Name:                     Deacon Robert CUSHMAN^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}

Sex:                         Male

Father:                    Thomas COUCHMAN (1538 - 14 Feb 1585/86)

Mother:                  Elinor HUBBARDE (abt 1549 - )

 

Individual Facts

Birth                       bef 9 Feb 1577/78                                 Rolveden, Kent, England

Baptism                  9 Feb 1577/78 (age 0)                           Rolveden, Kent, England

Excomm                  abt 1605 (age 28)                                  St. Andrews Church, Canterbury, England⁸

Elected                   bet 1609-1625 (age 32)                         Deacon; ⁹

Death                     1625 (age 48)                                         London, England

 

Marriages/Children

1. Sara REDER

Marriage                31 Jul 1606 (age 29)                              Canterbury, Kent, England¹⁰

Children                 Elder Thomas CUSHMAN (bef 8 Feb 1607/8 - abt 10 Dec 1691)

                                child #1 CUSHMAN (abt 1611 - )

                                child #2 CUSHMAN (abt 1614 - )

                                Sarah CUSHMAN (abt 1615 - 1636/37)

 

2. Mary (Clark) SHINGLETON

Marriage                5 Jun 1617 (age 40)                               Leiden, Holland

 

Notes (Individual)

General: "One of the Leiden Separatist leaders, ....  He was apprentice to George Master; was excommunicated from St Andrews  Church, Canterbury, after saying that he could not be edified by going to that church; was received back in the church in 1605; and in the same year became a freeman of Canterbury, being described as a grocer....  He and John Carver were chosen by their fellow Separatists to go to England (from Holland; 1617-20) to negotiate for a patent to go to America, .. In 1621 he arrived at Plymouth on the Fortune with son Thomas, but returned to England ...." (Plymouth Colony)

"sailed on Speedwell, 1620, ..; sermonized on "Danger of Self-Love"* soon after arrival of Fortune; returning to England to compose quarrel about amended articles of agreement;  captured by French pirates; planning to settle in colony, died suddenly, London, 1625, probably of the plague."  (Saints ..)

    *(noted to be 'the first recorded sermon on American soil')

"He early became interested in the movement for greater freedom of religious opinion and joined the little church at Scroby (England), with Rev. John Robinson, Elder Brewster, Governor Carver, Governor Bradford, Isaac Allerton and others, in 1602.  Subsequently they removed to Holland, but were not satisfied with conditions at Leyden (Holland) and resolved to make application to the Virginia Company, whose authority extended over a considerable portion of the North American continent, for liberty to settle in the company's territory in America.  For that purpose Robert Cushman and Deacon John Carver were selected to go to London in 1617 and open negotiations.  The mission was not successful.  Later they arranged with Thomas Weston and the Merchant Adventurers of London to go to America...  He was most active and influential in securing a Charter for the Plymouth Colony and also for the first settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Cape Ann.  He continued to perform his duties as agent of the Colony in London, and did his best to promote its interests.  He died somewhat suddenly in 1625 before he could return to America as he had planned." (Burt pp.75-76)

From the Cushman Memorial on Old Burial Hill, Plymouth, MA: "Fellow-Exile with the Pilgrims in Holland, Afterwards their chief agent in England, Arrived here 9-November, 1621, With Thomas Cushman his son: Preached 9-December His memorable sermon on 'The Danger of Self-Love Ant the Sweetness of True Friendship:' Returned to England 13-December, To vindicate the enterprise of Christian emigration; And there remained in the service of the Colony Till 1625, When, having prepared to make Plymouth His permanent home." (Burt, p. 67; Robert Cushman of Kent, p. ii)

Translation from The Dutch Records at Leyden: "Robert Cushman, Woolcomber from Canterbury, England, Widower of Sara Cushman, dwelling in a little alley of the Nunsgate, accompanied by John Keble, his friend with Mary Shingleton from Sandwich in England, widow of Thomas Shingleton, accompanied by Catharine Carver, her friend, were married before Andries Jasperson VanVesanevelt and Jacob Peadts, Sheriffs, this fifth of June 1617." (Burt, p. 56)

The following was posted by Paul Cushman on October 04, 1998 at 01:42:10, on the Cushman Family Genealogy Forum, http://genforum.familytreemaker.com/cushman/: "I recently returned from a trip to Rolvenden, Kent Co. England, (birthplace of Robert CUSHMAN) where I did some snooping. I found his baptism listed in the parish records as Robert Dutcheman son of Thomas Dutcheman. There were some 20 other references to Couchman, Coutcheman and Cushman. I found it interesting that there are several Couchmans (pronounced cootchman)still in the area. I think we are very likely related but have yet to make a positive connection. Does anyone have knowledge of this connection? I believe that the spelling of Robert Cushman's name was listed in the Leyden, Holland records at one point during the pilgrims' exile as Croutchman. This leads me further to think that the pronunciation used to be the same as the current Couchmans referred to above."

 

Notes (Family #1)

Marriage: [This from the Registers of Parish of St. Alphege, Canterbury, 1606: "Robert Cushman unto Sara Reder dwelling within the precincts of Christ Churche, ("The Cathedral") married 31" July.]

 

 

Sources

1.  Stratton, Eugene Aubrey.  Book:  Plymouth Colony; Its History & People 1620-1691.  Salt Lake City, UT; Ancestry Publishing, 1986.  pp 275-6.

2.  Willison, George F..  Book:  Saints and Strangers; Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers & Their Families, with Their Friends & Foes.  Orleans, MA; Parnassus Imprints, Inc., 1945.  p. 444.

3.  Cushman, Richard (son of Ellsworth Wilfred Cushman, grandson of Wilfred Cushman).  Cushman Genealogy; type written, 3 page paper. (carbon copy).  Dixon, CA; (date: 1960s).  p. 1.

4.  Burt, Alvah Walford.  Cushman Genealogy and General History; Including The Descendants of the Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and Monongalia County, Virginia, Families.  Cincinnati, OH:  1942.  pp. 54-56, 67, 75-76.

5.  Cushman, Robert E. & Cole, Franklin P..  Robert Cushman of Kent (1577-1625); Chief Agent of the Plymouth Pilgrims (1617-1625).  Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1995.

6.  Cushman, Henry Wyles.  Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans: The Descendants of Robert Cushman, The Puritan, From the year 1617 to 1855.  Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1855.  pp. 2-83.

7.  author unknown.  Collection of individual Family Group Record sheets for Cushman, Howland, Claghorn & Valentine families copied about 1975 by Carol Cushman of Chrome, CA, from an old family book that belonged to Fredrick Brewster Cushman (1897-1972) of Orland, CA.  Each sheet references standard genealogical books and journals.

8.  Stratton, Eugene Aubrey.  Book:  Plymouth Colony; Its History & People 1620-1691.  Salt Lake City, UT; Ancestry Publishing, 1986.  p. 275.

9.  Willison, George F..  Book:  Saints and Strangers; Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers & Their Families, with Their Friends & Foes.  Orleans, MA; Parnassus Imprints, Inc., 1945.  p. 444.

10.  Burt, Alvah Walford.  Cushman Genealogy and General History; Including The Descendants of the Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and Monongalia County, Virginia, Families.  Cincinnati, OH:  1942.  p. 55.

 

Prepared by:

O. Keith Wheeler

Mad River, CA 95552

(707) 574-6595

 

Back to Keith's PILGRIM/MAYFLOWER HISTORY