John Howland

BORN:   About 1599*, Fenstanton, Huntingdon, England, son of Henry and Margaret (---) Howland
DIED:   23 or 24 February 1672/3, Rocky Nook, Kingston, MA.  (the Plymouth Colony Court Records say he died on 23 February, the Plymouth Church Records say he died 24 February).
MARRIED:   Elizabeth Tilley, daughter of John and Joan (Hurst)(Rogers) Tilley of the Mayflower, about 1624.

* The traditional date that has been ascribed to John Howland's birth is "about 1592", and this has never really been questioned.  However, a birth about 1599 is clearly a better estimate for the following reasons:

• John Howland is called a "manservant" in William Bradford's passenger list.  Servants were contracted out until the age of 25.  Thus, Howland must have been under 25 in 1620, meaning he had to have been born after 1595.  Since Howland signed the Mayflower Compact, he must have been born sometime before 1600 to have been legally old enough to sign.
• John Howland's wife was born in 1607, and it is most unlikely that he, at the age of 32, married a 17 year old girl as his first wife.  Most men married about age 25, and since his marriage occurred about 1624, this would place his likely birth at 1599.
• John Howland's last child was born in 1649.  If the 1592 date were accepted, he would have fathered a child at the age of 57, a most unlikely circumstance.
• William Bradford writes in that John Howland was a "lusty young man" in 1620.  It is unlikely that Bradford would call a 28-year old a "young man".  The only other person Bradford called a "young man" in 1620 was John Alden, who was born in 1599.

CHILDREN:

NAME	BIRTH	DEATH	MARRIAGE
Desire	c1625, Plymouth	13 October 1683, Barnstable, MA	John Gorham, c1643
John	24 April 1627, Plymouth	after 1699	Mary Lee, 26 October 1651, Plymouth
Hope	30 August 1629, Plymouth	8 January 1683/4, Barnstable	John Chipman, c1647
Elizabeth	c1631, possibly in Maine	1691, Oyster Bay, NY	(1). Ephraim Hicks, 13 September 1649, Plymouth (2). John Dickinson, 10 July 1651, Plymouth
Lydia	c1633, possibly in Maine	aft. 11 January 1710/11	James Brown, c1654
Hannah	c1637, possibly in Maine	unknown	Jonathan Bosworth, probably on 6 July 1661
Joseph	c1640, Kingston, MA	January 1703/4, Plymouth	Elizabeth Southworth, 7 December 1664, Plymouth
Jabez	c1644, Kingston, MA	between 1708 and 1712	Bethiah Thacher, c1668
Ruth	c1646, Kingston, MA	between 1672 and 16 October 1679	Thomas Cushman, 17 November 1664, Plymouth
Isaac	15 November 1649, Kingston, MA	9 March 1723/4, Middleboro, MA	Elizabeth Vaughan, c1676, probably at Marshfield, MA

ANCESTRAL SUMMARY:

The ancestry of John Howland is discussed in John Howland of the Mayflower through Desire Howland for Five Generations", Vol. 1, by Elizabeth Pearson White, available from the Mayflower Web Page bookstore.  John Howland is the son of Henry and Margaret Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdon, England.  Henry died on 17 May 1635 in Fenstanton, and Margaret was buried on 31 July 1629. Besides son John, who came on the Mayflower, they also had Humphrey, Arthur, Henry, George, and Margaret. Henry came to Plymouth sometime before 1633, and Arthur came sometime before 1640. For information on Arthur Howland, see the National Genealogical Society Quarterly 71:84+, and for information on Henry Howland see NGSQ 75:105-116, 216-225.

John Howland is an ancestor to President George Bush, and to First Lady Edith (Carrow) Roosevelt (Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt).  Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford are descendants of John Howland's brother Henry.  Winston Churchill is descended from John Howland's brother Arthur.

Will of John Howland
Will of Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:

John Howland came on the Mayflower as a servant to John Carver.  He is best remembered for having fallen off the Mayflower during a mighty storm, as recorded by Bradford:

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 for divers days together. And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull in a mighty storm, a lusty young man called John Howland, coming upon some occasion above the gratings was, with a seele of the ship, thrown into the 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 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.

John Howland's wife was Elizabeth Tilley, the daughter of John Tilley and Joan (Hurst) Rogers (all were Mayflower passengers). Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland died on 21 December 1687, in Swansea, Massachusetts.

SOURCES:

Elizabeth Pearson White, John Howland of the Mayflower through Desire Howland for Five Generations, vol. 1 (Camden: Picton Press, 1990).

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins 2:1020-1024 (Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1995).

Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Its History and Its People, 1620-1691 (Ancestor Publishers: Salt Lake City, 1986).

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison (New York: Random House, 1952).

Gary Boyd Roberts,  "The Mayflower Descents of President George Herbert Walker Bush, First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush, and Vice President James Danforth Quayle," Mayflower Descendant, 41:1-8.

Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents (Carl Boyer, 3d: Santa Clarita, 1995).