Edward Winslow

Edward Winslow 1595-1655, one of the founders of Plymouth Colony in New England, b. England. One of the leaders of the Pilgrims who traveled to America on the Mayflower in 1620, Winslow negotiated (1621) the treaty of peace and friendship with the Native American chief Massasoit . Sent back to England (1623-24) as agent of the colony, he wrote Good Newes from New England, which Samuel Purchas published in 1625. On his return to Plymouth he was elected an assistant of the colony and was continuously reelected until 1647, except for the years he served as governor (1633-34, 1636-37, and 1644-45), years in which William Bradford had declined to hold the governorship. Winslow was an active explorer and was apparently the first Englishman to visit (1632) Connecticut. He was also one of the Pilgrim leaders who successfully undertook to discharge the colony's debts to its English backers. In England again (1635) he was imprisoned for a short time for his religious beliefs and for performing the marriage ceremony in the colony. On still another journey to England, to answer charges made against Plymouth Colony, he issued a vigorous defense in Hypocrisie Unmasked (1646). With the Puritan cause triumphant in England, he decided to remain there. He was sent on several missions by Oliver Cromwell, dying on one to the West Indies. He was the father of Josiah Winslow.

Bibliography: See G. F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (rev. ed. 1965).

Winslow, Edward (1595–1655), English‐born Puritan, came to America on the Mayflower. Mourt's Relation (1622), concerning this voyage and the earliest days of the Plymouth Colony, is considered to be based on his journal and that of William Bradford. When Winslow returned to England (1623–24) as agent of the Colony, he published Good News from New England (1624), a continuation of his previous narrative to September 1623. The graphic account ends with a warning “to discourage such as with too great lightness undertake” the business of colonization. On his return, he took a leading part in the Colony's affairs, serving three times as governor (1633, 1636, 1644), and was continuously assistant until 1647. On a journey to England (1634) he was briefly imprisoned for his religious beliefs. He went to England again (1646) to remain after the triumph of Cromwell, and published Hypocrisie Unmasked (1646), a spirited defense of the colony, attacking Samuel Gorton. New Englands Salamander Discovered by an Irreligious and Scornfull Pamphlet (1647), a reply to Major John Child's New‐Englands Jonas Cast Up at London (1647), answers this criticism, which was unfavorable to the Puritan regime and specifically to Winslow. The latter was sent by Cromwell on a mission to the West Indies, where he died of a fever.

Josiah Winslow (c. 1629–80), his son, was also prominent in the government of the Plymouth Colony, serving as assistant governor (1657–73) and governor (1673–80), as Plymouth commissioner in the New England Confederation, and as a commander of forces in King Philip's War. His elegy on Bradford was published in Morton's New Englands Memoriall.