Facts about Myles Standish |
| Myles Standish Fact 26 | February 17, 1621: There next concern was with the Native American Indians who had been sighted several times. The colonists met to form a militia and elected Myles Standish as their commander. Although the Puritan leaders had already hired him for the role, this vote by the colonists ratified the decision by democratic process.
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| Myles Standish Fact 27 | As captain of the militia, Myles Standish regularly drilled the colonists in the use of muskets and pikes.
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| Myles Standish Fact 28 | The Pokanoket Indians were a leading tribe of the Wampanoag Nation. Their territory was extensive, and known to the Pilgrims before they arrived in the New World. Other tribes such as the Massachusett and the Narragansett also ventured into these territories
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| Myles Standish Fact 29 | William Bradford had heard that the powerful Pokanoket Indians bore "an inveterate malice to the English". The Pokanoket desire of revenge had been sparked by Thomas Hunt of the Jamestown Colony who had captured some peaceful Pokanoket Indians and murdered them on his ship.
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| Myles Standish Fact 30 | As Military Leader Myles Standish was constantly on the alert for any hostile Indians
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| Myles Standish Fact 31 | March 16, 1621: The first formal contact with the Native American Indians. The colonists had a meeting with the Indians and pledged peace with Pokanoket, Wampanoag Native American Indians led by Chief Massasoit - see picture below. One of the Indians, Tisquantum aka Squanto, was able to speak English.
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| Myles Standish Fact 32 | At the peace negotiation, Massasoit was met at the river by Captain Myles Standish and Elder William Brewster. They saluted one another and he was taken to William Bradford's house for the negotiations with Governor John Carver.
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| Myles Standish Fact 33 | April 1621: Governor John Carver dies and William Bradford is elected Governor of the Plymouth Settlement.
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| Myles Standish Fact 34 | July 1621: The Pokanoket Native American Indians felt sympathy for the colonists and taught them farming techniques and helped them to survive in the colony.
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| Myles Standish Fact 35 | Myles Standish and Governor William Bradford had the difficult task of reacting to threats against both the Pilgrims and the Pokanoket Indians from tribes such as the Massachusett, Nauset and Narragansett tribes.
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| Myles Standish Fact 36 | November 1621: The first Thanksgiving was a solemn affair. Only 53 pilgrims were alive to give thanks to God. Only four adult women had survived to celebrate the First Thanksgiving.
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| Myles Standish Fact 37 | The Pokanoket was the tribe of the Wampanoag Nation that had the "first Thanksgiving" with the Pilgrims.
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| Myles Standish Fact 38 | Myles Standish and Squanto first met the Massachusett Chief Chickatawbut in 1621.
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| Myles Standish Fact 39 | The death of two Massachusett chiefs during an altercation with Captain Myles Standish of Plymouth Colony in 1623 caused the Massachusett to avoid further contact with the colonists
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| Myles Standish Fact 40 | By 1623 there were 32 houses and 180 residents at the Plymouth Settlement
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| Myles Standish Fact 41 | In 1623, he had married his second wife, Barbara. They had 7 children together
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| Myles Standish Fact 42 | In 1625, another group of English settlers settled in Mount Wollaston (nicknamed Merrymount) in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, about 27 miles (43 km) north of the Plymouth settlement
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| Myles Standish Fact 43 | Merrymount was led by Thomas Morton. The behavoiur of these new colonists was totally unacceptable to the Puritans and Myles Standish led an expedition to arrest Morton and oust the "unpuritanical" colonists
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| Myles Standish Fact 44 | In 1625 Myles Standish returned to London to negotiate new terms with the Merchant Adventurers. He was unsuccessful and returned to the Plymouth Colony in April 1626
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| Myles Standish Fact 45 | However, later in 1626 Isaac Allerton, was successful, and several leading men of Plymouth, including Myles Standish, paid off the debt to the Merchant Adventurers.
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| Myles Standish Fact 46 | In 1627 the colonists divided the land. Each family in the colony were allocated large farms along the shore of the present-day towns of Plymouth, Kingston, Duxbury and Marshfield
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| Myles Standish Fact 47 | Myles Standish received a farm of 120 acres in what would become Duxbury. He built a house and settled there with his family in 1628.
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| Myles Standish Fact 48 | In 1628 English forces captured a French Trading Post and turned it over to Plymouth Colony.
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| Myles Standish Fact 49 | In 1630 the Massachusetts Colony was established led by Governor John Winthrop
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| Myles Standish Fact 50 | In 1635, the French mounted a small expedition and reclaimed the lucrative trading post settlement from the English.
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| Myles Standish Fact 51 | Myles Standish was unable to defeat the French and asked the Massachusetts Colony for help - but they refused. This is indication of the animosity that building up between the two colonies in Massachusetts.
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| Myles Standish Fact 52 | By the 1640s Myles Standish was in his fifties and took on an increasingly administrative role in the colony. The militia was taken over by Lieutenant William Holmes.
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| Myles Standish Fact 53 | He served as the Treasurer of the Colony from 1644 to 1649
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| Myles Standish Fact 54 | October 3, 1656: Myles Standish died on October 3, 1656. He was buried in Duxbury's Old Burying Ground, now known as the Myles Standish Cemetery.
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| Myles Standish Fact 55 | 1691: The Plymouth Settlement was de-established 1691
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Facts about Myles Standish
of the Plymouth Settlement |
