[from Manx Quarterly, #24, Jan 1921]

THE BIRTHPLACE OF MYLES STANDISH

DID " THE 'GREAT HEART' OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS" COME FROM THE ISLE OF MAN?

FRESH EVIDENCE FROM LANCASHIRE AND MANX RECORDS.

As will have been gathered from general reading, the tercentenary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers has just been celebrated at Southampton. The good ship " Mayflower" is usually associated in the public mind with the port of Plymouth, and it is, of course, true that she did set out on her great adventure from thence, but she began her journey from Southampton a fortnight before she finally left the old country behind, and a celebration has just taken place at that town, the festival arrangements including a luncheon attended by distinguished visitors and public men, a historic pageant play, and aquatic sports. Further commemorations are to take place in September at London, Plymouth, Nottingham, Manchester, and various: places in which eminent members of the great ship's company had their birth. The question, therefore, becomes interesting, as to whether the Isle of Man is such a place, whether it is entitled to take a pride in this immortal achievement for the freedom of conscience, by reason of the military leader of the Puritan colony, the famous Captain Myles Standish, having been a Manxman. There always has been a tradition in the Island that Myles Standish was connected, either actual blood relationship or by marriage, with the Standishes of Ellanbane, a Lancashire family which settled in the Isle of Man along with other retainers of the House of Stanley, and it is now claimed that he was actually, by birth and early upbringing, a Manxman. Considerable progress has been made of late years in the researches to Myles Standish's parentage, and the following paper, read by Mr W. Cubbon before a recent meeting of the Isle of Man Antiquarian Society, summarises the present state of knowledge on the subject :

The romantic story of the life of Myles Standish, one of the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail for America in the ship " Mayflower," in the year 1620, should be particularly interesting to Manx people.

It has never been claimed, as far as I know, that he was a Manxman, but it is generally assumed that he married and brought out with him a Manx girl, and that when she died he married her sister a few years afterwards. I now in all seriousness claim that Myles was a Manxman born and bred, and that his parents were Manx born also. The family into which he was born was Manx, and can be identified to our satisfaction.

The text for my paper is the last will and testament of Myles Standish, dated in the year 1655. It is, in fact, the only record we have on the American side as to Myles' parentage. It is, indeed, the. only clue to his ancestry. The will reads as follows (and I wish you to note the properties mentioned) "I give unto my son and heire aparent Alexander Standish all my lands as heire apparent by lawful decent in Ormistick, Borscouge, Wrightington, Maudsley, Newborrow, Orawaton and the Isle of Man and given to mee as right-heire by lawfiall descent but Surruptuously Detained from mee my great G(ran)dfather being a 2cond or younger brother from the House of of Standish."

I would point out, to begin with, that there are, as far as I am aware, no documents whatever, in England or in America, referring to Myles until he was about 35 years of age. This was when in the year 1620, he embarked at Plymouth in the "Mayflower," with the object of shepherding the Pilgrim Fathers. During very many years, American and English historians have been indefatigable in making investigations as to the ancestry of Myles Standish, and they have been especially active during the past few years in view of the forthcoming tercentenary of the " Mayflower" expedition.

There were in the 15th and 16th centuries several prominent families of Standishes in Lancashire. The three most important families of the name were, first, the Standishes of Standish Hall; second, the Standishes of Duxbury and, third, the Standishes of Ormskirk. All the available records in England have, been investigated by specialists, but no one has been able to determine the. relationship of Captain Myles Standish to the Standishes of Lancashire, until a few years ago the Rev. T. C. Porteus, B.A., of Chorley, who is perhaps the highest authority on the subject, discovered a series of documents which prove beyond doubt that Myles was a descendant of the Ormskirk family. I am now enabled to give positive proof that he was born into the Manx family of Standish, who were unquestionably descended from the Ormskirk branch.

It is needless to examine into Mr Porteus' proofs; they are derived from authenticated records. For the same reason we must take it for granted that Myles was not literally correct when he claimed that "his great grandfather was a second or younger brother from the House of Standish of Standish." The term " great grandfather" could only have been used in a general sense as a remote ancestor.

As I have indicated,.Mr Porteus has discovered 28 authenticated deeds from which the history of the Ormskirk lands has been traced. Two of these documents, dated in 1572, are signed by " Johannem Standishe de Insula de Mane"-John Standishe of the Isle of Man. He in the deeds, for divers considerations and sums of money paid him by a William Stopforth, releases to Stopforth " all his rights in all those messuages lands and tenements in Lancashire which lately were in the possession of Robert Standish his ;! father." This was ten years before Myles ' is supposed to have been born. I will have t something to say later regarding the purchaser, William Stopforth, for he was an eminent official in this Island. In the meantime let us see, if possible, who was this John Standish, who described himself as "of the Isle of Man."

Mr Porteus has provided us with a skeleton pedigree of the Ormskirk family down to 1540. We find that the first reference to the family estate of Ormskirk occurs in 1481. At that date the family owned properties only in Ormskirk and Newburgh. It is well to keep that in mind in view of the fact that Myles, in his will, claimed lands not only in Ormskirk and Newburgh, but also in Burscough, Wrightington, Maudsley, and Croston.

In the year 1502, the family estates of the Ormskirk Standishes were materially enriched. Robert Standish, the head of the family, in that year married a Margaret Croft, a wealthy heiress. She brought with her lands situate in Burscough, Wrightington, Maudsley and Croston-the very places, you will note, mentioned in Myles' will as the properties he laid claim to.

This important fact makes it clear and definite that in order to rightly claim the lands in the various places mentioned, he must have been descended from Robert Standish and his wife Margaret Croft. It also positively indicates the direction in which to look for Myles' parents and birthplace.

When Robert Standish and Margaret Croft were wedded, a marriage settlement was made, dated in 1502, and I find the remarkable fact that of the three signatories to the deed were two Isle of Man officials. The first is Henry Halsall, knight, Steward of Thomas, the First Earl of Derby, and the fourth of the Stanley line who held the Lordship of Man. And the second signature is that of Thomas Hesketh, Esquire, his Lordship's Receiver-General. Both of these signatories, of course, resided in Man during a portion, at least of their term of office. Sir Henry Halsall's family at the time held considerable properties in and around Ballasalla, portions of which are still known as " Halsall's Land" and " Halsall's Ground," and various members of the family are still amongst us. These facts are very interesting, and show at least that at that early date the Ormskirk family and the official life of the Island were intimately associated.

Another fact of considerable moment, also pointing in the same direction, is that in our earliest Manorial Roll, that for the year 1511, there is an entry showing that Edward Standish was the owner of a house in Castletown, for which he paid a freehold tax of 2/4 per annum.

Robert with Margaret Croft, according to a deed dated 1540, had three sons. They were Thomas, the eldest, who came into the family estates in 1539, about 45 years before Myles was born; John, his next brother, was the "Johannem Standishe de Insula de Mane" mentioned in the document already referred to; and the youngest brother of the three was Huan Standish, who owned Ellanbane, in the Abbey Lands of Lezayre in the year 1540, about 45 years before Myles was born.

It is presumably from Huan of Ellanbane that Myles was descended, for that is the only estate in the Island to which a Standish is set down in the Records. If Myles was right In his claim, he must have claimed by virtue of descent from that owner.

Going back once again to the Ormskirk family estate in Lancashire, I want to point out that Tliomas, the head of the family, and brother of Huan of Ellanbane, in the year 1540, made a very strange marriage settlement which further proves the Manx connection. He gave his estate (curiously enough consisting of all the Lancashire properties mentioned in Myles' will) to trustees. The estate was for the use of Thomas himself for life . . . after which it was to be held- for the use of the right heir legitimately begotten; in default for the use of John (the one described as John of the Isle of Man), and his legitimate heirs; in default for the use of Huan (of Ellanbane) and his heirs. It is suggested that those who afterwards sold the estate may have infringed this trust; and it is here where the grievance expressed by Myles in his will, that the Lancashire lands in question were " surreptitiously detained" from him, may have arisen.

In the meantime the Lancashire properties were the subject of dramatic development Four years after Thomas, the eldest of the three brothers came into possession, he commenced, in the slang phrase, to play " ducks and drakes" with the properties. He sold in parcels from time to time, nearly all the estates to one individual, William Stopforth, Esquire, the Secretary (you will please note) of Edward Lord of Man. Stopforth was one of the Commissioners of his Lord ship resident in Mann in 1561. He was evidently a man of great influence in Lancashire, and was of considerable wealth. He was a member of Parliament for Liverpool at the time, and attended as one of the chief mourners at the funeral of Lord Derby.

Taking up the thread of the Manx Standishes again, Ellanbane was one of the farms in Lezayre which belonged to the Monastery of Rushen; and in 1540, when Huan owned it, it had just been transferred from the dissolved Monastery; and the rental wit thenceforward paid to the civil authority.

In the year 1579, certain adjoining intacks were owned by John and Huan Standish: I take it that they were the " John of the Isle of Man" and Huan of Ellanbane, I have previously mentioned.

The next entry I have is that of Gilbert Standish of Ellanbane in the year 1552. Also, I have in my possession a very old Setting Quest Book, which was long ago the property of a Moar of the Setting Quest of the Parish of Lezayre. In the book are several references to the Standish properties, one of which reads as follows :

" 1629. Gilbert Standish (Query, the 'grandfather') to William Standish. A surrender of his goods, Comons, Easements, and Chattels for two little crofts of 'viijd rent. And William gives his grandfather's brother two days' mowing of hay one during his life and the other for ever in Close Knappan."

I attach a great deal of importance to this document, which I take it is only a brief note of the transaction. It is dated in 1629, nine years after Myles had gone to America. The document appears to indicate a deed of gift from a grandfather named Gilbert Standish to his grandson William, of his properties. There is no mention of William's father; he is ignored. There is a side reference to the " grandfather's brother." The grandfather in the writing was probably an old man when the gift was made in 1629. The grandson was then young, for he was a member of the House of Keys as late as the year 1661, when his son John of Ellanbane (who was concerned in the " Illiam Dhone" insurrection against the Derby family) followed him as a member.

William's son John was the last Standish owner of Ellanbane, and died in 1672. John's daughter, the heiress of the Ellanbane property, married Captain William Christian, one of the Milntown family, and she died 800 years ago, the last of the Manx Standishes who held Ellanbane.

Before closing, and in reference to the Lancashire properties claimed by Myles, I have a most interesting piece of information recently received from Mrs Christian, of Milntown. She informs me that one of the Christians of Milntown, an ancestor of Illiam Dhone, was in the year 1540, contemporary with the first Standish of Ellanbane, registered for property in " Parbold and Wrightington" in the Leyland Hundred, in the county of Lancashire.

The introduction of the Milntown Christians into our story adds another touch of mystery, and excites our imagination. It is ' a further proof, too, of the remarkably intimate association of the Ormskirk Stan dishes with the Isle of Man. One might reasonably put the question: How comes it that a Milntown Christian, a near neighbour of Huan Standish of Ellanbane (who we are now entitled to assume was the grandfather of Myles Standish)-how comes it that he was entered for a property which Myles, over 100 years afterwards, claimed was his by lawful right? The explanation probably is that he was a near relative of the Deemster Christian of the period, or possibly the Deemster himself; and that he had secured the properties through his contemporary in office, the powerful William Stopforth, the head of the Government in Castletown, who had obtained, by fair means or foul, the rest of the Standish properties in Lancashire.

There is a deal of sweet and tender romance about the history of Myles Standish. The story is one of a man who not for gain, not from necessity, not even from religious zeal, but purely in the knightly favour of his blood, forsook his remote country home, and a natural ambition in military spheres, to company a helpless band of exiles, and to be the Great Heart of their pilgrimage to the country that they sought. And must not the story be sweeter and tenderer, more interesting to us, if we felt sure that the Great Heart of the Pilgrim Fathers was really and truly a Manxman ?

[Note.-We hesitate to pronounce upon so difficult a subject as genealogical evidences from a period the contemporary records of which have to a large extent disappeared, but Mr Cubbon, to our mind, establishes a strong prima facie case. Myles Standish could only have had a claim to the Lancashire through descent from one of the sons of Robert Standish-Thomas, who sold the properties to William Stopforth; John of the Isle of Man"; or Huan, also of the Isle of Man. As the researches of the Rev. T. C. Porteus indicate that neither Thomas's son Hugh, nor his brother John, had male issue, it would seem that Myles must have been a descendant of the remaining brother, Huan Standish of Ellanbane.

Thomas Standish and Hugh, his son, sold properties at various dates to William Stopforth, and the latter made his title more secure by obtaining, in different documents, releases from Thomas Standish's wife and his brother "John Standish of the Isle of Man." It is easy to imagine that, though this alienation of the family estates was effected by due process of law, succeeding generations would find this loss of their patrimony rankle in their mind, and might declare it to be the result of fraud, and under this conclusion Myles Standish might describe the estates as having been " surruptisously detained." But Myles Standish also refers to property in the Isle of Man, which was never held in conjunction with the Lancashire estates, and which therefore could not have been " surruptuously detained in the same transaction. Under this heading the transfer by Gilbert Standish to William Standish becomes significant. On the face of it, Gilbert Standish had no son alive at the time of his death, but he had a child of a deceased son. He also had a brother, who might naturally suppose himself to have a claim, to the property on Gilbert death, and Gilbert apparenty secured the succession to his grandson by transferring the property in his lifetime, making certain small concessions to the brother. If the brother were at that time an old man who never expected to derive any satisfaction from the ownership of the property, and if his only son had emigrated to America nine years before, he might have been perfectly willing to acquiesce in the transaction. Myles, however had not been consulted, might regard this as a further " surruptious detaining" of property rightfully belonging to him. Rose and Barbara, wives of Myles who are reputed to have been Stardishes of the Isle of Man, may either have been daughters of Gilbert-in which case Myles may only have claimed the properties by right of his wife-or descendants of the Edward Standysh who resided in Castletown in 1511. A " William Standish the elder" was Vicar of Andreas about 1600, and his son William, Vicar of Lezayre about 1640.

The Rev. T. C. Porteus, in a monograph published in 1914 by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, sums up as follows :

" The conclusion which we reach, therefore, is that Capt. Myles Standish came not from Standish nor from Duxbury, but from the Standish family of Ormskirk, through one of the younger branches of thatjamily holding lands in the Isle of Man. It may be added that he was probably a descendant of Huan, son of Robert Standish of Ormskirk."]

The following is an extract relating to Myles Standish and his wives from Mr A. W. Moore's " Manx Worthies" .

The earliest Manx emigrants, if we may believe tradition, were Rose and Barbara Standish, wives of the famous Myles Standish (b. 1586, d. 1656), the military leader of the Puritans who left England for America in the " Mayflower" in 1620. They are said to have.. come from Lezayre, and it is probable that their maiden, as well as their married, name was Standish. A branch of the Standishes, of Standish Hall, in Lancashire, had settled in the Isle of Man first at Pulrose, in Braddan, and then at Ellanbane, in Lezayre, since the beginning of the sixteenth century; and one of them, John, perhaps Rose and Barbara's father, was a member of the House of Keys in 1593. William Standish of Ellanbane, who was perhaps his son, was a member of the House of Keys from 1629 to 1656, and was concerned in the rising against the Stanleys in 1651. He was evidently a leading Manxman, since he was one of those who went on board Colonel Duckenfield's ship to arrange terms with him in October, 1651. Between 1581 and 1665, John Standish, probably William's son, was an M.H.K., and was one of those who tried Illiam Dhone.

These Standishes held a quantity of intack property in Lezayre besides Ellanbane, and, though the family has long since disappeared, there is to this day a curragh called Standishes' Curragh in that parish. Whether this property, or any part of it, belonged to Myles in his own right, or through his Manx wives, we do not know, since, though he left certain estates both in Lancashire and the Isle of Man to his son Alexander on his death in 1656, and though Alexander by his will, dated 1702, also claimed these estates, a diligent search in the Manx manorial records has failed to discover the names-of either Rose, Barbara, Myles, or Alexander. Myles had been engaged in the war of independence in Holland, after which, when he was one of the garrison at Leyden, he became intimate with some of the Puritan emigrants from England, though he was never a member of their Church. He is said to have paid a visit to the Isle of Man shortly before 1619 and to have married Rose when there. On returning to Holland with her, he was elected military leader of the emigrants, and left England with them in the autumn of 1620, in the " Mayflower," arriving in New England at the end of the year. Rose was one of the first to succumb to the privations and diseases which almost overwhelmed the new community, dying three months after the first landing at New Plymouth. In 1623, Barbara, who is said to have been Rose's sister, and to have been " left an orphan in England" when the " Mayflower" sailed went out in the ship "Ann" to Myles, and soon afterwards married him. They had six children and lived happily together for thirty years.

In 1871, a monument was erected to Captain Myles Standish, and at the dinner, which took place after it was unveiled, a tribute was paid to Rose Standish, she being designated as " the type of womanly sacrifice."

On pages 1922 is sprinted the paper read before then I.o.M. Antiquarian Society by Mr William Cubbon secretary of that body, concerning the claim that Myles Standish, the celebrated military leader of the Mayflower pilgrims, belonged to an old Lancashire-Manx family. Mr Cubbon in -that paper quoted extensively from the researches of the Rev. T. C. Porteus, vicar of Coppull, Lancashire, who has made himself an expert on this subject, and has already published a small book, Issued by the New England Genealogical ociety in 1914, and we now have pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of another work from Mr Porteus' pen, entitled, "Captain Myles Standish : His Lost Lands and Lancashire Connections: An Investigation." In this book Mr Porteue traces the history of the Standish family do Lancaehire, and examines the theories which assign Myles Standish to. one or other branch of the family, and his conclusions are summarised by, him as follows :

The results of the researches recorded above may be compressed into a few sentences. The lands which Captain Myles Standish claimed in his will formed the estates of the Standish family of Ormskirk; and it is natural to conclude that he was a member of this family, or of a branch of it which had estates m the Isle of Man.

He was perhaps a grandson of Huan, son of Robert Standish of Ormskirk. Huan was in all probability the same as the Huyn Standish who held land in the Isle of Man in 1540, and either he or a son of his may have returned to Lancashire, where, according to Nathaniel Morton, Myles was born.

Myles claimed descent from Standish of Standish, and the meaning of his statemerit merit probably is that the branch to which he belonged was founded or refounded by a younger son from Standish Hall.

The name Duxbury given to the settlement in Plymouth Colony where Captain Standish lived raises a very real difficulty. It it was not bestowed through error, and therefore an invalid claim; and if etymology, spiritual affinity or complimentary reasons do not sufficiently account for it. then Myles had some connection with the Lancashire Duxbury still undiscovered. He was not, however, the heir to the Duxbury estates and did not claim them or any part of them.

It is possible, though there is no evidence_ that he was born in Duxbury, Lancashire And if so, this need not invalidate his claim to be descended from Standish of Standish:

The book is published by Messrs Longmans, Green, and Company., and the price is 3s 6d net, in paper, and 4s 6d net, in cloth.