Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow was a stationer’s apprentice in London who left that contract unfilled and journeyed to Leiden to join the Separatists in 1617. His experience as a stationer and printer made him valuable to Separatist Elder William Brewster. Together they produced a pamphlet which criticized the English Church to the point that an enraged King James sent agents to arrest Brewster, forcing the Church leader to go on the run for a time. In Leiden Winslow married Elizabeth Barker. Winslow rapidly became a leader among the separatists and was involved heavily in the arrangements for the trip.
In making these arrangements and dealing with Thomas Weston several of the Church Elders found themselves frequently being misled by the scheming head of the Merchant Adventurers, Winslow included. These schemes caused the trip to be delayed several times which, although frustrating at the time proved advantageous in the long run. The time allowed for King James’s temper to cool, and for William Brewster to emerge from hiding. Brewster’s leadership was essential to the success of the enterprise and Plymouth Colony.
Both Winslow and his wife survived the voyage and the winter in Mayflower’s hull but it severely weakened Elizabeth, who died shortly after the colonists moved ashore in the spring of 1621. The month before, in February 1621, William White had died, leaving a widow and two sons, the second of whom, Peregrine, was the first born to the Pilgrims on the American side of the Atlantic Ocean. Edward Winslow and Susanna White were married six weeks after the death of Elizabeth Winslow; it was they rather than John Alden and Priscilla Mullins to be the first couple wed in Plymouth Colony.
Winslow worked with colony and English officials to facilitate trade and other relations between the growing colony and the Mother Country. He served as Governor of the Plymouth Colony and in 1643 he became a Commissioner for the United Colonies of New England. The United Colonies was the first time the English settlements formally worked together to provide for the common defense. It would not be the last. Winslow returned to England to serve with Cromwell during the Civil War. After the execution of Charles I Winslow remained in England.
He never returned to Plymouth Colony, and while serving in a naval expedition against the Spanish in the West Indies he died in 1655, presumably of yellow fever. He was buried at sea. His name appears on a monument at Winslow Cemetery in Marshfield Massachusetts which honors the settlers of Green Harbor. His second wife’s name appears with his. Some of his writings regarding the earliest days of the Plymouth Colony survive and he is believed to have co-written, with William Bradford, the tract known as Mourt’s Relation, which describes the First Thanksgiving.