Thomas Howes

Thomas Howes (d. 1665)

Mary Unknown (d. 1695)

Thomas Howes died in between 6 and 18 October 1665. He married Mary ___. Howes [1] says that her name is Mary Burr, but there is no evidence of this.

Mrs. Mary Prence, relict of Governor Prence, died at the house of her son Jeremiah Howes on 9 December1695. [2][3] she was buried on 11 December 1695. [3] She married second as his fourth wife Governor Thomas Prence before 1 August 1668. [3][4]

Thomas took the oath of allegiance in January 1639. [2]

The settlement of Yarmouth began in 1639 and Mr. Thomas Howes was one of the original grantees. [2]

Thomas is in the Yarmouth section of the 1643 list of those capable of bearing arms in Plymouth Colony. [2] He was a constable in Yarmouth in 1644.

Thomas was on a committee to divide land in Yarmouth in 1648. He was granted 80 acres of upland and 20 acres of meadow. He was on the committee for the plantation the same year. [2]

By a deed of 4 March 1650, Captain Myles Standish sold a farm in Yarmouth to Mr. Thomas Howes. [5]

Thomas was on the committee of war in 1658. He was a frequent deputy. [2]

Thomas made his will on 26 September 1665. He mentioned his eldest son Joseph, his second son Thomas, his youngest son Jeremiah, his wife Mary, his grandson Samuel. He acknowledged the will and added a codicil on 6 (8) 1665. The will of Mr. Thomas Howes of Yarmouth was exhibited on 7 March 1665/[6?] on oath of his witnesses. Inventory was taken on 18 October 1665 and Mistress Mary Howes made oath to it on 26 February 1665/[6?]. [6]

A memorial erected in 1836 says: [2]

Thomas Howes married Mary Burr; emigrated in 1637 from England, and brought three sons, viz: Thomas, Joseph, and Jeremiah, who was born on the passage.

Children of Thomas and Mary Howes:

i. Joseph Howes died between 17 and 30 January 1694/5, probably in Yarmouth. He married Elizabeth Mayo. [1]

Joseph married the daughter of Reverend John Mayo. [2]

Joseph of Yarmouth wrote his will on 17 January 1694/5. Inventory was taken on 30 January 1694/5. His witnesses swore to his will and his widow Elizabeth took oath to the inventory on 7 February 1694/5. He left bequests to his wife Elizabeth; his sons Samuel, Joseph, John, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Amos Howes; and his daughters Mary Hallett, Elizabeth Merrick, and Hannah Howes. He named his wife and son Joseph his executors; his brother Jeremiah Howes and John Mayo were named overseers. [7]

[Brothers] Thomas, Joseph, and Jeremiah are on a 29 May 1670 list of freemen in Yarmouth. [2]

ii. Captain Thomas Howes died between 15 January 1675/6 and 14 August 1677. He married Sarah Bangs.

Captain Thomas Howes was a soldier in King Philip's War. [2] He died shortly after. [2]

Thomas made his will on 15 January 1675/6, before taking off to war. He mentioned his wife Sarah, his sons Thomas and Jonathan, his daughters Rebecca and Sarah, and the child his wife was pregnant with. He also left bequests to Elizabeth, the daughter of his brother Sparrow, who lived with his family and his mother Prence. He asked his friends and bretheren Jonathan Sparrow, Jonathan Bangs, Jeremiah Howes, and Jonathan Thacher to be helpful to his widow. A witness testified on 14 August 1677. [6]

Sarah Howes, the widow of Captain Thomas Howes, made her will on 26 February 1682/3; it was proved on 3 April 1683. She named her sons Jonathan and Thomas, her daughters Sarah and Rebecca, and Elizabeth Sparrow, who lived with her. She named her brethren Jeremiah Howes and Jonathan Bangs her executors. [6]

Bowman says that the Elizabeth Sparrow of the two wills here was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Sparrow by his first wife Rebecca Bangs, and she had been sent to live with her aunt Sarah Bangs and her family. [8]

iii. Jeremiah Howes died on 9 September 1708 in Yarmouth. He married Sarah Prence.

Endnotes:

1. Joshua Crowell Howes, Genealogy of the Howes Family in America (Yarmouthport: F. Hallett, 1892).

HCD. Ella F. Elliot, "Howes Cemetery, North Dennis, Mass., Inscriptions," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 100 (1946): 320–3.

2. Charles F. Swift, History of Old Yarmouth (Yarmouthport: the author, 1884).

3. Ella Florence Elliot, "Gov. Thomas Prence's Widow Mary, Formerly the Widow of Thomas Howes, and the Inventory of Her Estate," Mayflower Descendant 6 (1904): 230–5.

4. The Editors, "A Receipt of the Heirs of Governor Thomas Prence," Mayflower Descendant 33 (1935): 97–100.

5. "Plymouth Colony Deeds," Mayflower Descendant 13 (1911): 142.

6. "Howes Wills and Inventories," Mayflower Descendant 6 (1904): 157–65.

7. Editor, "Abstracts of Barnstable County Probate Records," Mayflower Descendant 23 (1921): 68.

8. George Ernest Bowman, "Captain Jonathan Sparrow's Wives and Their Children," Mayflower Descendant 14 (1912): 193–203.

Last revised: 17-Aug-2023