A Debt Paid with Ties to Myles Standish, Alchemy, and the Hundred Years War: Lancashire Indenture in Latin, Dated 1422

Myles Standish was an English military officer hired to accompany the Pilgrims in 1620 on the ship Mayflower as their military adviser. He played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony. He was one of the first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. He died on October 3, 1656, in the New World, in Duxbury,– a town the Pilgrims had named after his likely ancestral home in Lancashire, England, and an estate that occupied by these very men. [what does this mean?] On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.

Taking the Standish Family back to their home in the Greater Manchester towns of Standish, Chorley, and Duxbury, we see this important family’s expansion, in terms of land and power. Since the 1200s, the Standish Family had been the Lords of the Standish Manor.

Ralph de Standish was the Lord of the Manor from 1396-1415; in 1406, he acquired the estates of his uncle, Sir Ralph de Standish of Scholes. As the Lord of the Manor, he supplemented the family’s landholdings through purchases in nearby Wigan, Shevington, and Winstanley. In 1415, John de Standysshe, likely Ralph’s brother, was recorded at the Battle of Agincourt. Other Standishes at this important turning point in the Hundred Years War included Thomas, Sir Rowland, Sir Hugh, and Christopher, the latter two of which were of the Duxbury Branch of the Standishes. Christopher would become Lord of the Manor of Duxbury from 1421 to 1437 and die shortly thereafter.

Ralph’s death passed the Lordship of the Manor to his eldest son, Lawerence; however, he had two other sons, Robert and Gilbert. Records about Gilbert only give few details. He was “living in 1423/4” and “in 1400 he was mentioned in a deed and entered into covenants with John Smith, chaplain, and Henry Matthew, chaplain, 1411/2, authorized by his mother and father.”

Though the records remain inconclusive, The Families of Standish states that “Sir Ralph de Standish of Scholes is considered to be the ancestor of the Standishes of Ormskirk, and through them, the ancestor of Captain Myles Standish of Plymouth and Duxbury, Massachusetts, who came in the ‘Mayflower,’ 1620” (p. 51).

[Lancashire, England, 1422], Small indenture in Latin with two seals attached, 103mm by 180mm approximately, 12 April 1422 (10th year of the reign of Henry V), affirming a debt of 40 pounds by Gilbert de Standyssh, Esq., of Blakerode (i.e. Blackrod), Lancs., Roger de Molyneux, Esq., of Pemberton, Lancs., and William, son of Roger de Assheton, Esq., of Abram, Lancs., to Christopher de Standyssh. With original seals attached.

Through a small document, the consolidation of Standish wealth is demonstrated. Further, the exchange of £40 (equivalent to approximately £34,572 or $41,700 in modern currency) between Gilbert Standish, Roger de Molyneux, and William de Assheton (son of Roger) to Christopher Standish, demonstrates the intimate ties between important families. Roger Ashton’s father was a soldier under King Henry IV and Henry V; his father before him was Sir John de Ashton, who served with John of Gaunt in 1369 and whose part in the siege of Noyon in 1370 is mentioned by name by Froissart’s Chronicles in French.

Roger’s brother, and William’s uncle, was the famed alchemist, given permission by Henry IV for his experiments.

See also:

Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Families of Standish of Standish, Lancashire, England, and Standish of Duxbury, Arley, Ormskirk, Gathurst, Croston, Park Brook, and Wantage… 1959.