Robert Cushman - The Separatists

The Separatists

The Separatist Church was founded in the Old Hall in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The Scrooby Church, in northern Nottinghamshire, was an offshoot of Gainsborough. Scrooby included senior Pilgrim membership such as William Brewster and William Bradford. Twenty years later Brewster became the elder of the Plymouth colony. In February, 1609 the Separatists formally settled in Leiden, Holland to escape the religious intolerance of King James I and during that year Robert Cushman joined them where they remained for eleven years.

Robert Cushman and his family emigrated to Leiden sometime before November 4, 1611 and was a woolcomber. In the year 1616, the year before his appointment as agent of the Leiden (Leyden) Church, Robert Cushman had three family losses. His wife, Sarah, died early in the year - exact date unknown. One of their children had died in March and another in October.

Beginning in September 1617, Cushman spent much of his time in England, working on preparations for the voyage to the new colony.

He, along with John Carver, became an agent of the Leiden (Leyden) Holland congregation for doing business in England. With Elder Brewster in hiding due to being searched for by King James men due to his distribution religious tracts criticizing the king and his bishops, the Pilgrims looked to John Carver and Robert Cushman to carry on negotiations with officials in London regarding the voyage to America. By June 1619 Carver and Cushman had secured a patent from the Virginia Company for the Separatists.Cushman and Carver, as purchasing agents for the Leiden congregation, began to secure supplies and provisions in London and Canterbury.

As the Pilgrims gathered in London, they were joined by the More children who were placed under the care of Weston, Cushman and Carver. John Carver and Robert Cushman had jointly agreed to find them guardians among the passengers. The children were sent to the Mayflower by Samuel More, the husband of their mother Katherine, after an admission of her adultery. The children were to be servants to senior Pilgrims - Elinor, age eight, to Edward and Elizabeth Winslow; Jasper, seven, to the Carvers; and both Richard, five, and Mary, four, to William and Mary Brewster. All of the children except Richard died in the first winter of 1620.