1. Josiah Winslow was born one year after the Charter which founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony, bringing over 20,000 English immigrants to New England in the 1630s.
20 Facts About Josiah Winslow
1. 2.
Josiah Winslow was the first governor born in a "New England" colony.
3.
In 1643 Josiah Winslow was chosen deputy to the general court from Marshfield, and in 1656 he succeeded Myles Standish as the commander of the colony's military forces.
4.
In 1643, his father, Edward Winslow, was one of six signers of the new Articles of Confederation of the New England colonies, and in 1673 Josiah became the first native-born governor of the colony upon the death of Governor Thomas Prence.
5.
Josiah Winslow set free two men, Cudworth and Robinson, who were in prison for stating their sympathy for the formerly persecuted Quakers.
6.
Edward Josiah Winslow had been a Pilgrim leader who made peace with the native peoples and treated them honorably.
7.
Prence and Josiah Winslow tried to emulate the relationship that Bradford and Standish had with the Indians in 1622, but, as recorded by Hubbard, fell short of that goal.
8.
When Prence died in 1673 and Josiah Winslow became governor, King Philip was very displeased to have to conduct business with a man he immensely disliked.
9.
Josiah Winslow felt that Winslow was connected somehow with the unsolved death of his brother "Alexander" who was mysteriously found dead.
10.
Josiah Winslow was involved in the massive sale of Indian lands down to the outright confiscation of Indian-owned real estate.
11.
When Josiah Winslow had at first found that his real estate actions were deemed not to be legal in Plymouth, he went about forcing a change in the law to accommodate his unethical actions.
12.
At the time that Josiah Winslow became governor of Plymouth Colony in 1673, he was seen by the local native peoples as the embodiment of all that was unwelcome about the relationship between the Indians and the colonists.
13.
The initial outbreak of violence that led to years of war was primarily caused by Josiah Winslow refusing to recognize that Philip's problems were actually his own problems too.
14.
An example of Josiah Winslow's thinking, and about the first time slavery was used as a weapon against the Indians, was when several hundred Indians had surrendered to authorities in Plymouth and Dartmouth who had assured them of amnesty.
15.
Josiah Winslow married Penelope Pelham by 1651 and had four children.
16.
Children of Josiah and Penelope Winslow, all born in Marshfield, Plymouth Colony:.
17.
Josiah Winslow married Penelope Pelham in England in 1651, she being born about 1633.
18.
In 1651 Josiah Winslow traveled to England to see his father who, in 1646, had joined the Puritan Protectorate government of Oliver Cromwell.
19.
Sometime between 1646 and 1651 Josiah met Penelope in England and it is believed they were married in 1651, which is when they, and Edward Winslow, all had portraits painted, seemingly as companion pictures.
20.
Josiah Winslow enjoyed the distinction of being accomplished in the manner of an English gentleman, married to a quite wealthy and beautiful English wife.