He was the eldest son of Edward Winslow Sr. of Droitwich, in Worcestershire, by his wife Magdalene Oliver whom he had married the previous year at St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London.

But Winslow apparently did not fulfill his contract with Beale as about two years later, in 1617, he moved to Leiden, Holland to join the Separatist church there.

[4][5][self-published source] In 1617 Edward Winslow traveled to Leiden Holland to join the English exile Separatist church and help Elder William Brewster with his underground (illicit) printing activities.

On June 10, 1620, Winslow was one of four men – the others being William Bradford, Isaac Allerton, and Samuel Fuller, who wrote a letter representing the Leiden congregation to their London agents John Carver and Robert Cushman regarding the terms upon which the Pilgrims would travel to the Americas.

"[6][7] Winslow and his wife Elizabeth were part of the Leiden Separatist group who had decided to travel far away from England and the repressive regime of King James I to more freely practice their religious beliefs.

Merchant Adventurer investment group agent Thomas Weston assisted in this venture by providing the ship Mayflower for the Pilgrim's journey.

Traveling on the Mayflower in company with the Winslows were his brother Gilbert and family servant/employee George Soule and a youth, Elias Story.

In all there were four unaccompanied More children from Shipton, Shropshire in the care of senior Pilgrims on the Mayflower: Elinor, Jasper, Mary and Richard.

This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children.

After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the shelter of Cape Cod hook, now called Provincetown Harbor, where they anchored on November 11/21.

[12][13] The ill-prepared and poorly supplied colonists lost over half of their population through a multitude of problems – including hunger, scurvy, other diseases and their first bitter winter on the North American mainland.

He blamed Weston, and stated that Governor Carver had worked himself to death that spring and the loss of him and other industrious men lives cannot be valued at any price.

The following year, despite the adversities of the winter, the colonists were able to load the Fortune for England with enough furs and other supplies to pay for over half of their indebtedness to the Merchant Adventurers, but the ship was attacked by the French as it came near the English coast and all the cargo was taken by the privateers.

[17][18] On February 21, 1621, William White died leaving a widow, Susanna, and two sons, Resolved and Peregrine, the first child born in the colony.

[19] Winslow made several voyages back to England in the 1620s, serving as ambassador for the Pilgrims and negotiating with the colony's financial backers.

[28] Winslow lived for a short time in Clapham, Surrey together with a number of radical Puritan merchants, including James Sherley one of the financiers of the Mayflower.

They include: Edward Winslow, along with William Bradford are believed to have prepared a Journal of the Beginning and Proceeding of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England, published in 1622, which is generally known as Mourt's Relation, owing to its preface having been signed by "G.