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John Howland (February 23, 1673) was an English
indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as paymen ...
who accompanied the
English Separatists English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestants who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries. English Dissenters opposed state interference in religious matters and founded their own churches, educationa ...
and other passengers when they left England on the to settle in
Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...
. In later years, he was an executive assistant and personal secretary to Governor John Carver. In 1620 he signed the
Mayflower Compact The Mayflower Compact, originally titled Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth, was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the men aboard the ''Mayflower,'' consisting of Separatist Puritans, adventurers, a ...
and helped found the colony. During his service to Governor Carver in 1621, Howland assisted in the making of a treaty with the Sachem Massasoit of the
Wampanoag The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and forme ...
. In 1626, he was a freeman and one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony's debt to its investors in exchange for a monopoly on the fur trade.Philbrick, Pg. 168 He was elected deputy to the Plymouth General Court in 1641 and held the position until 1655, and again in 1658.


English origins

John Howland was born in Fenstanton,
Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, around 1592. He was the son of Margaret and Henry Howland, and the brother of Henry and Arthur Howland, who emigrated later from England to
Marshfield, Massachusetts Marshfield is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on Massachusetts's South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore. The population was 25,825 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It includes the census-designated places ...
. Although Henry and Arthur Howland were
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...
, John himself held to the original faith of the Separatist Pilgrims.


''Speedwell'' and ''Mayflower''

William Bradford, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony for many years, wrote in '' Of Plymouth Plantation'' that Howland was a man-servant of John Carver. Carver was the deacon of the Separatists church while the group resided in
Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
,
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. At the time the Leiden congregation left the Netherlands on the '' Speedwell'', Carver was in England securing investments, gathering other potential passengers, and chartering the ''Mayflower'' for the journey to
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. Howland may have accompanied Carver's household from Leiden when the ''Speedwell'' left
Delfshaven Delfshaven () is a borough of Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the right bank of river Nieuwe Maas. It was a separate municipality until 1886. The town of Delfshaven grew around the port of the city of Delft. Delft itself was not located on a major ri ...
for
Southampton, England Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, in July 1620. The Separatists planned to travel to the
New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
on the ''Speedwell'' and the ''Mayflower''. The ''Speedwell'' proved to be unseaworthy, and thus most of the passengers crowded onto the ''Mayflower''.


Voyage

The ''Mayflower'' departed
Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, on September 6/16, 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship's timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, getting wet. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, contributed to sicknesses. On the way, there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger. After arriving at their destination, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.Eugene Aubrey Stratton, ''Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691,'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 413 During the voyage there was a turbulent storm during which Howland fell overboard. He managed to grab a topsail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely. On November 9/19, 1620, after about three months at sea, including a month of delays in England, the crew and passengers spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called
Provincetown Harbor Provincetown Harbor is a large harbor#Natural harbors, natural harbor located in the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, Provincetown, Massachusetts. The harbor is mostly deep and stretches roughly from northwest to southeast and from northea ...
. After they struggled for several days to get south to their planned destination of the
Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...
, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. Howland was the thirteenth of the 41 "principal" men to sign.


Plymouth Colony

The first winter in North America proved deadly for the Pilgrims as almost half their number perished. The Carver family, with whom Howland lived, survived the winter of 1620-21. However, the following spring, on an unusually hot day in April, Carver, according to William Bradford, came out of his cornfield feeling ill. He passed into a
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...
and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children had died while they lived in Leiden, and it is possible that Howland inherited their estate. In 1621, after Carver's death, Howland became a freeman.Philbrick. Pg. 102 In 1624, he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household including himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter, and a boy named William Latham. In the several years after becoming a freeman, he served at various times as selectman, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways, and as member of the fur committee. In 1626, he was asked to participate in assuming the colony's debt to its investors to enable the colony to pursue its own goals without the pressure to remit profits back to England. The "undertakers" paid the investors £1,800 to relinquish their claims on the land, and £2,400 for other debt. In return the group acquired a monopoly on the colony's fur trade for six years.Stone. Pg. 7 Howland accompanied
Edward Winslow Edward Winslow (18 October 15958 May 1655) was a English Separatist, Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both ...
in the exploration of
Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...
(in current day
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
), looking for possible fur trading sites and natural resources that the colony could exploit. He also led a team of men that built and operated a fur trading post there. While Howland was in charge of the colony's northerly trading post, an incident occurred there that Bradford described as "one of the saddest things that befell them."Bradford, William, ''Of Plymouth Plantation'', Edited by Harold Paget. (E.P. Dutton & Company. 1920), Pg. 253-256 A group of traders from Piscataqua (present day
Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on ...
) led by a man named John Hocking, encroached on the trading ground granted to Plymouth by a patent, by sailing their
bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...
up the river beyond their post. Howland warned Hocking to depart, but Hocking, brandishing a pistol and using foul language, refused. Howland ordered his men to approach the bark in a canoe and cut its cables setting it adrift. The Plymouth men managed to cut one cable when Hocking put his pistol to the head of Moses Talbot, one of Howland's men, and shot and killed him. Another of the Howland group shot Hocking to death in response.Stone. Pgs. 7-9 In Plymouth, the Howlands lived on the north side of Leyden Street. They lived for a short time in
Duxbury Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 ...
Hurd. Pg. 357 and then moved to Kingston where they had a farm on a piece of land referred to as Rocky Nook. The farm burned down in 1675 during
King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...
. By that time, John had died and Elizabeth moved in with her son, Jabez. Before moving to Rhode Island, Jabez Howland owned a home in Plymouth at 33 Sandwich Street. The house was built by Jacob Mitchell in about 1667 and was sold to Jabez Howland. John and Elizabeth had wintered in the house, and Elizabeth lived there from 1675, when the Rocky Nook farm was burned down, until Jabez sold it in 1680. It is the only house standing in Plymouth in which ''Mayflower'' passengers lived.


Elizabeth Tilley

Until Bradford's ''Of Plymouth Plantation'' was discovered in 1856, it was presumed that Howland's wife, formerly Elizabeth Tilley, was the adopted daughter of the Carvers. (Her parents, uncle and aunt who came to the New World died of sickness during the first winter.) This error was even recorded on a gravestone that was erected for Howland on Burial Hill, in 1836. However, the Bradford journal revealed that she was, in fact, the daughter of John Tilley and his wife, Joan (Hurst). Elizabeth Tilley Howland was born in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England where she was baptized in August, 1607. She and her parents were passengers on the ''Mayflower''. John Tilley and his wife Joan both died the first winter as did his brother Edward Tilley and wife Ann. This left Elizabeth an
orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...
and so she was taken in by the Carver family. The Carvers died about a year later, and part of their estate was inherited by Howland, and Elizabeth became his ward.Caleb H. Johnson, ''The Mayflower and Her Passengers'', (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), pp. 237-238Charles Edward Banks, ''The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers'' (New York: Grafton Press, 1929), p. 87 In 1623/24, she married Howland.


Children

* Desire was born about 1624 and died in Barnstable October 13, 1683. She married John Gorham in Plymouth by 1644 and had eleven children. She was buried at Cobb's Hill Cemetery, Barnstable, Mass. * John was born in Plymouth on February 24, 1626/7, and died in Barnstable after June 18, 1699. He married Mary Lee in Plymouth on October 26, 1651, and had ten children. * Hope was born in Plymouth about 1629 and died in Barnstable on January 8, 1683. She married John Chipman about 1647 and had twelve children. She was buried at Lothrop Hill Cemetery, Barnstable, Mass. * Elizabeth was born about 1631 and died in Oyster Bay, New York, in October 1683. She married John Dickinson (1602-1682). Their daughter, Mehitable (1667-1716), married Thomas Cheshire (1663-1715). Many of their descendants are still on Long Island, NY. * Lydia was born about 1633 and died in Swansea January 1710/11. She married James Brown(e) about 1655 and had four children. * Hannah was born about 1637. She married Jonathan Bosworth in Swansea on July 6, 1661, and had nine children. * Joseph was born about 1640 and died in Plymouth in January 1703/04. He married Elizabeth Southworth in Plymouth on December 7, 1664, and had nine children. * Jabez was born about 1644 and died before February 21, 1711/12. He married Bethiah Thatcher by 1669 and had eleven children. * Ruth was born about 1646 and died before October 1679. She married Thomas Cushman in Plymouth on November 17, 1664, and had three children. * Isaac was born in Plymouth on November 15, 1649, and died in Middleboro on March 9, 1723/4. He married Elizabeth Vaughn by 1677 and had eight children. He was buried at Cemetery At The Green, Middleboro, Mass.''A genealogical profile of John Howland,'' (a collaboration of Plimoth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society accessed 2013), http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/howland_john.pdf . ''Robert Anderson'', ''Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: John Howland'' (a collaboration between American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society), http://www.americanancestors.org/pilgrim-families-john-howland/ .


Deaths and burials of John and Elizabeth

John Howland died February 23, 1672/3 at the age of 80, having outlived most of the other male ''Mayflower'' passengers except George Soule (who died in 1679), John Alden (died 1687), and John Cooke (died 1695, and was the son of Mayflower passenger
Francis Cooke Francis Cooke (c.1583 – April 7, 1663) was a Leiden Separatist, who went to America in 1620 on the Pilgrim ship ''Mayflower'', which arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a signer of ...
). Richard More, one of the 'Mayflower Bastards' died after 19 March 1693/4, but before 20 April 1696, and was buried in Salem, Massachusetts. Howland is presumed to be buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Tilley outlived her husband by 15 years. She died December 21 or 22, 1687, in the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown, in
Swansea, Massachusetts Swansea is a town in Bristol County in southeastern Massachusetts, United States. It is located at the mouth of the Taunton River, just west of Fall River, south of Boston, and southeast of Providence, Rhode Island. The population was 17,14 ...
, and is buried in a section of that town which is now in East Providence, Rhode Island.


Notable Descendants

John and Elizabeth Howland founded one of the three largest ''Mayflower'' families and their descendants have been "associated largely with both the ' Boston Brahmins' and Harvard's 'intellectual aristocracy' of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." Notable descendants include: * Maude Adams (Actress) *
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(Actor) * Daniel Baldwin (Actor) * Stephen Baldwin (Actor) * William Baldwin (Actor) *
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(43rd U.S. President) *
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(Former Florida Governor) * Mary Chapin Carpenter (Singer/Song Writer) * Florence Earle Coates (Poet) * James Marlan Coughtry (Baseball Player) * George Howard Earle III (American politician and diplomat) *
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(Continental Congress President) * Esther Allen Howland (Creator of American Valentines) * Charles P. Howland (Football Coach) * Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (U.S. Senator) *
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(32nd U.S. President) * Lillian Russell (Actress) * Salome Sellers (Last verified person to be born in the 18th century) * Joseph Smith Jr. (Founder of the Church of Latter-day Saints) * Dr. Benjamin Spock (Writer) * Justin Winsor (Writer) *
William H. Macy William Hall Macy Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He is a two-time Emmy Award and four-time Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and has been nominated for an Acade ...
(Actor) * John Howland (doctor) (Founded First Pediatric Department in the U.S.) * Justice Robert Jackson (U.S. Supreme Court Justice) * George C. Remey (U.S. Admiral) *
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(Actor) * Eliza Howland (Writer) *
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(Actor) * Jane G. Austin (Writer) * Eville Gorham (Environmentalist) *
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(U.S. Senator) * Wesley James Gunter (Beer Enthusiast & Local Philly Bar Celebrity) * Alfred Cornelius Howland (Painter) * Albert Alexander Hyde (Industrialist) * John Gorham (Industrialist)


Footnotes


Bibliography

*


External links


Pilgrim John Howland Society



Howland Family Tree 1


{{DEFAULTSORT:Howland, John 1590s births 1673 deaths Burials at Burial Hill American indentured servants English emigrants Mayflower passengers People from Fenstanton English domestic workers Howland family