Robert Cushman (1578 – 1625) was one of the Pilgrims. He was born in the village of Rolvenden

Rolvenden

Rolvenden is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is located on the A28 Ashford to Hastings road, south-west of Tenterden.The settlement of Rolvenden Layne, south of Rolvenden, is also in the parish.-History:...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and was baptized in the parish church there on February 9, 1577/78. He spent part of his early life in Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 on Sun Street. Cushman married Sarah Reder on 31 July 1606. He was excommunicated for not recognizing the official church

Christian Church

The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...

 and as a consequence spent time in a cell of Canterbury's West Gate Towers. In 1611 he was one of a group of Pilgrims who fled to Holland because of differences with the official church over their practice of religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. Robert Cushman authored a book "The Cry Of A Stone" in about 1620. It is one of the few books written by a Pilgrim and is valuable because it gives a first hand account of religious life in Leiden. There is no evidence that the Mayflower was hired in Canterbury.

He did not complete the initial trip to the New World with the other Pilgrims on board the Mayflower, as the ship he was traveling on, the Speedwell, developed leaks and had to return to England. He instead took a different ship to the New World.

Cushman sailed to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the fall of 1621 aboard the Fortune, but returned shortly thereafter to England to promote the colony's interests. There, he published an essay concerning the Lawfulness of Plantations, which was appended to Mourt's Relation

Mourt's Relation

The book Mourt's Relation was written primarily by Edward Winslow, although William Bradford appears to have written most of the first section...

. This document is of interest to modern scholars because of its treatment of the economic reasons for emigration.

Unfortunately, before he could return to the New World, he succumbed to an outbreak of plague

Bubonic plague

Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

 in London, in the spring of 1625; as a result, the site of his grave

Grave (burial)

A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....

 is unknown. The book Saints and Strangers

Saints and Strangers

Saints and Strangers is a book by George F Willison published in 1945 by Reynal & Hitchcock, New York.Its full title, Saints and Strangers - Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers & Their Families, with Their Friends & Foes: & and Account of Their Posthumous Wanderings in Limbo, Their Final...

by George F. Willison

George F. Willison

George Findley Willison was a writer and editor who specialized in American history. He also worked in education, journalism, public relations, and the military....

 recounts his story.

His son, Thomas Cushman (ca. 1607/08 - 1691), who accompanied him on the Fortune, was raised in the family of Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...

 Governor William Bradford (1590-1657)

William Bradford (1590-1657)

William Bradford was an English leader of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and served as governor for over 30 years after John Carver died. His journal was published as Of Plymouth Plantation...

, and served as Ruling Elder of the Plymouth church from 1649, until his death in 1691. He was buried on New Plymouth Hill. Thomas married Mary Allerton who died in 1699. She was the last survivor of the original Mayflower passengers.
Through his great-great-grand-daughter, Elizabeth Cushman (1739–1809), who married Ephraim Delano, Robert Cushman was an ancestor of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

. Also many other familys have spawned from the Cushman name the one most close to the Cushman bloodlne is the Read family. John Read married Elizabeth Cusham in some year in the 1600's John Read was a Shoemakers aprentice so from marrying her he had stumbled into some wealth.