Background
He was born at Canterbury in 1579.
He was born at Canterbury in 1579.
In 1617 he went to England with John Carver to seek a patent for the prospective emigrants, and was again in England with Elder Brewster when the first patent was obtained. He and Carver made the financial arrangements with the English merchants which were accepted by the Pilgrims at Leyden in 1620, and organized the group which sailed direct from England on the Mayflower. Probably he was responsible for the proposed alterations in the agreement which were rejected by the Pilgrims at Southampton. The resultant quarrel is perhaps the real explanation of Cushman's failure to emigrate to America. Sailing as commander of the Speedwell, he and his family remained ashore after that ship put back, though he served as agent of the Pilgrims in England for the rest of his life. On the return of the Mayflower in the summer of 1621, Cushman published a pamphlet entitled, Of the State of the Colony [of New Plymouth] and the need of the Public Spirit in the Colonists.
He was instrumental in sending out the Fortune with a second contingent of colonists in July 1621, sailing on it himself with his only son, Thomas. He brought with him the agreement with the merchants which the Pilgrims had rejected at Southampton and to which they now consented, an act which they ever after regretted with all their hearts. At Plymouth, though not a minister, he delivered a sermon which was published in London in 1622, the first American religious discourse published anywhere. Leaving his son behind with Bradford, he returned to England on the Fortune, Dec. 13, having been in this country only three weeks. He never returned. In 1622 he published a tract entitled, Reasons and Considerations Touching the Lawfulness of Removing out of England into the Parts of America. In 1623, he obtained with Edward Winslow a grant of land on Cape Ann, which the Pilgrims long used as a fishing station and which was of great consequence in establishing the economic independence of Plymouth. Cushman died in England in 1625.
He married in England, where in 1608 his son Thomas was born, went to Holland about 1609, and at once joined the Pilgrim church at Leyden.
He seems to have had some means for, though he earned his living as a wool-comber, he bought two houses there. His wife, Sarah, died in 1616 and he married in June 1617, Mary, widow of Thomas Singleton, herself from Sandwich.
His son lived his life at Plymouth, dying there in 1691.
