Robert Cushman

Robert Cushman (1577–1625) was an important leader and organiser of the Mayflower voyage in 1620, serving as Chief Agent in London for the Leiden Separatist contingent from 1617 to 1620 and later for Plymouth Colony until his death in 1625 in England.

Cushman was most likely one of the first Mayflower passengers when the ship sailed from London to Southampton to meet the Speedwell coming from Leiden. The Speedwell was later forced to be abandoned.

Cushman was born in 1577 in Rolvenden, co. Kent and is believed to be the second son of Thomas Couchman (Cushman) and Ellen Hubbarde.

The first known record of Robert Cushman appears in December 1597 in the parish of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury, co. Kent. City accounts provide information about eighteen-year-old Cushman's apprenticeship to grocer George Masters, being a second son who did not inherit land and moved to the city to become an apprentice. George Masters had the monopoly of tallow candle making which had been granted to him by the City of Canterbury, with city butchers being obliged to sell animal fat to him for candle production. The parish of St. George being especially malodorous laying between the cattle market on one side and the butcher's slaughterhouse on the other. Apprentice Robert Cushman lived in George Master's house in St. George the Martyr parish making tallow candles at least until 1599 and likely as late as 1602 or 1603.

In 1601 Cushman's mother Ellen, wife of Thomas Tilden, as her second husband was buried in the village of Ashford which is about fourteen miles south-east of Canterbury. Thomas Tilden, may possibly have been a Puritan, whose descendants later emigrated to Scituate in Plymouth Colony.

Many of Robert Cushman's religious beliefs may have come from other Canterbury puritans and his attendance at illegal religious meetings known as 'conventicles.' The best view into his religious principles and possibly some other Mayflower Pilgrims can be found in his booklet titled 'The Cry of a Stone.' He wrote that the Church of England "is wanting and defective", a "superstitious custome" and he would not wish to worship "humane devices." He wrote that he decided to seek instead the "nearest fellowship that the Saints can have in this world, [that] most resembleth heaven." Cushman also wrote that "God's people are still few, and scarce one of a hundred.." perhaps thinking of himself as one of the select few.

...
Wikipedia