To every one with the slightest familiarity with American history this name is familiar. It is unnecessary to repeat here the history of Miles Standish, the staunch founder of a staunch family, but a brief resume of his career is not without interest in this connection.

(I) Captain Miles Standish, born 1586, was one of the Pilgrim band which came to the shores of Massachusetts in 1620, accompanied by his wife, Rose, who died Jan. 29, 1621. After a short stay in Plymouth, he settled in Duxbury, across the bay from the first settlement, on the hill still known as Captain's Hill, whose sides spring abruptly from the shore. He was a signer of the famous "Mayflower" compact, and became one of the leading men of the colony, being made military commander at a meeting held February, 1621, to establish military arrangements. He conducted all the early expeditions against the Indians, and continued in the military service of the colony all his life. He commanded the Plymouth troops which marched against the Narragansetts in 1645, and when hositilities with the Dutch were apprehended in 1653, he was one of the council of war of Plymouth and was appointed to command the troops which the council determined to raise. He was also prominent in civil affairs, and was for many years assistant (member of the governor's council) and, when it became necessary in 1626, to send a delegate to England to represent the colonists in the business arrangements with the merchant adventurers, he was selected. He was a commissioner of the United Colonies and a partner in the trading companies. He participated in a division of cattle in 1627, at which time he had a wife Barbara, and died Oct. 3, 1656. An imposing monument to him has been erected on Captain's Hill, Duxbury. His name is known all over the world, especially through Longfellow's romantic poem, "The Courtship of Myles Standish."
Children:
Alexander, Charles, John, Myles and Lora.

(II) Alexander, eldest child of Myles and Barbara Standish, was admitted to the freedom of the colony in 1648, and was the third town clerk from 1695 to 1700. He died between July 5 and Aug. 10, 1702. He married (first) Priscilla, daughter of John and Priscilla (Molines) Alden, and (second) Desire, daughter of Edward Doty, and widow of William Sherman, her second husband, the first being Israel Holmes. She survived him and died in 1703.
Children by first wife:
Myles, Ebenezer, Lora, Lydia, Mercy, Sarah and Elizabeth.
By second wife:
Thomas, Desire, Ichabod and David.

(III) Ebenezer, second son of Alexander and Sarah (Alden) Standish, was born 1672, in Plymouth, and died March 19, 1735. He married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Sturtevant, of Plymouth. She died Jan. 23, 1759.

(IV) Zachariah, son of Ebenzer and Hannah (Sturtevant) Standish, was born Oct. 12, 1698, in Plympton, Mass., and died there March 30, 1770. He married Abigail, daughter of Ebenezer Whitman, of Bridgewater, Mass., born 1704, died Aug. 3, 1788.

(V) Zachariah (2) son of Zachariah (1) and Abigail (Whitman) Standish, was born May 30, 1739, in Plympton, and died there March 26, 1780. He was a soldier of the revolution, serving in several enlistments. He marched, March 28, 1777, in Captain Lothrop's command, Brigadier Joseph Cushing's brigade, on the alarm at Bristol, Rhode Island. He was also a member of Captain William White's company, Colonel Enoch Putnam's regiment, detached from the militia to reinforce the Continental army, for a term of three months, agreeable to a resolve of the general court of Massachusetts, made June 30, 1781, and marched to West Point, where he did duty.
He married (first), April 8, 1760, Rebecca Wood, who died June 19, 1769, aged twenty-four years; married (second) Olive Pool.

(VI) Zachariah (3), son of Zachariah (2) and Rebecca (Wood) Standish, was born Oct. 3, 1763, in Graville, N.Y., and died Jan. 1, 1804. He married, June 6, 1791, Mary Scott, born March 24, 1778, died July 31, 1824.

(VII) Colonel Matthew M., son of Zachariah (3) and Mary (Scott) Standish, was born Aug. 18, 1794, and died June 24, 1866. He was a man of intense patriotic spirit, and commanded a company at the battle of Plattsburgh in 1814.
He married, Sept. 2, 1818, Catherine Phoebe, born Aug. 6, 1800, died July 16, 1866, daughter of Dr. John and Elizabeth (Smith) Miller.

(VIII) Caroline Leslie, daughter of Matthew M. and Catherine P. (Miller) Standish, became the wife of Smith M. Weed (see Weed VII).

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