Myles Standish

Myles Standish (ca. 1584-1656), a professional English soldier hired by the Pilgrims to direct their military affairs, gave great service to New Plymouth in America and won personal glory.

Little is known of Myles Standish's early life, other than that he probably came from Lancashire, England, and had fought the Spaniards in the Netherlands. Hired by the Leiden Pilgrims to manage the military defenses of the prospective colony, Standish was not a member of the Leiden congregation, although he quickly became a loyal supporter of the Pilgrim venture.

When he arrived in New England, Standish's first responsibility was to give practical assistance in the explorations for a permanent place for settlement. Standish participated in the venture that discovered corn (later used as seed to save the colony from starvation) and in the expedition that made initial contact with the Indians and later landed at the future site of the colony. Once the colony was begun, he turned his attention to building its defenses. He supervised construction of the town fort and directed the organization and training of the local militia.

Standish also commanded military expeditions sent out from Plymouth to aid allies or to suppress enemies. Once he led a party of Pilgrims to aid Squanto and a group of friendly Indians. Another time he helped an English village at Wessagussett (Weymouth) threatened by Indian attack. There Standish demonstrated his personal courage when, in a conference with the Indians, he had the doors to the building barred and then called for an assault on the potential enemy, personally killing the Indian leader.

Perhaps the most entertaining example of Standish's military leadership was his seriocomic capture of Thomas Morton of Merrimount in 1628. Morton's emphasis on riotous living, selling firearms to the Indians, and paying high prices for furs threatened the piety and profit of New Plymouth. Standish led the assault on Merrimount. In a maneuver similar to the one used against the Indians at Wessagussett, he barred the doors and made ready to battle Morton. Morton and his two associates were "soe steeled with drink," however, that they could not resist capture.

Standish was the colony's first agent to return to England, and he also served as envoy to other New England colonies. He was known for his aggressiveness and quick temper. But it was as the Pilgrims' military adviser and commander that he made his greatest contribution. He developed a strong defensive posture for New Plymouth and directed the colony's militia with an exceptional degree of personal heroism and dedicated leadership. He died in Duxbury, Mass., on Oct. 3, 1656.

Further Reading

There is no recent biography of Standish. One of the best sources of information is William Bradford, Of Plimouth Plantation, edited by Samuel Eliot Morison (1952). Specific information, as well as general background, is in George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (1945); Bradford Smith, Bradford of Plymouth (1951); and George D. Langdon, Jr., Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620-1691 (1966). □

Standish, Miles or Myles (1584?–1656) colonial founder, born in England, Standish came to America as the military leader of a group of English Leiden separatists who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. He chose the site of the Pilgrims' settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and designed its defenses; he also negotiated with the neighboring Indian tribes. He was part of the colony's governing structure, serving almost continuously in the Court of Assistants from 1624 until his death. From the 1630s he asserted Plymouth's ascendancy with regard to other settlements and enforced rules of social order, although eventually he had to give way to the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony. Standish was critical in maintaining the colony's financial solvency; he both obtained loans and financing from English investors and provided support from his own funds in return for land and various privileges. In 1637 he and John Alden established the new town of Duxbury, the first new town to separate from the Plymouth settlement; he lived there for the rest of his life.

There is no historical basis for the legend that Standish acted as a surrogate for another man who wished to court Priscilla Mullins, as asserted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem “The Courtship of Myles Standish.”

Standish, Myles (Or Miles) (c.1584–1656),born in England, served in the Low Countries as a mercenary soldier, and was engaged by the Pilgrims to sail with them on the Mayflower (1620) as a military leader. His measures of defense and diplomatic ability in handling his soldiers soon made him more than an employee, and he may have become a member of their church. Among his important actions were the building of the first port; the dispersal of the settlement of Thomas Morton, by whom, in the New English Canaan, he was called “Captain Shrimp, a quondam drummer”; the negotiation for loans and property rights from English merchants and the Council for New England; the administration of the treasury; and the founding with John Alden of the town of Duxbury. There is no historical basis for Longfellow's “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” for Standish was twice married. He also figures in Jane G. Austin's Standish of Standish and Motley's Merry Mount.