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John Howland (say 1592–1673)
Elizabeth Tilley (bp. 1607–1687), daughter of John Tilley and Joan Hurst.
English Family of John Howland
Henry Howland was buried on 19 May 1635 in Fenstanton. [13] He married Margaret Unknown. [1]
Children of Henry Howland and Margaret Unknown:
i. John Howland
ii. Arthur Howland was buried on 30 Oct 1675 in Marshfield. [14] He married the widow Margaret Reid. [15] She was buried on 22 Jan 1683 in Marshfield. [14]
iii. George Howland died before 24 December 1624.
Humphrey Howland of London, Draper, the brother and administrator of the goods of his deceased brother George Howland, merchant of London, filed a bill on 24 Dec 1644. [13]
iv. Humphrey Howland was born in 1599, based on his freedom from his apprenticeship. [13] He died between 28 May and 10 Jul 1646. He married Anne Unknown. She was buried on 20 Dec 1653 in Barking, county Essex. [16, p. 19]
Humphrey was apprenticed to James Smith of the London Drapers Company on 19 Nov 1613 and was made free on 1 Dec 1620. [13]
v. Margaret Howland married Richard Phillips on 25 Apr 1623 in Fen Stanton. [13]
vi. Simon Howland was living in 1634, according to the records of the London Drapers Company. [13]
Simon, the son of "Henry Howland of Fenny Stanton" was apprenticed to Humphrey Howland of the London Drapers Company in 1622 and was made free on 24 Mar 1629. [13]
vii. Henry Howland died on 1 January 1670/1. [6] He married Mary Unknown. [17] She is mentioned in her husband's will. [17]
Henry, the son of "Henry Howland of Fenny Stanton" was apprenticed to Humphrey Howland of the London Drapers Company on 1 October 1623. There is no further mention of him in the Drapers Company records; he probably did not complete his apprenticeship. [13]
Henry emigrated to New England in 1632. [6]
Henry was on the Plymouth tax list on 25 March 1633. He was on the original list of freemen. He was constable of Duxbury on 5 January 1635/6. He was a frequent member of trial and grand juries. He was fined for refusing to serve on a grand jury on 3 June 1657. He was fined ten shillings for entertaining a meeting in his house contrary to court orders on 2 March 1657/8. On 7 June 1659, citing an order disenfranchising Quakers and other offenders, he was ordered to appear in court in August. On 6 October 1659 his freeman status was taken away. On 1 May 1660 Henry was charged with entertaining another man's wife at his house and for allowing a Quaker meeting in his house and entertaining a foreign Quaker. He denied the first charge, which was not upheld, but was convicted on the second. He was fined four pounds for twice having Quaker meetings at his house on 2 October 1660. He was highway surveyor in Duxbury on 3 June 1668. [17]
Henry signed his will on 28 Nov 1670; inventory on his estate was taken on 14 Jan 1670/1. [17]
John Howland, the son of Henry and Margaret Howland, was born say 1592, probably in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire. [1] He died on 23 February 1672/3 in Plymouth. [1] He married Elizabeth Tilley between 14 August 1623 and the 1623 Division of Land. [1]
Elizabeth, the daughter of John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley was baptized on 30 August 1607 in Henlow, Bedfordshire. [1] She died on 21 December 1687 in Swansea (now in Bristol County, Massachusetts), at the home of her daughter Lydia, the wife of James Brown. [2][3]
John and Elizabeth had 88 grandchildren. [4]
John Howland sailed on the Mayflower as a young indentured servant of John Carver. [4]
William Bradford wrote of John's experience on the Mayflower: [5]
In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hull [lay-to under short sail and drift with the wind] for divers days together. And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull in a mighty storm, a lusty [lively, merry] young man called John Howland, coming upon some occasion above the gratings was, with a seele [roll, pitch] of the ship, thrown into sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung overboard and ran out at length. Yet he held his hold (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again and his life saved. And though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.
When John Carver, the Pilgrims' first governor, died in April 1621 John Howland became a free man and he may also have inherited a portion of John Carver's estate. [4]
John is consistently refered to as "Mr." in the Plymouth court records.
In the 1623 Plymouth Land Division John received four acres as a passenger on the Mayflower. In the 1627 division of cattle, John, his wife Elizabeth, and their two children, John and Desire, were the first four people in the fourth company. [6]
The relations between the Plymouth colonists and the Adventurers became fraught as the colonists' indebtedness to the Adventurers grew. In 1627 eight leading men of Plymouth joined four Adventurers in London in undertaking responsibility for the repayment of the entire debt in return for certain monopolies granted to them by other colonists. These eight men, who along with the four Adventurers called Undertakers, included William Brewster, Edward Winslow, Miles Standish, William Bradford, John Howland, John Alden, Isaac Allerton, and Thomas Prence. [5, 194–6, ch. 18, fn. 5]
The first recorded meeting of the New Plymouth Colony General Court took place on 1 January 1632/3 (all court dates are old style). John—already a freeman—was chosen one of the seven Assistants (cabinet members) to the Governor, a position he would hold for two years. All governments need revenue and one of the courts first acts was to order the collection of taxes. John, as an Assistant, was one of the raters. The taxes, collexted in corn, ranged from nine shillings for most of the households to three pounds and 11 shillings for Isaac Allerton. John was assessed 18 shillings. [1][7, 1: 5, 21, 32]
On 1 March 1635/6 Mr. John Howland was on a committee to view the land on the north side of the South River and decide whether to allocate it to Scituate. [7, vol. 1]
In the 14 March 1635/6 allocation of mowing, Mr. John Howland was to have the land he previously mowed and two loads of hay at Island Creek. In the 7 March 1636/7 allocation, he was given what he had before. [7, vol. 1]
At the 4/5 October 1636 court, it was ordered that the indentured servant John Gardner—having been taken from his master George Kenrick—was to be placed with John Howland and John Howland was to pay George Kenrick three pounds. [7, vol. 1]
By the 1630s the Pilgrims had trading posts from the Connecticut River to Castine, Maine. John Alden and John Howland founded one in Maine on the Kennebec River at the site of the present day Augusta. [4]
William Bradford was granted the right to a tract of land by the Kennebec River and was given the right to apprehend anyone else who attempted to trade their with the Indians there and to seize their ships and goods. In 1634 a man named Hocking, who belonged to the Piscataqua plantation, came up the Kennebec River with a bark and goods to trade. Bradford's associate John Howland was in charge of the trading station their. John told Hocking to leave, but Hocking said he was going to go up the river, effectively intercepting John's trade, and would stay there as long as he pleased. John told him to leave or he would apprehend him if he could. Hocking told him to do his worst and proceeded to go up river and anchor. John took a boat and sent men and went to wear he was anchored. In vain, he entreated him to leave. Realizing that their trade would be lost, he sent a couple of men in a cone to cut the anchor cable so that Hocking would drift down river. When the men came upon Hocking, he fatally shot one of them—a man named Moses Talbot. Another man with John then fatally shot Moses Talbot. The Massachusetts Bay authorities, not yet realizing the provocation came to arrest the man who shot Hocking. In their confusion, they arrested and temporarily imprisoned Mr. Alden, who had no role in the matter. [5, 262–8][8]
Plymouth Colony decided to send soldiers to assist Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut Colony in their war against the Pequot. On 7 June 1637 Mr. Howland of Duxbury was one of those added to the Governor and the Assistants to assess the colonists for the cost of the soldiers' assistance. On the same day Mr. John Howland was one of those added to the Governor and the Assistants to investigate the beaver trade. [7, vol. 1]
On 4 December 1637 John was granted 40 acres at Island Creek Pond. On 5 November 1638 he was granted an island called Spectacle in Green's Harbor. [7, vol. 1]
On 28 July 1640 John Winslow sold his right in the remaining five years of service of his indentured servant Joseph Gross to Mr. John Howland for 12 pounds. [7, vol. 1]
There was no meadow on the island or neck granted to Mr. John Holland, and on 30 November 1640 the court ordered that if there was any meadow between the neck and Mr. Bradford's island, John should have it; otherwise, he would have whatever meadow was found thereabouts. [7, vol. 1]
John was a deputy for Plymouth to the General Court 19 times between 1 June 1641 and 5 June 1667. [6]
Mr. John Howland was granted six acres of meadow, if it were there to be had, on 17 October 1642. [7, vol. 2]
John is in the Plymouth section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [9]
Mr. John Howland was appointed to help lay a highway from Mr. Bradford's farm to the bay on 20 August 1644. John was appointed to a committee to stake out a highway from Jones's River to Massachusetts Path on 4 June 1648. Mr. Howland and Mr. Alden were to be added to the Treasurer to take account of the Kennebec trade on 7 June 1648. [7, vol. 2]
On 22 July 1648 John was on an inquest into the death of the four-year-old daughter of Alice Bishop. Alice later confessed to murdering her child and was executed. [7, vol. 2]
He was surveyor of highways in Plymouth on 6 June 1649, 4 June 1650. [7, vol. 2]
John (or his son John) was one of the 26 men who purchased land for Middleboro from the Indian sachem Wampatuck in March 1662. [10] In 1664, land was laid out near Namasket (Middleboro) for Mr. John Howland. [11]
John Howland, Sr. of New Plymouth made his will on 29 May 1672. He left his eldest son John, beside what he had already given him, 100 acres that had been granted to him on the east side of the Taunton River. He left his son Jabez all of his upland and meadow at Satuckett, Paomett and adjacent places. He left his younget son Isaac land in Middleborough and land near Namassackett Ponds that he had bought from William White, as wll as half of a 12-acre lot in the town of Plymouth. He left his wife Elizabeth the use of his house in Rocky Nook and all the land around it in the town of Plymouth for her natural life. He left his son Joseph this house and land after Elizabeth's decease. He left 20 shillings apiece to his daughters Desire Gorham, Hope Chipman, Elizabeth Dickenson, Lydia Browne, Hannah Bosworth, and Ruch Cushman and to his granddaughter Elizabeth, the son of John. He left Elizabeth all the rest of his estate. John's inventory was taken on 3 March 1672/[5?] and exhibited at court on 5 March 1672/[5?] on the oath of the widow Elizabeth. It contained books and without real estate and net of debts in amounted to 157 pounds, eight shillings and eight pence. [12]
Elizabeth made her will on 17 December 1686; she says she is 79. She left her substantial collection of bedding to her children and her dresses to her three daughters. She left her son John five pounds and her copy of Mr. Tindale's works. She left her son Joseph "stillyards." She left her son Jabez her great iron pot and pot hooks. She left her son Isaac Wilson's book on the Romans and a great brass kettle. She left her son-in-law James Brown her great bible and her daughter Lydia Brown andirons, a lesser brass kettle and a small bible. She also mentions her daughters Elizabeth Dickenson and Hannah Bosworth, a Bursley granddaughter, one of Joseph's sons, Brown granndchildren and a Cushman granddaugher. [3]
Children of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley: All born in Plymouth [1]
i. Desire Howland was born say 1624. She died on 13 October 1683 in Barnstable. She married Captain John Gorham.
ii. John Howland was born on 24 April 1627. He married Mary Lee on 26 October 1651 in Plymouth.
iii. Hope Howland was born on 30 August 1629. [1, no primary source known] She married John Chipman. [1] John married second Ruth (Sargent) (Winslow) Bourne, the widow of Reverend Richard Bourne.
iv. Elizabeth Howland was born say 1631. She married first Ephraim Hicks on 13 September 1649 in Plymouth. [1] She married second John Dickinson on 10 July 1651 in Plymouth. [1]
v. Lydia Howland was born say 1633. She died after 11 January 1711. [1] She married James Brown about 1654. [1] John, the son of John and Dorothy Brown, was probably born in England about 1623 and died on 29 September 1710, age 87, in Swansea. [1]
vi. Hannah Howland was born say 1637. She died in 1705 in Swansea. [1] She married Jonathan Bosworth on 6 July 1661 in Swansea. [1] Jonathan, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Bosworth, was born about 1636 and died before 10 June 1717 in Swansea. [1]
vii. Joseph Howland was born about 1640. [1] He died in January 1703/4 in Plymouth. [1] He married Elizabeth Southworth on 7 December 1664 in Plymouth. [1] Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas Southworth and Elizabeth Reynor. [1]
viii. Jabez Howland was born about 1644. [1] He died before 6 February 1711/2 in Bristol. [1] He mararied Bethia Thacher by 1699, probably at Yarmouth. [1] Bethia, the daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth (Jones) Thacher, was probably born about 1645 in Yarmouth and died on 19 December 1725 in Bristol. [1]
ix. Ruth Howland was born about 1646. [1] She deid before 16 October 1675. She married Thomas Chipman on 17 November 1664 in Plymouth. [1] Thomas, the son of Thomas and Mary (Allerton) Chipman, was born about September 1637 in Plymouth and died on 23 August 1726 in Plympton. [1] He married second Abigail (Titus) Fuller on 16 October 1675 in Rehoboth. [1]
x. Isaac Howland was born was born about 1649. He died on 9 March 1723/4 in Middleborough. He married Elizabeth Vaughan.
References:
1. Ann Smith Lainhart and Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 23 Family of John Howland (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006).
2. George Ernest Bowman, "Mayflower Genealogies: I. Vital Statistics of Mayflower Passengers," Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 114–120.
3. "George Ernest Bowman, "Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland's Will," Mayflower Descendant 3 (1901): 54–57.
4. Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower (New York: Viking, 2006).
5. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647, edited and annotated by Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).
6. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 1016–24.
7. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of Plymouth Colony: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1640, vol. 2, 1641–1651, vol. 3, 1651–1661, vol. 4, 1661–1668, vol. 5, 1668–1678, vol. 6, 1678–1691 (Boston: William White, 1855, 1866).
8. A.L. Russell, "Affray at Kennebec, 1634," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9 (1855): 80.
9. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, "List of Those Able to Bear Arms in the Colony of New Plymouth 1643," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 4 (1850): 255–9.
10. First Church in Middleborough, Mass.: Mr. Putnam's Century and Half Discourses, an Historical Account, and a Catalogue of Members (Boston: C.C.P. Moody, printer, 1990.
11. Editors, "Sketches of the Early History of Middleborough, in the County of Plymouth," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 2 (1849): 213–20, 330–44.
12. George Ernest Bowman, "John Howland's Will and Inventory," Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 70–77.
13. Clarence Almon Torrey, "The Howland Ancestry," The American Genealogist 12, 1937, 214–5.
14. Robert M. Sherman and Ruth Wilder Sherman, Vital Records of Marshfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers, 1970).
15. George E. McCracken, "The Will of Arthur Howland, Senior, of Marshfield," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 104 (1950): 221–5.
16. Franklyn Howland, A Brief Genealogical and Biographical History of Arthur, Henry, and John Howland and their Descendants (New Bedford, MA: Howland, 1885).
17. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620–1691 ( Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986).
Last revised: 29-Feb-2024