SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #333  

There is much more to the Pilgrim story than the peaceful Thanksgiving holiday implies. The Separatists hired the hot-tempered Myles Standish, an English soldier, as protector of the first Massachusetts colony. Standish, who was apparently not a member of the Separatist church, was the muscle of the group. (Continued below)

In at least two cases, having heard that Native Americans were planning to attack, he made pre-emptive strikes on supposed enemy tribes. In one case Standish invited a native warrior to dinner, then stabbed his guest in the heart with his own knife. These stories are well told in Nathaniel Philbrick’s bestselling book Mayflower. Standish visited the New Hampshire seacoast region in 1623 to meet with New Hampshire founding citizen David Thompson at what is now Rye. Thompson accompanied Standish to Plymouth and sold codfish to the colonists. The top Pilgrim leaders later stopped at Pannaway, Thompson’s fortified home, in 1626. That same year, it appears, Thompson went back to Massachusetts to claim an island in what is now Boston Harbor. He was never seen again. Was there foul play? Was Myles Standish involved? Don’t miss the full story in “History Matters” in next Monday’s Portsmouth Herald. The illustration above by N.C. Wyeth comes from a 1926 edition of Longfellow’s 1858 poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish.”  (SeacoastNH.com Collection)      

SeaocastNH.com Historic Portsmouth