See Mayflower Passenger List in LINKS

ANCESTRAL SUMMARY:

Edward Winslow was the son of Edward Winslow, a wealthy owner of a salt boilery, and Magdalene Oliver. Edward Winslow was baptized at Droitwich, Worcester, England on 20 October 1595.  Winslow soon joined with the Separatists, and moved to Leyden where he became a printer along with William Brewster, publishing illegal religious pamphlets.  His first wife, Elizabeth Barker, was from Chattisham, Suffolk, England.

His second wife was the widow of William White of the Mayflower. For a description of what is known about her (she is not a Fuller) see William White.

The ancestry of Edward Winslow is as follows:

(1) Kenelm Winslow of Kempsey (it has been suggested, but not proved, that he married Elizabet Foliot, daughter of John Foliot--see NEHGR 122:175-178)

(2) Edward Winslow, m. Magdalene Oliver

(3) Edward Winslow of the Mayflower

Edward Winslow had four other siblings which came to America, namely Gilbert Winslow (Mayflower, 1620), John Winslow (Fortune, 1621), Josias Winslow (White Angel, 1631), and Kenelm Winslow, who married Eleanor (Newton) Adams, who came in the Anne, 1623.  Edward Winslow also had several sisters, including Magdalen who married Rev. William Wake on 25 April 1627, in Wareham, Dorset, England.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:


Edward Winslow is the only Mayflower passenger to have a known portrait in existence--although a questionable sketch of Myles Standish exists.  The portrait to the left was painted by Robert Walker in 1651, so Winslow is here 31 years older than he was when he came on the Mayflower at the age of 25.  The original portrait is in the possession of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Nathaniel Morton in New England's Memorial (1669) writes of Edward Winslow:

He was the son of Edward Winslow, Esq. of the town of Draughtwich, in the county of Worcester.  He, travelling into the low countries, in his journeys fell into acquaintance with the church of Leyden, in Holland, unto whom he joined, and with whom he continued until they parted to come into New-England, he coming with that part that came first over, and became a very worthy and useful instrument amongst them, both in place of government and othrwise, until his last voyage for England, being sent on special employment for the government of the Massachusetts, as is aforementioned in this book; and afterwards was employed as one of the grand commissioners in that unhappy design against Domingo in Hispaniola, who taking grief for all ill success of that enterprize, on which, together with some other infirmities that were upon him, he fell sick at sea, betwixt Domingo and Jamaica, and died the eighth day of May, which was about the sixty-first year of his life, and his body was honourably committed to the sea, with the usual solemnity of the discharge of fourty-two pieces of ordinance.

Cotton Mather, essentially copying from Morton in his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) writes:  

Mr. Edward Winslow, the Son of Edward Winslow, Esq; of Draughtwich, in the Country of Worcester, . . . Travelling into the Low-Countries, he fell into Acquaintance with the English Church at Leyden, and joining himself to them, he Shipped himself with that part of them which first came over into America; from which time he was continually engaged in such extraordinary Actions, as the assistance of that People to encounter their more than ordinary Diffculties, called for.

Edward Winslow of the Mayflower was a printer, and assisted William Brewster in running the printing press at Leyden which published illegal pamphlets of a religious nature which were distributed in England. He was one of the more prominent and influential men in the Plymouth Colony, and was the colony's third governor.  In the early years of Plymouth, Edward played a prominent role in Indian-Pilgrim relations, and made many diplomatic visits to the Wampanoag sachem Massasoit.  One one occasion in 1622 he even managed to "cure" Massasoit of a dreadful sickness--an event which greatly helped Indian-Pilgrim relations.

Winslow also made trips to England in the early years of the Colony to conduct business agreements and make legal arrangements, including trips in 1623-4, 1630, and 1635.  In 1646 he returned to live in England and served in the English army under Oliver Cromwell . In 1655 he died of a fever on a military expedition to capture the island of Hispaniola. Upon his death, one of the ship's chroniclers wrote this poem:


The Eighth of May, west from 'Spaniola shore,
God took from us our Grand Commissioner,
Winslow by Name, a man in Chiefest Trust,
Whose Life was sweet, and Conversation just;
Whose Parts and wisdome most men did excell:
An honour to his Place, as all can tell.

Edward Winslow authored several books.  He wrote Good News From New England first published in 1624.  He authored a good portion of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth first published in 1622.  Winslow also wrote Hypocricie Unmasked (1646), and New England's Salamander (1647), which are both for the most part religious discourses.  He also edited several pamphlets.

In August, 1998, Dr. Jeremy D. Bangs of Leiden, Holland stated that he was nearing completion of a biography of Edward Winslow.

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SOURCES:

Ruth C. McGuyre and Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Edward Winslow and John Billington, vol. 5 (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1991).

John G. Hunt, "The Mayflower Winslows," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 121(1967):25-29, 122(1968):175-178, and 124(1970):182-183.

John G. Hunt, "Clues to the Ancestry of Winslow of Droitwich," The American Genealogist 41:168-175.

John G. Hunt, "Governor Edward Winslow's Mother's Family: The Olivers," The American Genealogist 42:52-55.

John G. Hunt, "A Note on the Winslow Births in England," The American Genealogist 42:186-187.

George G. Wolkins.  "Edward Winslow: King's Scholar and Printer," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 60(1950):237-266.

Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and Its People, 1620-1691 (Ancestor Publishers: Salt Lake City, 1986).