Robert Cushman - Family in England and Holland

Family in England and Holland

Robert Cushman married first, in the parish of St. Alphege, Canterbury, July 11, 1606, Sara Reder, who dwelt in the precincts of the cathedral and whose parentage has not been discovered. Sara Cushman died in Leiden, Holland and was buried on October 11, 1616. Two of her three children died that year also.

The children of Robert Cushman and his wife Sara:

• Thomas Cushman was born shortly before February 8, 1607/8, when he was baptized at St. Andrew, Canterbury, county Kent, England and died in Plymouth, Mass. December 11, 1691. He married Mary, daughter of Pilgrim Isaac Allerton about 1636 in Plymouth. They had eight children. Mary died in Plymouth November 28, 1699, the last of the Mayflower passengers.

• (child) Buried at Pieterkerk, Leiden, Holland March 11, 1616.

• (child) Buried at Pieterkerk, Leiden, Holland October 24, 1616.

Robert Cushman married secondly at Leiden, Holland June 5, 1617 Mary (Clarke) Shingleton, widow of Thomas Shingleton, a shoemaker from Sandwich, Kent.

The translation from the Dutch records in Leiden, Holland for Robert Cushman’s 2nd marriage:

Robert Cushman, wool comber, from Canterbury in England, widower of Sarah 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 Catherine Carver her friend.

They were married before Andries Jasperson van Vesanevelt and Jacob Paedts, Sheriffs, this fifth of June, 1617.

It is thought that the Catherine Carver named in the Leiden marriage record may have been Katherine, wife of Pilgrim John Carver.

There is no further record of Robert Cushman’s second wife. She may have been deceased before the Cushman’s embarked in the ship Fortune in 1621 and that was the reason Thomas was left behind in Plymouth with Bradford.