Robert Cushman

Robert Cushman (1577–1625) was an important leader and organiser of the Mayflower voyage in 1620, serving as chief agent in London for the Leiden Separatist contingent from 1617 to 1620 and later for Plymouth Colony until his death in 1625 in England. His historically famous booklet titled "Cry of a Stone" was written about 1619 and posthumously published in 1642. The work is an important pre-sailing Pilgrim account of the Leiden group's religious lives.

Cushman was most likely one of the first Mayflower passengers when the ship sailed from London to Southampton to meet the Speedwell coming from Leiden. The Speedwell was later forced to be abandoned.

Early life in England

Cushman was born in 1577 in Rolvenden, county Kent and is believed to be the second son of Thomas Couchman (Cushman) and Ellen Hubbarde. In 1601 Cushman's mother, wife of Thomas Tilden, her second husband, was buried in Ashford. Thomas Tilden was possibly a Puritan, whose descendants later emigrated to Scituate in Plymouth Colony.

The first known record of Robert Cushman appears in December 1597 in the parish of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury, co. Kent. City accounts provide information about 18-year-old Cushman's apprenticeship to grocer George Masters, being a second son who did not inherit land and moved to the city to become an apprentice. George Masters had the monopoly of tallow candle making which had been granted to him by the city of Canterbury, with city butchers being obliged to sell animal fat to him for candle production. The parish of St. George being especially malodorous laying between the cattle market on one side and the butcher's slaughterhouse on the other. Apprentice Robert Cushman lived in George Master's house in St. George the Martyr parish, making tallow candles at least until 1599 and likely as late as 1602 or 1603.