the County of Plymouth • Book 1, commencing on page 129,
To view the inventory of the estate of Thomas Cushman, Sr.,
Such was the life and such the death of Elder Thomas Cushman. But few men, comparatively, live so long and still fewer live so well as he did. In early life, having had the training and example of Gov. Bradford — than whom few men’s history stands as high and as pure — we may reasonably conclude that he was taught “the law and the prophets,” and constantly “walked in wisdom’s ways.”
At the mature age of about twenty-eight, he married Mary Allerton, who had sat under the teachings of Rev. John Robinson, a leader of the Puritans, and had joined the Church under the instructions of the pious Elder Brewster.
Thus trained in the school of Puritan theology, and practising daily the most rigid morals, formed after the model of Christ himself; and with an organization in which benevolence and veneration largely predominated, we can judge something of the character of the man and of his works. His antecedents had well prepared him for the high duties of Ruling Elder of a Puritan Church. In that office, the records of the Church he served so long and so faithfully, as well as all other contemporaneous evidence, give him the highest commendation. For upwards of forty-three years, he “ruled and governed” the Church at Plymouth, and ever proved himself to be the worthy successor of the discreet and devoted Brewster. For a portion of that time he was the only preacher. After the dismissal of Rev. Mr. Rayner, in 1654, and before the settlement of Rev. Mr. Cotton in 1657, he continued the religious services of the Sabbath, so that no Sunday passed without having two meetings as usual. To a poorly educated layman, this must have been a task of no small magnitude. But having the “gifts and graces” of a true, zealous and devoted christian, he taught as well as governed, in the absence of the minister.
It was during that period that the Quakers, possessing something of a fanatical spirit, and pushed on by opposition and persecution, were a source of much trouble to the Plymouth Church. The oppressions of the Anglican Church, in their native land, had not learned the Puritans the somewhat difficult lesson of charity and toleration to others of a different faith. Like most other professing christians, the Puritans had their defects, their short comings, their errors. But we may fairly and truly say they were the defects of the age; the errors of the head, not of the heart.
That Elder Cushman partook of the characteristics of the age and of his brethren in the Lord, we cannot doubt. Still we have no evidence that he ever violated that highest of moral principles, “Do unto others ...” in his government of the Plymouth Church and in his treatment of heretics and heresy. The uniform meekness and humility of his life would lead us to an opposite conclusion.
He continued in his office till death; he died with his armor on; and so deeply was he lamented that the church records say, somewhat figuratively, we may suppose, that “much of God’s presence went away from the Church when that blessed Pillar was removed.”
Mary Allerton Cushman survived her husband seven or eight years, and died at the advanced age of ninety. Her name has become quite famous from the fact that she was the last survivor of the one hundred persons who came over in the Mayflower. She was probably buried by the side of her husband, in the Burying Hill Cemetery in Plymouth, though no monument has ever been erected to her memory.
[Footnote: We trust her numerous descendants will not allow this to continue so much longer. Let the marble or granite perpetuate her memory and commemorate her virtues.]
In contemplating the long life of Elder Thomas Cushman, which extended through a period of more than four score years, two circumstances are most observable:
FIRSTLY,
The peculiarly interesting period during which he lived for a large part of the 17th century, which was crowded with great events, he was on the stage of active life. When he landed at Plymouth, the entire Colony consisted of only 50 persons; and 70 years afterwards, the time of his decease, there were more than that number of thousands of the Anglo-Saxon race in New England. He lived to see the sister Colonies of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire spring up, establish their governments, and extend far and wide the area of civilization and christianity. He was a participator of the first treaty with Massasoit and Samoset which continued unviolated by both parties for more than fifty years; and afterwards was a spectator of the bloody and exterminating war of King Philip and the Indian tribes of New England.
He had seen, also, during his protracted life, in his native country, old England, a weak and dishonest King brought to the block and executed as a malefactor; and the government, passing into the hands of Cromwell, established on the basis of a Commonwealth. Almost as transient as the morning dew, he saw that pass away with the death of its great progenitor; another King in power and another fleeing for his life, and finally monarchy again firmly established under the dynasty and William and Mary in 1688.
In his own community and Church he had experienced equally great changes. The wise and discreet Bradford, the zealous and devout Brewster, the chivalrous and fearless Standish, the active and enterprising Allerton, and the shrewd and intelligent Winslow, had all passed away and gone to their long rest. But few of his contemporaries were then living. The Church that he had loved, and for which he had labored and prayed, had been blessed by the labors of a Rayner and a Cotton, and had spread out its branches all around.
In his social relations, too, great changes had occurred. He had raised up a family of seven children, all of whom had married and settled around him; and grandchildren were rejoicing in his arms. His father-in-law (Isaac Allerton), being more liberal and wiser than the age, had refused to take part against the Quakers, and thus lost the confidence of the Colony and the Church. He had left for a home in the then far-off Dutch settlement at New Netherland, now New York City, and years before had “Gone to that bourne from which no traveller returns.”
Such are some of the incidents that had been enacted and had passed away during the long pilgrimage of the subject of this memoir.
The 2d noticeable point in the career of Elder Cushman was the perfect consistency of his character, and his entire and unchanging devotion to the Church, of which he was for more than forty years the Ruling Elder. During all the mutations of that period, --the changes of Pastors, the colonization of other Churches, the coming on of a new generation — less intelligent, we may suppose, and less devout than their fathers; the controversy with the Quakers, which seemed to stir up the community to its lowest depths; and in his own family, the conviction, by the judicial tribunals of the Colony, of his oldest son, of the sin of unchastity — all these must have been most severe trials of his christian principles. But we find him ever the same prayerful, practical, true-hearted christian. The Plymouth Church was his first love, his beaconlight, his undying hope. And, but for him, we may safely conclude, at some trying periods of its existence, it must have languished, perhaps died.
The last act of that Church, so far as he was concerned, was the crowning event of all. A quarter of a century after his death, the Plymouth Church erected a monument to his memory, now standing conspicuous on the southern brow of the old Burying Ground in Plymouth, on which they inscribed his character as “that precious Servant of God.”
In the beautiful language of Montgomery, we may conclude this memoir of Elder Cushman:
“Servant of God, well done!
Rest from thy loved employ, --
And while eternal ages run,
Be in thy Saviour’s joy.”
[HWC's Note: Sara Cushman m. William Hodgekin, 2 Nov 1636, say the Old Colony Records. Who she was, we know not. From her age (being marriageable 16 years after the first landing in Plymouth), she must have emigrated from England. But her name is nowhere mentioned in the lists of passengers. She might have been a sister of Elder Thomas, though there is no evidence to that effect. From the fact that her husband, William Hodgekin, m. the 2d time to Ann Haynes, 21 Dec 1638, it is evident Sara must have d. before that time, or in about 2 years after her marriage; and so far as we know, left no issue.]
From Adrienne McGee's email some years ago: She states that her associate in Boston has located the following archived materials for Thomas Cushman Sr: Case #5896 Book 1, Page 131. Note: Same book, Codicil, Page 131 and Inventory, Page 132.
From Politics of the Puritans/The North American Review, Apr 1840. pp. 449-450: “ Says Elder Cushman, at Plymouth, in 1621, in an Epistle Dedicatory to the adventurers for New England, in the mother country: “and thus much, I will say for the satisfaction of such as have any thought of going thither to inhabit; that for men which have a large heart, and look after great riches, ease, pleasure, dainties, and jollity in this world (except they will live by other men’s sweat or have great riches), I would not advise them to come there, for as yet the country will afford no such matters; but, if there be any who are content to lay out their estates, spend their time, labors, and endeavours, for the benefit of them that shall come after an in desire to further the Gospel among these poor Heathens, quietly contenting themselves with such hardship and difficulties as by God’s providence shall fall upon them, and being yet young and in their strength, such men I would advise and encourage to go, for their ends cannot fail them.”
From Plymouth MA VR, Book 1, Deaths - p.135: on the 10th day of Dec. 1691 that precious and eminent servant of God decd. the Elder Thomas Cushman being entered into the 84 year of his age.
From New Publications Received/The North American Review, Vol. 84, Issue 174, Jan 1857: The Proceedings at the Cushman Celebration, at Plymouth, August 15, 1855, in Commemoration of the Embarkation of the Plymouth Pilgrims from Southampton, England; together with an Account of the Services at the Grave of Elder Thomas Cushman, August 16, 1855. Boston. 1855. 8 vo. pp.76.
From The Pilgrims’ Church in Plymouth/The New England Magazine, Boston, Vol. 13, No. 6, Feb 1893: The ruling elders of the Plymouth Church were three in all — and first in time and in prominence was William Brewster, who died in 1644. After his death Thomas Cushman was chosen elder. He was the son of Robert Cushman, who came over in the Fortune, and was for many years the agent of the colony in England, and who preached in Plymouth, in 1621, the first sermon ever preached in New England, on the “Sin and Danger of Self Love,” — which was printed in London in 1622, and of which many editions have been subsequently printed. Thomas Cushman continued as elder until his death in 1691, at the age of 84. Cushman’s successor as elder was Thomas Faunce, who was the last ruling elder of the church in Plymouth, and who died in the 99th year of his age, in 1745. To him we are indebted for the preservation of the Forefathers’ Rock. In his 96th year, hearing that a wharf was to be erected over the Rock, he was carried from his home some three miles away to the shore, that he might bid the rock his last farewell. This was in 1741 that the Elder pointed out the Rock, which had been shown him by the survivors of the Pilgrim company in his youth as the spot on which the Pilgrims landed — which might well dispose of the speculations which recent writers have engaged in as to the true landing place of the Pilgrims.
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