42 Facts About Myles Standish

Myles Standish was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims.

Myles Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.

Myles Standish led at least two attacks or small skirmishes against the Native Americans in a raid on the village of Nemasket and a conflict at Wessagusset Colony.

Myles Standish led a botched expedition against French troops at Penobscot in 1635, one of his last military actions.

Myles Standish remained nominal commander of the Pilgrim military forces in the growing colony, but acted in an advisory capacity.

Myles Standish died in his home in Duxbury in 1656 at age 72.

Myles Standish supported and defended the Pilgrims' colony for much of his life, though there is no evidence to suggest that he ever joined their church.

Myles Standish appears as lead character in the 1858 poem The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a highly fictionalized account which presents him as a timid romantic.

Myles Standish's will, drafted in Plymouth Colony in 1656, claims rights of inheritance to property in several locations:.

All but one of the places named in Myles Standish's will are in Lancashire, England, with the exception being the Isle of Man.

The next earliest source on Myles Standish's family and early life is a short passage recorded by Nathaniel Morton, secretary of Plymouth Colony, who wrote in his New England's Memorial that Myles Standish:.

Nathaniel Philbrick refers to him as a "mercenary", suggesting that he was a hired soldier of fortune seeking employment in the war, but Justin Winsor claims that Myles Standish received a commission as a lieutenant in the English army and was later promoted to captain while in Holland.

Historian Jeremy Bangs argued that Myles Standish likely served under Sir Horatio Vere, the general who led the English troops in the Netherlands at this time.

The subsequent Treaty of London ended English involvement in the war; if Myles Standish was a mercenary he might have continued to serve with the Dutch until the Twelve Years' Truce brought fighting in the region to a halt in 1609.

Myles and Rose Standish were aboard, along with the Bradfords, Winslows, Carvers, and others.

Myles Standish was one of the 41 men who signed it.

Myles Standish provided important counsel on the placement of a small fort in which cannon were mounted, and on the layout of the first houses for maximum defensibility.

Myles Standish was one of the very few who did not fall ill, and William Bradford credited him with comforting many and being a source of strength to those who suffered.

Myles Standish tended to Bradford during his illness, and this was the beginning of a decades-long friendship.

Bradford and Myles Standish were frequently preoccupied with the complex task of reacting to threats against both the Pilgrims and the Pokanokets from tribes such as the Massachusetts and the Narragansetts.

Bradford and Myles Standish agreed that this represented a dangerous threat to the Plymouth-Pokanoket alliance and decided to act quickly.

Myles Standish soon learned that Corbitant had already fled the village and Tisquantum was unharmed.

Myles Standish had failed to capture Corbitant, but the raid had the desired effect.

Myles Standish took the threat seriously and urged that the colonists encircle their small village with a palisade made of tall, upright logs.

Myles Standish divided the militia into four companies, one to man each wall, and drilled them in defending the village in the event of attack.

Myles Standish managed to escape to Plymouth and reported that the colonists in Wessagusset had been repeatedly threatened by the Massachusetts, that the settlement was in a state of constant watchfulness, and that men were dying at their posts from starvation.

Myles Standish arrived at Wessagusset and found that many of the colonists had gone to live with the Massachusetts, and he ordered them to be called back to Wessagusset.

The next day, Myles Standish arranged to meet with Pecksuot over a meal in one of Wessagusset's one-room houses.

Myles Standish had three men of Plymouth and Hobbamock with him in the house.

Myles Standish ordered two more Massachusett warriors to be put to death, then went outside the walls of Wessagusset in search of Obtakiest, a sachem of the Massachusett tribe.

The settlement of Wessagusset, which Myles Standish had been trying to protect, was all but abandoned after the incident.

Myles Standish arrived with a group of men to find that the small band at Merrymount had barricaded themselves within a small building.

Bradford ordered Myles Standish to take action, determined that the post be reclaimed in Plymouth Colony's name.

Myles Standish's plan appears to have been to bring the Good Hope within cannon range of the trading post and to bombard the French into surrendering.

Myles Standish received a farm of 120 acres in Duxbury, and he built a house and settled there around 1628.

Myles Standish was about 51 years old at that time, and he began to relinquish the responsibility of defending the colony to a younger generation.

Myles Standish served as a surveyor of highways, as treasurer of the colony from 1644 to 1649, and on various committees to lay out boundaries of new towns and inspect waterways.

Myles Standish was buried in Duxbury's Old Burying Ground, now known as the Myles Standish Cemetery.

Two exhumations of Myles Standish's remains were undertaken in 1889 and 1891 to determine the location of his resting place.

The site of Myles Standish's house reveals only a slight depression in the ground where the cellar hole was, but it is a small park owned and maintained by the town of Duxbury.

Myles Standish, Maine is named for him, as well as the neighborhood of Myles Standish, Minneapolis.

Myles Standish Hall is a dormitory at Boston University, originally constructed as the Myles Standish Hotel in 1925.