• [excerpts] Robert Cushman descended from generations of Cushmans from Kent, England. In 1603 Robert Cushman (age 26) was listed as a servant to George Masters. In 1605 he was admitted a freeman of Canterbury as an apprentice “grosser” to George Masters. Cushman married Sara Reder in 1606 and a son Thomas was baptized in 1607/8. By 1609 Robert and his family were members of John Robinson’s congregation in Leiden. Cushman joined other Pilgrims in the cloth-making trades and worked as a woolcomber. Two other children were born but died as infants. Sara died in 1615 and Robert married the widow, Mary (Clarke) Singelton in 1617. Mary died before 1621.
During his years in Leiden, Cushman demonstrated unusual organizational skill such that in 1617 Cushman (age 40) and John Carver (age 51), deacons of the Leiden congregation, were chosen to travel to London to make arrangements for the congregation to immigrate to North America.
The compelling task facing Robert Cushman [after arrival in Plymouth on board the Fortune in Nov 1621] was to secure the colonists’ signatures to the 10 articles of agreement that were not signed the year before. The continued support of the Merchant Adventurers depended on it.
On December 9, 1621, the first anniversary Sunday of the Pilgrim landing in Plymouth, Robert Cushman gave a sermon entitled “The Sin and Danger of Self-Love” based on 1 Corinthians 10:24. Cushman’s remarks were a heart-felt plea for the Pilgrims to cooperate unselfishly for common good without regard for personal gain.
Robert Cushman demonstrated enormous organizational ability. He was the principal person negotiating agreements with the crown and London investors, organizing the logistics to transport over a hundred people across the Atlantic, and lastly managing the finances to provision the colony and sell its products. His keen leadership was most evident when he persuaded the colonists to sign the articles of agreement they had strongly rejected the year before. Sadly he died before he could move to Plymouth and share the remainder of his life with associates who held him is such high esteem. [4460, pp 1-2]

• He and John Carver were chosen by their fellow Separatists to go to England to negotiate for a patent to go to America, and Bradford in his History has much to relate about him. [20, pp 275-6]

• Robert was a “Puritan” at heart, like most of the merchants. This was tolerated to some extent by Queen Elizabeth, but she died in 1603, and then bedlam broke loose. Jame I began, immediately, to persecute the “Puritans,” and in 1604, Robert was presented by the church wardens of St. Andrew’s Parish, Canterbury, “for that he doth say he will not come to his parish church because he cannot be edified and saith he can and will defend it by word of God.” Now, this was real fighting language. Failing to do penance he was excommunicated on 12 Nov 1604. This was about the time Rev. John Robinson had to give up his pastorate in Norwich, in another section of England, and returned to his old home in Notts where Brewster soon became involved in the complicated affair. [1868, p 7]

• In November, a full year after their arrival, the first ship from home dropped anchor in the harbor. It was the Fortune, on her way to Virginia, and leaving off a cargo at Plymouth: thirty-five more colonists, including William Brewster’s grown son, Jonathan, two brothers of Edward Winslow, and of all people, Robert Cushman! And he had with him a charter–their own charter– granted through the New England Company! [2724, p 136]

• Though Cushman had preached in all sincerity, it soon became apparent what specific “willfulness” he had in mind. Scarcely was his sermon over than he began to press Carver, Brewster, Bradford, and the other principals to capitulate to Weston’s revised conditions.
Here is a striking example of how a loyal Christian’s judgment and covenanted commitment can be subtly compromised, when once he chooses to give less than his all. Cushman’s crisis of faith had occurred back in Dartmouth, when the Speedwell was having its difficulties. He had lost his heart for the Pilgrim’s undertaking and had declined to go with them aboard the Mayflower. Choosing the easier way, he had justified it by impressing upon them how much he was “needed” in London, to act as their liaison with the Adventurers.
As it happened, he was probably the last one who should have been representing them. When Robinson and Brewster had written to reprimand him for accepting Weston’s alterations without first checking with them, he had written a three-page reply, correcting his superiors for their avarice and willfulness! [2724, p 138]

• In 1621 he visited the Plymouth Colony with his young son, but immediately returned to England, leaving his son Thomas in New England with friends. His last letter to the Plymouth Plantation is dated 22 Dec 1624, and he died suddenly within the year. [1868, p 7]

• After 1621 Robert Cushman was the colony’s London agent arranging the transfer of remaining members of the Leiden congregation to Plymouth. As London agent, Cushman arranged the sale of furs and fish sent by the colonists to the Merchant Adventurers [and] purchased supplies for the colonists. When Miles Standish visited London in April 1626 he discovered that Robert Cushman had died (at age 48) during the Spring of 1625. There is no record describing the details of Cushman’s death. [4460, p 2]