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)

Heresy and Violence of the Governor’s Wife

Anne Eaton harbored doubts about the Puritan tradition of infant baptism. She read a book on the topic and discreetly shared it with other women, without disclosing her thoughts to her husband or church leaders. Later, Anne began to leave church services during baptism ceremonies or occasionally skipped church altogether. When asked about her odd behavior, Anne boldly said she had questions about Puritan teachings.

Pastor John Davenport responded with sermons advocating for infant baptism, yet Anne remained unconvinced. She even contradicted Davenport while he was preaching. When the pastor and church leaders held private discussions with her at home, she defiantly sat in stony silence. 

Doctrinal issues were set aside when more severe charges emerged. Reports surfaced of Anne's violent and scandalous behavior, with repeated violations of four of the Ten Commandments. The Pastor publicly listed seventeen charges, supported by multiple witnesses who claimed Anne had assaulted both servants and family members, resorting to striking, pinching, pulling, and grabbing them. She gave one person a black eye and another a bloody nose. Anne vehemently accused them of lying, stealing, immorality, and even cursing her beer. On one occasion, she slapped her mother-in-law at the kitchen table right before her husband.

There were growing suspicions that Pastor Davenport was too lenient with Anne because her husband, Theophilus Eaton, was not only the colony's governor, but also Davenport's lifelong friend. Therefore, on May 20, 1645, the church finally voted, and Anne Eaton, wife of New Haven's governor, was excommunicated. 

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“Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast won thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take yet with thee one or two, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be confirmed. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the Church: and if he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and a Publican."

(Matthew 18:15-17; 1599 Geneva Bible)

Pastor John Davenport of New Haven, CT