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1656 Edward Standish (Lord of the Manor 1656-1682)	1656	1682 William Standish (Lord of the Manor 1682-1705)

Myles Standish died on October 3rd, 1656, at Duxbury a settlement he had himself founded on the north side of Plymouth Bay in 1632. It is at this point in the story of Myles Standish that the Standish family connection re-appears. In his will Myles says:

“I give unto my son and heir apparent, Alexander Standish, all my lands as heir apparent by lawful descent in Ormistic (Ormskirk?), Buuscough (Burscough?), Wrightington, Maudsley, Newbarrow (Newbrough?), Cranston (Croston?), and the Isle of Man, and given to me as right heir by lawful descent, but surreptitiously detained from me, my grandfather being a second or younger brother from the house of Standish of Standish.”

He obviously believed he had a strong claim to these lands and this claim has been pursued by his descendants in America. In 1846 an association was formed to investigate the American Standish's claims to 'large tracts of rich farming lands, including several valuable coal mines and producing a yearly income of £100,000.' The representatives of this association visited Standish and Duxbury and studied the records of Chorley Parish Church where the Duxbury Standishes registered births and deaths. An account of this investigation tells us that:

“the records were all readily deciphered, with the exception of the years 1584 and 1585, the very dates about which Standish is supposed to have been born; and the parchment leaf which contained the registers of the births of these years was wholly illegible, and their appearance was such, that the conclusion was at once established, that it had been done purposely with pumice stone or otherwise, to destroy the legal evidence of the parentage of Standish and his consequent title to the estates thereabout.”

This claim of defacement of Parish records has since been dismissed by other writers but it seems likely there will always remain a question mark over the will of Myles Standish.^[1]

1. ↑ S. Aspinall, Tales of Old Standish (Published by Clarington Press Ltd, Ince, Wigan, 1982)