The Final Salute for Captain Standish

In the autumn of 1656, Myles Standish's time was ending painfully. His legacy with the Pilgrims was both crucial and controversial. Standish had already lived in Leiden, Holland when the church of exiled English Separatists there hired him as a military leader for their new colony. As an experienced English lieutenant who valiantly fought against Spain, he seemed an ideal choice.

When they arrived in North America in 1620, Standish led the way to find a harbor for the Mayflower, identify the area’s resources, and locate possible building sites for their colony. Though he successfully kept Plymouth safe, colony leaders were worried that his fierce tactics could threaten their settlement. Standish’s New England exploits included the deadly incursions against regional tribes, fortifying Plymouth for potential threats, an armed takeover of the “lawless” and “pagan” Merrymount village, and a failed cannon attack on the northern French settlement in Penobscot Bay. However, Captain Standish proved a helpful negotiator, bringing an end to the vexing contract between Plymouth and their English investors. He also served as a longtime treasurer, road surveyor, and assistant governor. 

Standish suffered intensely in those last days from what may have been bladder cancer or kidney stones. His doctor friend, Matthew Fuller, couldn't be found in time to help. Quivering in pain, his loved ones thought it a blessing when seventy-two-year-old Myles Standish finally died on October 3, 1656, in his Duxbury home. The burial ground where he rests is now the oldest maintained cemetery in America. 

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“How are the mighty overthrown, and the weapons of war destroyed!”

(2 Samuel 1:26; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Samuel Gorton: A Religious Rebel Among Rebels

By late 1643, Samuel Gorton burned his bridges with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies due to his radical religious and political beliefs. One year earlier he and his growing followers fled to Rhode Island, drawn by the religious tolerance of Roger Williams, but even Williams became alarmed at Gorton’s views. 

At his Shawomet settlement, Gorton wrote scathing letters denouncing the Massachusetts colony, and Governor John Winthrop and colony officials would take no more. They persuaded two native American leaders, caught in the crossfire of colonial disputes, to accuse Gorton of land fraud, providing Winthrop the legal grounds to dissolve Gorton’s Shawomet settlement and expand the influence of Massachusetts Bay. 

On October 3, 1643, Winthrop dispatched an ultimatum to Samuel Gorton. His people must either renounce their unorthodox beliefs, vacate the area, or face deadly consequences in order to stop the spread of their heresies. Sensing a looming attack, Gorton and his men told their families to flee while they loaded their weapons. 

When negotiations failed, Winthrop’s troops opened fire upon the building that held Gorton and his men. After days of gunfire, Gorton’s outnumbered men surrendered under the promise of safe passage to Boston and a fair trial. However, this pledge was a ruse. Upon surrendering, they were promptly imprisoned, their property confiscated, and they were swiftly condemned for their religious dissent, barely escaping execution. Samuel Gorton was yet another who discovered he was the wrong kind of religious rebel to dwell among the other rebels of New England. 

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“If ye bite and devour one another, take heed lest ye be consumed one of another.”

(Galatians 5:15; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Mary Dyer Sentenced to Death – Again.

In 1635 Mary and William Dyer sailed from England to America. Within a few years, the two conservative Puritans began shifting their religious views. They were drawn toward the controversial antinomian movement, downplaying the importance of outward morality and giving prominence to God's loving forgiveness instead.

After spending a few more years again in England, Mary returned to America as a Quaker. Their emphasis on a direct relationship with God, even receiving messages from him apart from the Bible or ministers, was anathema to the Puritans. Colony leaders created strict laws against Quakerism to prevent the heresy from spreading.

When Mary came back to Boston, they immediately arrested her and ordered her to leave. She refused, denouncing their harsh religious laws. In 1659 she was sent to the gallows, but while the noose was around her neck, she was given a reprieve and forced out of the colony. Enraged all the more by the torturous punishments given to fellow Quakers, Mary returned with a vengeance and was again arrested and sentenced to death.

Standing on the ladder, with a noose around her neck, people begged her to reconsider her views. Instead, Mary reprimanded the leaders for such immoral laws, declaring that she could not recant but would remain obedient to God's will and "abide faithful to the death." Unable to sway her, on June 1, 1660, the ladder was removed and Mary Dyer hung until she died. Soon after, the colony began reevaluating its laws regarding the Quakers. 

*****

“He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: surely to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself, to walk with thy God.”

(Micah 6:8; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Dismissed by the Church: The Defiance of Richard Clifton

Richard Clifton (Clyfton) was a troublemaking minister during the late 1500s and early 1600s. He faced multiple disciplinary meetings for his noncompliance with church customs like announcing church holy days, making the sign of the cross during baptisms, or wearing a traditional white clergy robe. The Church of England dismissed him from his duties on March 15, 1605, when he would not pledge submission to new church laws. 

Finding kinship with Separatists in northern Nottinghamshire, Clifton joined the unauthorized church in Scrooby. There he became a crucial early mentor to William Brewster, William Bradford, and Pastor John Robinson who became the Pilgrims’ most cherished spiritual shepherd.  

After many Scrooby Separatists fled to Holland to escape English persecution, Clifton followed them to Amsterdam in 1608. He emerged as a prominent writer championing Separatist views and rebuking the English church. However, soon his views softened. Renouncing his earlier dogmatic positions, he began criticizing his former religious partners. 

The conflicts between Separatist churches in Amsterdam prompted John Robinson’s flock to move to Leyden. Clifton passed away in Amsterdam in 1616, four years before many among his former church left Holland for rugged New England.  

Despite Clifton’s surprising religious reversal, William Bradford remembered his former mentor fondly, describing him as a “fatherly old man” with a “great white beard, and it was a pity that such a reverend old man should be forced to leave his country, and at that age go into exile. But it was his lot, and he bore it patiently.”

*****

“We are afflicted on every side, yet are we not in distress: we are in doubt, but yet we despair not. We are persecuted, but not forsaken: cast down, but we perish not.”

(2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 1599 Geneva Bible)

The Litigious Life of John Barnes

John Barnes, an English emigrant to Plymouth colony, was no stranger to controversy. Court records reveal a man prone to conflict, crudeness, and inebriation. On February 2, 1657, tensions flared when Barnes accused Edward Holman of luring his young servant away from work duties to go on leisure boat trips to Duxbury. The court fined Holman and promised to double the fine if it happened again. 

The two had a history of conflict. Years earlier both Holman and Barnes were fined for drunkenness on a Sunday, and Barnes, a wealthy businessman, was even sentenced to sit in the stocks. Another time Barnes was ordered to pay Holman compensation for a wrongful land deal. 

Mr. Barnes’ drinking problem continued to be an issue, leading to multiple court appearances, warnings, and even threats to punish both the establishments that served him and the people who drank with him. His "frequent and abominable drunkenness" led to a revocation of his Plymouth citizenship.

Plymouth records show that Barnes was later in court for land disputes, trespassing, harassing his neighbor's children, striking both a neighbor's son and his horse, and was yet again fined for drunkenness.  

The last mention of John Barnes in the Plymouth court records was in 1672 when a jury was called to determine his cause of death. Apparently, the sixty-year-old man was petting his bull when it turned and gored him in the leg with its horn. The wound was "both broad and deep," and he died thirty-two hours later. 

*****

“As the coal maketh burning coals, and wood a fire, so the contentious man is apt to kindle strife.”

(Proverbs 26:21; 1599 Geneva Bible)

The Christmas Controversy

 As the Plymouth colonists were busy at work with their morning communal tasks, Governor Bradford saw something disturbing. Several young men (new arrivals to the colony) stood about doing nothing. Clearly, they lacked the customary work ethic of the original colonists. When he encouraged them to go work, they refused. They said it went against their conscience to work on Christmas Day. This was December 25, 1621, one year after the Pilgrims began building their community. Governor Bradford reluctantly allowed them to set aside work until they were better informed. 

Later that day, Bradford found those same young men gleefully playing ball in the streets. He confiscated their sporting equipment, saying that, while it may go against their conscience to work on Christmas day, it also went against the whole town’s conscience for them to play as everyone else was working. It was one thing to keep Christmas as a day of devotion in their homes, but quite another to use it as an excuse for laziness and public revelry. 

Puritans and Separatists did not observe holidays like Christmas or Easter because they were not commanded by God, but believed they were from Catholic or pagan origins. They also disapproved of the “dishonorable” theatrical plays, gambling, and dancing associated with Christmas celebrations. 

In 1647, the Puritan dominated English Parliament voted to abolish Christmas, and in 1659 the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay did the same, adding a five shilling fine to anyone caught observing the holiday of Christmas. 

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“This man esteemeth one day above another day, and another man counteth every day alike: let every man be fully persuaded in his mind. He that observeth the day, observeth it to the Lord: and he that observeth not the day, observeth it no1t to the Lord.”

(Romans 14:5-6; 1599 Geneva Bible)