Edward Winslow (October 18, 1595 - c. May 7, 1655) was a Separatist who traveled on the Mayflower in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and at Plymouth Colony. He was also one of the first attendants of the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
Winslow was born on October 18, 1595 in Worcestor, England, as the son of Edward Winslow and Magdalene Oliver. He was baptized two days later and grew up in the region. He spent his early adulthood traveling in the Low Countries, and subsequently became aquainted with the Pilgrims' church in Leiden, Netherlands. At the time of his first marriage in 1618, he was a printer in London at the time. It is quite possible that he was assisting others in their publishing of religious books that were illegal in England. Winslow and his wife embarked on the Mayflower to Plymouth, New England, in 1620. Winslow quickly became one of the more prominent men in the colony as he was on many of the early explorations of Cape Cod, and led a number of expeditions to meet and trade with the Native Americans. He wrote several first-hand accounts of these early years in the 1620s.
Winslow became involved in defending the Plymouth and later Massachusetts Bay Colonies from their opponents and adversaries as well in England. He made several trips back and forth between England and Massachusetts in 1624, 1630, and 1634. On one occasion, he was arrested and thrown into the Fleet Prison in London, on grounds that he had performed marriage ceremonies without being ordained. He returned to England shortly after the English Civil War, and published a couple of pamphlets in the defense of the New England colonies. In Plymouth, he held a number of political offices - he himself was elected Governor of Plymouth on three occasions: 1633, 1636, and 1644. After Winslow returned to England, he was on several Parliamentary committees.
Winslow died in May 1655 at sea between Hispaniola and Jamaica while serving as commissioner for Oliver Cromwell on a military expedition to retake the island of Hispaniola.
Family[]
Winslow married first to Elizabeth Barker on May 16, 1618 in Leiden, Holland. She died in the first winter of 1621.
Winslow married second to Susanna Fuller on May 12, 1621, the first marriage in the Plymouth Colony.
- Josiah Winslow - m. Penelope Pelham
- Elizabeth Winslow - m. (1) Robert Brooks (2) George Curwin
- Edward Winslow - no further information
- John Winslow - no further information.