John HOWLAND

ABT 1592 - 23 Feb 1672

  • BIRTH: ABT 1592, Fenstanton, Huntingdon, England
  • EMIGRATION: 1620, Plymouth, Plymouth, MA
  • DEATH: 23 Feb 1672, Rock Nook, Kingston, near Plymouth, MA
Father: Henry HOWLAND
Mother: Margaret

Family 1 : Elizabeth TILLEY
  • MARRIAGE: 14 Aug 1624, Plymouth, Plymouth, MA



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 _Henry HOWLAND _|
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|--John HOWLAND 
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|_Margaret ______|
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[3815] John Howland came on the Mayflower in 1620 as a servant of John Carver. A signer of the
Mayflower Compact, he is best remembered for having fallen off the Mayflower during a
mighty storm, as recorded by William Bradford:

"In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as they could not
bear a know 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."

The Pilgrim John Howland Society
http://www.pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/

"John Howland of the Mayflower"
Elizabeth Pearson White
Picton Press; Rockport, ME; 1990
pp1-7: "The son of Henry and Margaret Howland, John Howland was born about 1592
and grew up in Fenstanton, a town nine miles northwest of Cambridge on the old Roman road."

"The Howlands In America"
William Howland
The Pilgrim John Howland Society
Detroit, MI: 1939

"Ancestry of the Pilgrim John Howland: Fen Stanton Records"
Anthony Wagner
The Howland Quarterly, v.28, no.2 & 3 (Jan & Apr 1964)
(Identifies the correct pilgrim Howland ancestors as being from Fen Stanton;
two other Howland families of Essex are often confused with them.)

"The Truth About the Pilgrims"
Francis R. Stoddard
Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York; New York; 1952

"Certain Comeoverers"
Crapo, Henry Howland
New Bedford, Mass.: E. Anthony & Sons, 1912; p141

"History of Duxbury"
Justin Winsor
Boston, MA: 1849; p269
"Hon. John Howland, arrived 1620, Plymouth, removed to Dux. (Vide first settlers.)
He m. Gov. Carver's da. Elizabeth. She d. 1687, age 81."
[Winsor is but one who fell prey to the legend that Elizabeth was a Carver.]

"A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England"
James Savage
Pub. Boston, 1860-1862, Vol. 2, p. 478-480
(John has an extensive description in Savage, of course.)

"New England Marriages Prior To 1700"
Clarence A. Torrey,
(as found on NEHGS CD-ROM, Boston, 2001)
"HOWLAND, John (-1692/3) & Elizabeth [TILLEY] (1607-1687),
Swansea; ca 14 Aug 1623; Plymouth"


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