Myles Standish was famous as the military leader of the Pilgrims in the who travelled on the Mayflower ship to the Plymouth Colony in America.

The name of Myles Standish was immortalized in the 1858 fictional book 'The Courtship of Miles Standish' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Where was Myles Standish born? He was born in Lancashire in the North of England IN 1584

Myles Standish earned a commission in the English army supporting Dutch Protestants and earned the title of Captain

He was a staunch member of the Protestant Separatist movement and had moved between England and Holland to avoid religious persecution

Myles Standish settled in Leiden in Holland with his wife Rose

Myles Standish was part of the Puritan congregation in Leiden, Holland

A group of the dissenting Puritans, Separatists, had met in the north of England and shared a meeting place at Scrooby Manor but left England for Holland also escaping religious prosecution.

Myles Standish shared the same beliefs and religion of the Scrooby Separatists and became involved with their community and shared their aspirations to travel to the New World

The Scrooby Puritans made the decision to move to America after reading about the travels and experiences of John Smith

John Smith had written the Generall Historie of Virginia and The True Travels…of Captain John Smith which inspired people to immigrate to America

The Scrooby Puritans tried to hire the services of John Smith but he wanted too much money. They turned to a member of their own congregation and asked Myles Standish to accompany them on the arduous voyage and act as military leader when they reached America.

By 1619, 2 ships called the Mayflower and Speedwell, were leased to take the Leiden separatists, including Myles Standish, to North America

September 6, 1620: The Mayflower left Plymouth bound for North America. There were 102 passengers on board, living in cold, and dark conditions

The voyage on the crowded Mayflower would take 66 days.

The passengers were not all Puritans and the voyagers fell into 2 groups referred to as the "Strangers" and the "Saints".

The "Saints" and the "Strangers" realised that if they did not work together, they could all die in the wilderness so they came to an agreement on how they would live in the new colony - the document was signed by the men and was called the Mayflower Compact. Myles Standish was the fourth to sign the compact.

The signers of the Mayflower Compact served as the initial government of the colony by electing a governor, enacting laws and ensuring that there would be law and order in the colony. John Carver, was elected the first governor of the Plymouth Settlement

In November of 1620 the Mayflower and the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Bay.

The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor

The conditions in the New World were terrible and the colonists had to find a way to survive. 16 of the men led by Myles Standish volunteered to explore the surrounding areas on foot - an extremely dangerous task. One of the other colonists was William Bradford who became a life-long friend to Myles Standish

The first expedition brought about casualties - William Bradford caught his leg in an Indian deer trap. Myles Standish led the next two expeditions outside the colony by boat, hoping to find a more suitable location

December 6, 1620: The explorers, led by Myles Standish, located present day Plymouth Bay on the third expedition and found some land that had been previously cleared by Native Indians. They later discovered that it was the Pokanoket Indian village of Patuxet that had been wiped out by an epidemic.

During their third expedition they were attacked in camp early one morning by the Nauset tribe of Indians. Shots and arrows were exchanged, but in the end nobody was injured and the Nauset fled back into the woods.

December 20, 1620: The colonists moved to the site of the settlement and started to build the first house on Christmas Day, 1620.

A terrible epidemic hit many of the colonists including William Bradford and Myles Standish helped him to recover. 45 of the 102 Pilgrims died that first winter and were buried on Cole's Hill.

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.

As captain of the militia, Myles Standish regularly drilled the colonists in the use of muskets and pikes.

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

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.

As Military Leader Myles Standish was constantly on the alert for any hostile Indians

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.

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.

April 1621: Governor John Carver dies and William Bradford is elected Governor of the Plymouth Settlement.

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.

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.

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.

The Pokanoket was the tribe of the Wampanoag Nation that had the "first Thanksgiving" with the Pilgrims.

Myles Standish and Squanto first met the Massachusett Chief Chickatawbut in 1621.

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

By 1623 there were 32 houses and 180 residents at the Plymouth Settlement

In 1623, he had married his second wife, Barbara. They had 7 children together

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

In 1628 English forces captured a French Trading Post and turned it over to Plymouth Colony.

In 1630 the Massachusetts Colony was established led by Governor John Winthrop

In 1635, the French mounted a small expedition and reclaimed the lucrative trading post settlement from the English.

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.

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.

He served as the Treasurer of the Colony from 1644 to 1649

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.

1691: The Plymouth Settlement was de-established 1691