Today, the Pilgrim Tercentenary Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin remembers the first marriage ceremony of the Plymouth Colony on May 12, 1621.
The bride and groom held several first, second and third records in the new colony.
From the Signers of the Mayflower Compact by Annie Arnoux Haxtun, published in 1896:
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Edward Winslow, Third Signer
Edward Winslow, the third Governor of Plymouth Colony, was born at Droitwitch, in Worcestershire, the ancestral home of the Winslows, son of Edward and Magdalen Ollyver Winslow, and grandson of the first Kenelm.
His birth is thus rendered in old St. Peter’s Church at Droitwitch: “1595, Edward, son of Edward Winslow, born the previous Friday, which was the 19th.”
This old church is fast losing its identity, the ravages of time and the changes incident to progression have left only enough to admit of the continuance of the sentiment attached to it.
The registers, however, have been valued and carefully preserved. The texts of the church illuminate the walls, bidding “peace on earth and good will to man,” and on the arch in this edifice, where the Pilgrim Winslows were held at the baptismal font, and were wont to worship, are the creed, commandments and Lord’s prayer.
History’s connections are passing strange. To reach Droitwitch from London, one must pass through Worcester, the place where, in “battle array,” Charles I. marched his forces against the very Cromwell who in after years was the warm and appreciative friend of Edward Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony.
The booming cannons which told those at Droitwitch of war and carnage were, to be sure, a thing of the past in that section; only a change of place and participants, however, when Winslow was to the front.
Edward Winslow, the diplomat of the Plymouth Colony, went to Leyden simply as a traveler seeing the world; a man of leisure, education and wealth— one who had behind him the ancestry of many generations, which had placed their impress on character and manner, commanding for him, what he was always credited with being, “of higher so cial position than the rest.”
To confine him in a narrow sphere would be to lose the best of the men. Small methods were not matters of his knowledge. He required contact with people and affairs for his development, and a wise Providence guided his steps toward Leyden, where he was received, not as a refugee from religious persecution, but as a strong man, of moral character, whose subtle conception of the high integrity of word and deed required to keep the little community at Leyden together, made him from his arrival to his death such an important factor for the good of the whole.
The debt, however, was not all on the Pilgrim’s side. Edward Winslow, in other situations, might only have been the good comrade and welcome guest.
The serious part of his nature found its maturity under the influences surrounding him, and Edward Winslow, the man of the world, with the simple faith of a child, accepted the religion of his fathers as the motive power of his future life.
Many attribute his conversion to Pastor Robinson, but one glance at Weir’s picture of the “Embarkation,” where as the bride Elizabeth Winslow is portrayed, gives the thought that perhaps her weak woman’s hand may have led him with loving care to “choose that better part that cannot be taken away.”
Edward Winslow’s first wife was Elizabeth Barker, of Leyden, born in Chetsum, England, to whom he was married according to Leyden’s records, by Pastor Robinson, May 16. 1618, Isaac Allerton for Winslow, his wife for the bride acting as witnesses.
The first thought of colonization in far-off America, where the field was large enough to satisfy his desires, was in Winslow’s mind.
His instincts as a traveler were roused, and the preparations were developing his hitherto dormant powers for the diplomatic life so truly in the future a part of the man’s very being.
For him there was no struggle, his whole make-up was in favor of the start. Elizabeth, his wife, strong in her love, shared his anticipations.
The home her husband described as to be their’s the other side of the great ocean she looked forward to with eagerness, seeing everything with his eyes.
The dreaded ship life, with its close quarters and many discomforts, was safely over.
Bleak New England was not responsive to her expectations; but she was strong in her love, and determination to bear her part in the arranging which needed a woman’s hand to secure to the husband of her choice even a semblance to the home which was part of her life.
But all this was of no avail. The unaccustomed privations on their long voyage, the desolation of the situation, with so little prospect of its betterment, and the keen winds of the Cape Cod coast, made sad ravages among them.
Poor Elizabeth Barker Winslow, weary with the struggle, was “gathered to her fathers” March 21, 1621.
Even the comfort of a grave bearing her name, which should tell her young husband and others that she had once been with them, was denied to her.
The Indians were keeping watch; the little colony was surrounded by fears worse than death. So the graves were leveled and planted, that the Indians might not know of their depleted numbers and attack them unawares and secure victory from the situation.
Let us hope that the English daisy Winthrop is said to have brought out with him may have sought that unknown grave and marked it with its beauty and piety.
Edward Winslow, called in history “the head of the emigration as Myles Standish was the right hand,” was only twenty-six when he arrived at Plymouth, young, ambitious, with strong ideals for his future life, one of the gentry in the land of his birth, and who, from the start, shared with Bradford the main burdens of the government, owning a position to which the world yields ready homage, second in wealth in the colonies, a fact never registered against a man, found himself, notwithstanding these material benefits, alone in the world.
Why should he thus remain, when it remedy was close at hand. Elizabeth, so recently his companion was “sleeping the sleep that knows no waking.”
A fellow-sufferer needed comfort, who so fitting to give it as himself? His mind being fully made up, he sought advice of Bradford, and the surprise he evinced in no way affected his action.
Wise Winslow made an appearance of consultation at least, prepared with arguments only on one side, however.
All wavering was a thing of the past, so May 12, 1621, “was ye first marriage in this place, which according to ye laudable custom of ye low countries, in which they had lived, was thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civill thing upon which many questions aboute inheritances doe depende,” and Edward Winslow welcomed to his home, perhaps heart, Susannah Tilley White, whose first marriage is thus recorded: “William White, married on ye third day of March, 1620. to Susannah Tilley. “Peregrine White, born on ye Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor, December 19, 1620.”
She hardly had time to realize the tie which bound her to William White before it was a thing of the past. “Only a dream at the best.”
No one could doubt the benefits accruing to her from this second marriage. Susanna Tilley Winslow held the first place in everything, the first mother, the first bride, and then her son, Josiah Winslow, was the first native born governor of Plymouth Colony.
A husband, who had precedence always, what mattered the claims of his birthright, when the rank which was of the soul was his, and for which in honesty of purpose, he knew he must give much in return, having received much.
He made his professions, and lived up to them.
His reasons for coming to America showed him to be a loyal Englishman at heart.
“He wanted the protection and language of his own country, the benefits of an equal education for his children, and to secure them in another country the right to live without being surrounded by the profanation of the Sabbath they saw on all sides in Holland.”
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The Pilgrim Tercentenary Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin shows with an artist’s portrait of Edward Winslow.
