Josiah Winslow

Josiah Winslow (* around 1628 in Plymouth , Plymouth Colony , in what is now the US state of Massachusetts ; † December 18, 1680 in Marshfield, also in the later US state of Massachusetts) was governor of the English Plymouth Colony from 1673 to 1680.

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Josiah Winslow was the son of Edward Winslow , one of the Pilgrim Fathers and three-time governor of Plymouth Colony and his second wife Susanna White. The spelling of his first name is sometimes given in the sources as Josias . He graduated from Harvard College and visited his father in the early 1650s, who had since returned to England. From 1643 he was employed by the Marshfield General Court and in 1656 he became Commander in Chief of the Plymouth Colony Armed Forces. From 1657 to 1673 he was also deputy colonial governor there. In addition, since 1658 he was a member of the New England Confederation , a military committee of the united English colonies against the Indians. He also became the commander of the united colonial forces of the New England colonies. He held this post until 1673. In that year Winslow was elected to succeed the late Governor Thomas Prence . He held this office until his death in 1680. As governor, although a Puritan himself, he campaigned for the Quaker religious community , who had a difficult time in the puritanical Plymouth Colony. In 1675 the colony's first public school was built. Winslow's tenure was overshadowed by the so-called King Philip's War , an Indian revolt in 1675 and 1676, which is considered to be one of the bloodiest colonial wars in North American history. About 3000 Indians and 600 to 800 colonists died. The uprising was put down in the end. Many captured Indians were sold as slaves to the Spaniards. Josiah Winslow died in Marshfield on December 18, 1860. He was married to Penelope Pelham (1633-1703) since 1651, with whom he had four children. The son Isaac Winslow (1671-1738) later served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Colony and Colonel of the militia.

Web links

• Winslow in Familypedia
• Winslow at the Pilgrim Hall Museum
• Winslow in the Enycolpedia Britannica

• Josiah Winslow in the database of Find a Grave (English)