John Howland

Abt 1591 - 1673  (~ 82 years)

• Name	John Howland  [1, 2]
  Born	Abt 1591	Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Will	29 May 1672	Plymouth, Massachusetts
  	The Last Will and Testament of mr John howland of Plymouth late Deceased, exhibited to the Court held att Plymouth the fift Day of March Anno Dom 1672 on the oathes of mr Samuell ffuller and mr William Crow as followeth Know all men to whom these prsents shall Come That I John howland senir of the Towne of New Plymouth in the Collonie of New Plymouth in New England in America, this twenty ninth Day of May one thousand six hundred seaventy and two being of whole mind, and in Good and prfect memory and Remembrance praised be God; being now Grown aged; haveing many Infeirmities of body upon mee; and not Knowing how soon God will call mee out of this world, Doe make and ordaine these prsents to be my Testament Containing herein my last Will in manor and forme following; Imp I Will and bequeath my body to the Dust and my soule to God that Gave it in hopes of a Joyfull Resurrection unto Glory; and as Concerning my temporall estate, I Dispose thereof as followeth; Item I Doe give and bequeath unto John howland my eldest sonne besides what lands I have alreddy given him, all my Right and Interest To that one hundred acres of land graunted mee by the Court lying on the eastern side of Tauton River; between Teticutt and Taunton bounds and all the appurtenances and privilidges Therunto belonging, T belonge to him and his heirs and assignes for ever; and if that Tract should faile, then to have all my Right title and Interest by and in that Last Court graunt to mee in any other place, To belonge to him his heires and assignes for ever; Item I give and bequeath unto my son Jabez howland all those my upland and Meadow That I now posesse at Satuckett and Pamet, and places adjacent, with all the appurtenances and privilidges, belonging therunto, and all my right title and Interest therin, To belonge to him his heires and assignes for ever, Item I Give and bequeath unto my son Jabez howland all that my one peece of land that I have lying on the southsyde of the Mill brooke, in the Towne of Plymouth aforsaid; be it more or lesse; and is on the Northsyde of a feild that is now Gyles Rickards senir To belonge to the said Jabez his heirs and assignes for ever; Item I give and bequeath unto Isacke howland my youngest sonne all those my uplands and meddows Devided and undivided with all the appurtenances and priviliges unto them belonging, lying and being in the Towne of Middlebery, and in a tract of Land Called the Majors Purchase near Namassakett Ponds; which I have bought and purchased of William White of Marshfeild in the Collonie of New Plymouth; which may or shall appeer by any Deed or writinges Together with the aformentioned prticulares To belonge to the said Isacke his heirs and assignes for ever; Item I give and bequeath unto my said son Isacke howland the one halfe of my twelve acree lott of Meddow That I now have att Winnatucsett River within the Towne of Plymouth aforsaid To belonge to him and said Isacke howland his heires and assignes for ever; Item I Will and bequeath unto my Deare and loveing wife Elizabeth howland the use and benifitt of my now Dwelling house in Rockey nooke in the Township of Plymouth aforsaid, with the outhousing lands, That is uplands uplands [sic] and meddow lands and all appurtenances and privilidges therunto belonging in the Towne of Plymouth and all other Lands housing and meddowes that I have in the said Towne of Plymouth excepting what meddow and upland I have before given To my sonnes Jabez and Isacke howland During her naturall life to Injoy make use of and Improve for her benifitt and Comfort; Item I give and bequeath unto my son Joseph howland after the Decease of my loveing wife Elizabeth howland my aforsaid Dwelling house att Rockey nooke together with all the outhousing uplands and Medowes appurtenances and privilidges belonging therunto; and all other housing uplands and meddowes appurtenances and privilidges That I have within the aforsaid Towne of New Plymouth excepting what lands and meadowes I have before Given To my two sonnes Jabez and Isacke; To belong to him the said Joseph howland To him and his heires and assignes for ever; Item I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Desire Gorum twenty shillings Item I give and bequeath To my Daughter hope Chipman twenty shillings Item I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Elizabeth Dickenson twenty shillings Item I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Lydia Browne twenty shillings Item I give & bequeath to my Daughter hannah Bosworth twenty shillings Item I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Ruth Cushman twenty shillings Item I give to my Grandchild Elizabeth howland The Daughter of my son John howland twenty shillings Item my will is That these legacyes Given to my Daughters, be payed by my exequitrix in such species as shee thinketh meet; Item I will and bequeath unto my loveing wife Elizabeth howland, my Debts and legacyes being first payed my whole estate: vis: lands houses goods Chattles; or any thing else that belongeth or appertaineth unto mee, undisposed of be it either in Plymouth Duxburrow or Middlbery or any other place whatsoever; I Doe freely and absolutly give and bequeath it all to my Deare and loveing wife Elizabeth howland whom I Doe by these prsents, make ordaine and Constitute to be the sole exequitrix of this my Last will and Testament to see the same truely and faithfully prformed according to the tenour therof; In witness whereof I the said John howland senir have heerunto sett my hand and seale the aforsaid twenty ninth Day of May, one thousand six hundred seaventy and two 1672 Signed and sealed in the prsence of Samuel ffuller John Howland William Crow And a seale
  Biography	From Wikipedia: John Howland (c. 1591 – February 23, 1672/3) was a passenger on the Mayflower. He was an indentured servant and in later years, the executive assistant and personal secretary to Governor John Carver and accompanied the Separatists and other passengers when they left England to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He signed the Mayflower Compact and helped found Plymouth Colony. He signed the Mayflower Compact which is considered the first written constitution for a representative government 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. After the passengers came ashore John Howland became assistant to the governor over the new independent state created under the compact. The act of Governor Carver in making a treaty with the great Indian Sachem Massosoit was an exercise of sovereign power and John Howland was the assistant." John Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, died in April 1621. In 1626, Howland was a freeman and one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony's debt to its investors in England in exchange for a monopoly of the fur trade. He was elected deputy to the General Court in consecutive years from 1641–1655 and again in 1658. English Origins John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England 1602. 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. Although Henry and Arthur Howland were Quakers, John himself held to the original faith of the Puritans. 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, Netherlands. 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. John Howland may have accompanied Carver's household from Leiden when the Speedwell left Delfshaven for Southampton, England, July, 1620. Ansel Ames in Mayflower and Her Log, said that Howland was probably kin of Carver's and that he was more likely a steward or a secretary than a servant. The Separatists planned to travel to the New World, on the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell proved to be unseaworthy and thus most of the passengers crowded onto the Mayflower. In order to finance the voyage to the New World, the Separatists had investors in England. They also had accepted non-separatists to join them on the journey. These passengers, whom the Separatists referred to as "strangers", made up half of those on the Mayflower.[citation needed] The Voyage The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England 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, lying wet and ill. 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. On the way there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter. During the voyage there was a turbulent storm during which John Howland fell overboard. He managed to grab a topsail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely. There is a painting depicting this called "Howland Overboard" by maritime artist Mike Hayward.<http://mayflowerhistory.com/howland/> On November 9/19, 1620, after about three months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. And 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 harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. John Howland was the thirteenth of the 41 "principal" men to sign. In Plymouth Colony The first winter in North America proved deadly for the Pilgrims as half their number perished. The Carver family with whom John lived, survived the winter of 1620-21. However, the following spring, on an unusually hot day in April, Governor Carver, according to William Bradford, came out of his cornfield feeling ill. He passed into a coma and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children 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. 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. Howland accompanied Edward Winslow in the exploration of Kennebec River (in current day Maine), 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." A group of traders from Piscataqua (present day Portsmouth, New Hampshire) led by a man named John Hocking, encroached on the trading ground granted to Plymouth by a patent, by sailing their bark 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. In Plymouth the Howlands lived on the north side of Leyden Street. They lived for a short time in Duxbury 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. 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 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. John Howland died February 23, 1672/3 at the age of 80, having outlived all other male Mayflower passengers except John Cooke, son of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke (John Cooke died in 1695). He is presumed to be buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
  Died	23 Feb 1672/73	Rocky Nook, now Kingston, Massachusetts   [1]
  Buried	Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts
  Person ID	I3884	Our Family
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2016

  
  

  Father	Henry Howland,   d. 1 May 1635, Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England
  Mother	Margaret,   d. Jul 1629
  Married	Y  [1]
  Family ID	F1412	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth Tilley,   b. Abt 1607, Henlow, Bradfordshire, England ,   d. Dec 1687, Swansea, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 80 years)
  Married	Abt 1623  [1]
  Children	1. Desire Howland,   b. Abt 1625, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. 16 Oct 1683, Barnstable, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 58 years)   2. John Howland,   b. 24 Feb 1626/27, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. Aft 18 Jun 1699, Barnstable, Massachusetts  (Age > 72 years)   3. Hope Howland,   b. 30 Aug 1629, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. 9 Jan 1683, Barstable, Massachusetts  (Age 53 years)   4. Elizabeth Howland,   b. Abt 1631, Maine? ,   d. 1691  (Age ~ 60 years)   5. Lydia Howland,   b. Abt 1633, Maine? ,   d. Jan 1710/11, Swansea, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 78 years)   6. Hannah Howland,   b. Abt 1637, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. 1708  (Age ~ 71 years)   7. Joseph Howland,   b. Abt 1640, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. Jan 1703/04, Plymouth, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 64 years)   8. Jabez Howland,   b. Abt 1644, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. Bef 21 Feb 1711/12  (Age ~ 68 years)   9. Ruth Howland,   b. Abt 1646, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. Bef Oct 1679  (Age ~ 33 years)   10. Isaac Howland,   b. 15 Nov 1649, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. 9 Mar 1723/24, Middleboro, Massachusetts  (Age 74 years)
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2016
  Family ID	F1396	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S466] Howland, John Vol 3. [S249] Wikipedia. John Howland