William Bradford begins his journal for 1626 with the news that their pastor, John Robinson, had passed away the previous year. Roger White, a member of the Leyden Congregation, writes the letter to inform those in Plimoth that beyond losing their pastor, “…in England we have lost our old King James, who departed this life, about a month ago.” Using the adjective “our” hints of the long, familiar history of conflict the Pilgrims had with James Stuart. Born in 1566, the same year William Brewster was born, James grew up tutored by George Buchanan, the famed reformed Christian educator, with the hope that he would model, from the throne, what it might be like for a nation to be ruled the way God intended, by the precepts of Scripture. James did have a brilliant mind, and could speak and write proficiently, but his heart was corrupted from the pampered life of a young man destined for the throne, with power and royal prestige.
Almost as soon as James came to the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, he began to persecute any religious sect that would oppose his policies. Since he was crowned King James the VI of Scotland and King James the I of England, his new seal united the two kingdoms; the obverse side declares in Latin: “James by the grace of God King of Britain, France and Ireland.” To the Pilgrims he did not offer grace, for he promised to “harry them out of the land – or do worse.” The Pilgrims couldn’t stay in England without being arrested, and he shut up the ports so they couldn’t leave; they were finally able to settle in Amsterdam in 1609. Historian Otto Scott wrote of this irony, “The land that had once harbored refugees from Europe was now sending Europe its own.”
James didn’t really care about those fleeing his policies, nor did he care all that much about the rising opposition within his own bishops or Courts of Common Law. Such is the mindset of those who are filled with a sense of their own importance much more than a fear of God or love for the people in their nation that they are bound by oath to serve. King James gave clarity to the meaning of the phrase “government of men,” for it was really the government of James, and he alone. The only law was the law of his present will, which could change at any moment. It is this behavior that originated the concept of the “divine right of kings,” where God gives authority to the King and thus he can’t be held accountable to any legislative body on earth. His death, then, may not have caused as much sorrow to those who had suffered under his tyrannical wrath as those who lived a righteous life. However, all will meet their Maker some time; as Bradford commented in his journal, “Death makes no difference.”
Bradford comments further on the year 1626, “He further brought them notice of the death of their ancient friend Mr. Cushman, whom the Lord took away also this year, & about this time who was as their right hand, with their friends and adventurers, and for diverse years had done, & agitated all their business with them, to their great advantage.” As Bradford commented earlier with the death of King James, he expressed the fact of death by adding, “A man’s ways, are not in his own power, but in his hands, who hath the Issue of life and death. Man may propose, but God doth dispose.”
Robert Cushman was born in 1577, and later worked as a candlemaker. When he joined the Pilgrim Church in Holland in 1607, he became a grocer and wool comber (preparing wool for spinning). He then became the Pilgrims’ economic agent in negotiating their contractual terms with their financial investors in 1611, after losing both his wife and two of his children. When remembering an individual’s life at a memorial service or graveside, we often, as the Scriptures demonstrate, highlight the best intentions of the individual we remember, for “love covers a multitude of sins” (1st Peter 4:8). In spite of the fact that Cushman had changed the terms of their contract with their investors without their permission, fearing the termination of their voyage, Bradford highlights his good intentions and the fact that he faithfully stood by them for years.
In 1619, Cushman published “The Cry of a Stone,” or “A Treatise showing what is Right Matter, Form and Government of the Visible Church of Christ.” This work displayed the reasoning of why the Pilgrims separated from England, and helped defend the biblical precepts of the Pilgrims. Cushman continued to defend the Pilgrim cause throughout his life, in spite of his mishandling of the initial financial contract for the Pilgrim voyage.
Robert Cushman was one of the passengers on the Speedwell that had to turn back in Plymouth, England when the ship was abandoned, and thus did not travel to the New World on the Mayflower. He did come a year later, in the fall of 1621, with his son Thomas. While in Plimoth, he preached a sermon called “The Sin and Danger of Self-Love.” Some have accused Cushman of shamelessly giving a veiled criticism of the Pilgrims for being selfish and prideful when they had just endured a winter where half their people died and which Cushman did not have to experience. It would seem quite odd, however, for him to deride them after they had suffered. Also, consider that he left his son to live with the Bradfords, and was praised for his long service to the Pilgrims.
Robert returned to England on the Fortune (the same ship that had brought him to Plimoth a month prior) in late December. He brought back the draft of the Pilgrim diary of their first year that included their voyage, the Mayflower Compact, Peace Treaty, the reconciliation with the Nauset, and the first description of the “First Thanksgiving.” This treatise would be published in London in 1622 as Mourt’s Relation. In this book was a defense written by Cushman for the legitimacy of settling in parts of America. Its premises clearly set it apart from the “Doctrine of Discovery” of 1452, which condoned forceful occupation, theft, and domination, supposedly “in the name of Christianity.” His essay documented the fact that the Pilgrim Church had distinct differences with the motives of these practices, and has served as a legacy of their proper intentions for generations.
In 1855, the descendants of Robert Cushman desired to erect a monument to his memory. The remains of his son, Thomas Cushman, and his wife, Mary (Allerton), were also found. The largest grave on Burial Hill in Plymouth belongs to the descendants of Robert Cushman. Its west side highlights a portion of his famous sermon: “And you, my loving friends, the adventurers to this plantation, as your care has been first to settle religion here before either profit or popularity, so, I pray you, go on. — I rejoice — that you thus honor God with your riches, and I trust you shall be repaid again double and treble in this world, yea, and the memory of this action shall never die.”
