The only Pilgrim to have his portrait painted,
Edward Winslow was born OCTOBER 18, 1595.
He joined the Separatists, a persecuted group of Christian refugees, in Leyden, Holland.
Edward Winslow helped their Pilgrim leader
William Brewster print illegal religious pamphlets which were smuggled back into England.
After many hard years in Holland, 102 Pilgrims departed to the New World, including in their number 25-year-old
Edward Winslow. In 1622,
Winslow treated
Indian chief Massaoit of an illness, resulting in a 50 year peace.
If the chief would not have recovered, the Indian tradition would have been to kill Winslow.
Serving three times as the Plymouth Colony's Governor,
Edward Winslow kept the finances and often sailed back to England for business, bringing back the colony's first cattle.
On one trip to England in 1625, as described by
Governor William Bradford in his
History of the Plymouth Settlement,
Edward Winslow encountered Turkish Muslim Pirates:
"Two
fishing ships...ordered to load with corfish...to bring home to
England...and besides she had some 800 lbs of beaver, as well as other
furs, to a good value from the plantation.
The captain seeing so much lading wished to put aboard the bigger ship for greater safety, but
Mr. Edward Winslow, their agent in the business, was bound in a bond to send it to London in the small ship...
The
captain of the big ship...towed the small ship at his stern all the
way over. So they went joyfully home together and had such fine weather
that he never cast her off till they were well within the England
channel, almost in sight of Plymouth.
But
even there she was unhapply taken by a Turkish man-of-war and carried
off to Saller (Morocco) where the captain and crew were made slaves... Thus all their hopes were dashed and the joyful news they meant to carry home was turned to heavy tidings...
In the big ship
Captain Myles Standish...arrived...in London...The friendly adventurers were so reduced by their losses...
and now by the ship taken by the Turks...that all trade was dead." 
Once, while in England,
Edward Winslow was thrown in jail by Anglican Bishop William Laud for 17 weeks.
Edward Winslow served in
Oliver Cromwell's army during the English Civil War.
Edward Winslow sailed with
Admiral Sir William Penn, father of Pennsylvania's founder, in an attempt to capture Hispaniola from Spain.
After defeat at Santo Domingo,
Edward Winslow died of a fever on the way to Jamaica, which Admiral Penn captured.
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