Revision 104938786 of "Portal Diskussion:Myles Standish" on dewiki

{{Infobox Military Person
|name= Myles Standish
|image=[[Image:MylesStandish.gif]]
|caption= Myles Standish from 1625-1634?
|nickname= Captain Shrimp
|rank= [[Captain]]
|serviceyears= British Army [[1601]]-[[1618]], Plymouth Colony [[1620]]-[[1656]]
|allegiance= [[British Army]]- [[Plymouth Colony]]
|lived= born circa [[1584]]- [[October 3]] [[1656]]  (aged 72)
|placeofbirth= {{flagicon|England}} [[Chorley]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]]
|placeofdeath= {{flagicon|United States}} [[Duxbury]], [[Plymouth]], [[Massachusetts]], [[USA]]
|commands= [[Plymouth Colony]], [[New England]] militia, and [[Duxbury]] 
|battles= [[Low Countries]]/[[Netherlands]]<br>[[Flanders]]/[[Netherlands]]<br>[[Siege of Ostend]]/[[Belgium]]<br>[[Wessagusett]]/[[Plymouth Colony]]<br>[[Merrymount]]/[[Massachusetts]]<br>[[Penobscot]]/[[Massachusetts]]
|profession= [[soldier]]<br>[[colony treasurer]]<br>[[deputy governor]]
|spouse=[[Barbara Standish]]
|signature=
}}

'''[[Captain]] Myles Standish''' [[Knight|Kt.]] (c. [[1584]] &ndash; [[October 3]], [[1656]]), (sometimes spelled ''Miles'' Standish) was an [[England|English]]-born professional soldier hired by the [[Pilgrims]] as military advisor for [[Plymouth colony]]. Arriving on the ''[[Mayflower (ship)|Mayflower]]'', he worked on colonial defense. On [[February 17]], [[1621]], he was appointed the first commander of Plymouth colony. Later, he served as Plymouth's representative in [[England]], and served as assistant governor and as the colony's treasurer. He was also one of the founders of the town of [[Duxbury, Massachusetts]] (named after his ancestoral seat at [[Duxbury Woods]], [[Chorley]]) in 1632. 

Standish is often remembered for his bravery in battle and his reputation as the military captain of the Pilgrims, as well as a character in [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s fictitious poem ''[[The Courtship of Miles Standish]]''.

The former [[Fort Standish]], located on [[Lovell's Island]], Massachusetts, was named in his honor, as well as the town of [[Standish, Maine]].

== Early life ==
Standish was born about 1584 (though some put his birth later around 1587, [add] according to his age 37 and the date on the only known portrait, painted on his return visit to England in 1625).  According to Nathaniel Morton writing in ''New Englands Memorial'' (1669) and records from the town of [[Chorley]], Myles was from [[Chorley]], [[Lancashire]], [[Great Britain]].  In the 20th century, researchers attempted to place his birth at Ellanbane, [[Isle of Man]], rather than in [[Lancashire]].  This issue has been widely debated, even becoming the subject of a ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' article in the [[Thanksgiving]] [[2004]] issue.

The Standish name was well-known throughout North West England and there are many buildings still standing there today named for the Standish family. His alleged birth home, Standish Hall, was auctioned at the Empress Hall, [[Wigan]], in March 1921, failing to make a reserve price of £4,800. The remaining part of the Hall was finally demolished in 1982. No historian has ever claimed Standish Hall as his birth home; it was, however, the home of his "great-grandfather Standish of Standish", as named in his will. The Tudor part of Standish Hall was bought for shipping to America; it disappeared. The top floor of the Hall was used to build a house lower down the hill. The Hall was demolished by the Coal Board. The other  ancestral seat of the Standishes was [[Duxbury]] Hall, in [[Chorley]], which still stands today in the form of the old barn. Duxbury Hall, built in the early 1600s, therefore too late for Myles's birth, was demolished in the 1950s; the barn probably predated the Hall and was just that - a barn. The 17th century hall was demolished but the coachhouse and lodge on Bolton road such as the ancient barn and walls of the fortress still exists today in Duxbury Park on the south side of the town. 

The township of [[Standish, Greater Manchester|Standish]] was of importance during the Roman occupation of Britain, and the Standish family is known to have been there since the [[Norman Conquest]]. The first to take the name "de Standish" married an heiress in the 12th century. A Sir Ralph de Standish protected King [[Richard II]] during 1381 in [[London]] during the [[Peasants Revolt]] when a one of the leaders by the name of [[Wat Tyler]] tried to kill the King so the story goes, thus he was knighted into the [[Order of the Garter]] by the King. Another Standish,  Sir Rowland Standish, fought at [[Azincourt|Agincourt]] and brought back to [[Chorley]] the skull of [[Lorcán Ua Tuathail|Saint Lawrence]] in 1442. Two Standishes of Duxbury were at Agincourt, Sir Hugh knighted on the field and Sir Rowland knighted in 1427. The latter was killed at Gerberoy in 1435. He had previously brought back a relic of St Laurence, which was presented to the local church in 1442 by his brother James; hence the name of St Laurence's Church, Chorley, which became the family church of the Standishes of Duxbury. 

Around the time of Myles' birth, the two principal branches of the Standish family became divided by religion. The senior branch, the Standishes of Standish, remained Catholics, while the Standishes of Duxbury embraced Protestantism. It is not known from which branch of the family Myles descended.  While presumably a Protestant, he alone among the Pilgrim leaders never joined the separatist church at Plymouth. 

In his will, Standish claimed to have been wrongfully deprived of his inheritance as a scion of the Standishes of Standish. Recent research by Helen Moorwood (''Lancashire History Quarterly'') suggests that he in fact descended from both the Standish and Duxbury branches of the family, and that his claims to various properties had been passed over in favor of a more powerful cousin who fought on the parliamentary side during the English Civil War, and who eventually succeeded to the Duxbury estate. The loss of Myles's lands was not malicious, but just one of the aftermaths of sequestrations during the Civil War. Moorwood's research, however, failed to establish the missing links in Myles' chain of descent. The confusion over Mylses' lineage comes in part from the reference to the [[Isle of Mann]] in his will, which is now widely thought to represent a farm called the the Isle of Mann Farm, in [[Croston]], [[Chorley]], [[Lancashire]]. There are plans to name a new road in the vicinity of [[Duxbury Hall]] the "Myles Standish Road" in honor of their famous son in [[2008]] by the town of [[Chorley]].

However, the confusion continues further as there is a third line of the Standish family that did in fact own property on the [[Isle of Man]]; speculation remains that Myles was a descendant of the Standish, Isle of Mann and Duxbury Standishes. Speculation among historians in Chorley has ceased. He had nothing to do with the Manx Standishes.

Although an enemy claimed that Myles started his military career as a drummer, other evidence suggests that he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1602, while presumably still in his teens. He is known to have served in the [[Low Countries]], where English troops under [[Sir]] [[Francis Vere]] had been stationed to help the Dutch in their war with Spain. It was certainly there that he made acquaintance with the Pilgrims at Leyden, and came into good standing with the Pilgrims' pastor [[John Robinson (pastor)|John Robinson]]. Standish was eventually hired by them to be their Military Captain in preference to John Smith, of Pocahontas fame.

== In America ==
After the Pilgrims hired Standish as Military Captain for the voyage to America, he was soon to be one of the members to sign the [[Mayflower Compact]] at [[Cape Cod]] [[November 11]],[[1620]]. After the voyage, Standish was elected Military Captain of the colony by the leadership of the Pilgrims. 

=== Plymouth Colony ===
Soon after arriving at [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]], the first illness struck the Pilgrims and this sickness took his wife Rose’s life, on [[January 29]], [[1621]];  In 1623, a woman named  Barbara came to Plymouth on the ship ''Anne'', and Myles married her that same year. Myles and Barbara had seven children together. They were Charles (died young), Alexander (who married Sarah Alden, daughter of [[John Alden]] and [[Priscilla Mullins]]), John, Myles, [http://www.pilgrimhall.org/s_sampler.htm Loara], Josiah, and Charles. 

Through all the continued sickness, Standish was one of the seven that did not get sick; [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]] quoted: 

:But that was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three months’ time half of their company died, especially in January and February.... So as their died some times two or three of a day in the foresaid time, that 100 and odd persons, scarce fifty remained. And of these, in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendation, be it spoken, spared no pains night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed their meat, made their beds, washed their clothes clothed and unclothed them… Two of these seven were Mr. [[William Brewster (Pilgrim)|William Brewster]], their reverend Elder, and Myles Standish, their captain and military commander, unto whom myself and many others were much beholden in our low and sick condition.

Standish was quick to make friends with the Indians, including one named Hobomok.

In the second year at Plymouth, Standish led a force to [[Weymouth, Massachusetts|Wessagusett]] to save the settlement from Indian attack. This was the first time Plymouth had killed an Indian. 

Edward Winslow quoted in ''Good News From New England'' about Standish: 

:Also Pecksuot, being a man of great stature than the Captain, told him, though he were a great Captain, yet he was but a little man; and said he, thought I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage. These things the Captain observed, yet bare with patience for the present. . . On the next day he began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching his own knife from his neck, though with much struggling, killed him therewith. . . Hobbamock stood by all this as a spectator, and meddled not observing how our men demeaned themselves in this action.  All being here ended, smiling, he brake forth into these speeches to the Captain:  Yesterday Pecksuot, bragging of his own strength and stature, said, though you were a great captain, yet you were but a little man; but today I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground.

=== Duxbury ===
Standish was also the treasurer of the Colony of Duxbary from the year 1644 to 1649, which was named after the original Standish estate in [[Chorley]], England.  Standish had never joined the Plymouth church (though he attended every Sunday), and to his death supposedly never did. This was possibly because of the constant conflict over religious beliefs in his family. 

Standish died in [[Duxbury, Massachusetts|Duxbury]] Massachusetts on October 3, 1656. [[Nathaniel Morton]] wrote of his death: 

:This year [1656] Captain Myles Standish expired his mortal life. . . .In his younger time he went over into the low countries, and was a soldier there, and came acquainted with the church at Leynden, and came over into New England, with such of them as at the first set out the plantation of New Plymouth, and bare a deep share of their first difficulties, and was always very faithful to their interest. He growing ancient, became sick of the stone, or [[kidney stone|stranguary]], whereof, after his suffering of much dolorous pain, he fell asleep in the Lord, and was Honorably buried at [[Duxbury, Massachusetts|Duxbury]]. 

Standish’s last will and testimony states even though leaving his family in England that he had land in various parts of England. His will states: “9 I give unto my son & [[heir apparent]] Allexander Standish all my land as heire apparent by lawful Decent in Ormistick Borsconge Wrightington Maudsley Newburrow Crawston and the Ile of man ([[Isle of Man]]) and given to me as right heire by lawful Decent but Surruptuously Detained from my great Grandfather being a second or younger brother from  the house of Standosh of Standish. March the 7th 1655 by me Standish.” These lands now make up the Lancashire towns of [[Chorley]] and [[Ormskirk]].

Myles Standish was the deputy governor.

=== Notable Descendants ===
{{Unreferencedsection|date=August 2007}}
*[[James Danforth "Dan" Quayle]], 44th Vice President of the United States.
*[[Deborah Sampson]], A female member of the [[Continental Army]] during the American Revolution.
*Sir [[Laurence Olivier]], British-born actor, producer,and director.
*[[William Crapo Durant]], Founder of [[General Motors]] and [[Chevrolet]].
*[[Thomas McKean]],2nd Governor of [[Delaware]], Signer of the [[Declaration of Independence]].
*[[Caesar Rodney]],4th Governor of [[Delaware]], Signer of the [[Declaration of Independence]].
*[[Frances Folsom Cleveland]], First Lady of the United States-married to 22nd and 24th President [[Grover Cleveland]].
*[[Julia Child]], American entrepreneur and chef of French and French-influenced cuisine.
*Senator [[Lafayette Sabin Foster]], US Senate President Pro-Tempore in [[1865]]-considered Acting Vice President.
*[[Barbara Pierce]], First Lady of the United States-married to 41st President [[George H. W. Bush]].
*[[George W. Bush]], 47th Governor of Texas, 43rd President of the United States.
*[[Philo T. Farnsworth]], Inventor of the electronic television and [[X-ray]] machine.
*[[Arthur John Evans]], British [[archaeologist]].
*[[Robert Boyle]], Irish Chemist.
*Lord [[William Lamb]], Viscount Melbourne, British Prime Minister.
*Senator [[Robert Morris]], Signer of the [[Declaration of Independence]], [[Articles of Confederation]], and [[US Constitution]].
*[[Jane Austen]], British Author.
*[[Florence Nightingale]], Pioneer of modern nursing.
*[[Kristina Thomson]], Irish Entrepreneur and professional Voyeur.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}

==External links==
*http://www.mylesstandish.org/
*[http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/MylesStandish.php Myles Standish] from MayflowerHistory.com
*[http://www.duxbury.plus.com/standish/Mylespt1.htm Myles Standish article] by Helen Moorwood
*http://www.standish-history.org.uk/history.php?year=1620
*http://www.standish.org.uk/history.php?org=st_family
*http://www.famousamericans.net/mylesstandish/
*[http://www.sail1620.org/discover_biography_myles_standish_born_where_the_state_of_the_question_part_1.shtml ''Myles Standish''] by Dr Jeremy Bangs, PhD.

{{start box}}
{{succession box | before = None | title = [[Military Commander/Plymouth Colony]] | years = 1620-1656 | after = Captain [[Thomas Willett]]}}((end box}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Standish, Myles}}
[[Category:1584 births]]
[[Category:1656 deaths]]
[[Category:Mayflower passengers]]
[[Category:People from Chorley]]
[[Category:Plymouth, Massachusetts]]