Standish, Myles (or Miles) (1584-1656)

American colonial military leader. As military adviser to the Pilgrims, he arrived in New England 1621 and obtained a charter for Plymouth colony from England 1625. Although one of the most influential figures in colonial New England, he is best remembered through US poet Henry Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish (1863).

Born in Lancashire, England, Standish began his military career as a mercenary in the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish. He settled in Leyden 1609. Arriving in New England, he negotiated with the Wampanoag people and supervised the Plymouth colonists' military training, and became one of the colony's chief investors 1627. He later established the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, and settled there 1637.

His exploits are also celebrated in fictional form by Robert Lowell in An Interview with Miles Standish.