Nielsen Hayden genealogy

John Howland

John Howland

Male Bef 1599 - 1673  (> 74 years)

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  • Name John Howland  [1
    Birth Bef 1599  Fenstanton, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Gender Male 
    Alternate birth Abt 1599  Fenstanton, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Death 23 Feb 1673  Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 4, 5, 6, 7
    Burial 25 Feb 1673  Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [7
    Siblings 2 siblings 
    Person ID I501  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AW, Ancestor of FF, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of TSW
    Last Modified 12 Sep 2021 

    Father Henry Howland,   b. Abt 1570   d. 17 May 1635, Fenstanton, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 65 years) 
    Mother Margaret,   b. Bef 1575   d. Bef 31 Jul 1629 (Age < 54 years) 
    Marriage Bef 1591  [8
    Family ID F2010  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Elizabeth Tilley,   b. Bef 30 Aug 1607   d. 21 Dec 1687, Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 80 years) 
    Marriage Bef 1624  Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 5, 9, 10
    Children 
    +1. Desire Howland,   b. Abt 1624, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Oct 1683, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 59 years)
    +2. John Howland,   b. 24 Apr 1627   d. Aft 18 May 1699, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 72 years)
    +3. Hope Howland,   b. 30 Aug 1629, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 8 Jan 1683, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 53 years)
     4. Lydia Howland,   b. Abt 1633   bur. Little Neck Cemetery, East Riverside, East Providence, Providence, Rhode Island Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F1356  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 17 Sep 2022 

  • Photos
    John Howland
    Howland Family Chart
    A poster popular among Mormons.

  • Notes 
    • Emigrated on the Mayflower, 1620.

      "It has been traditionally reported that John Howland was born about 1592, based on his reported age at death in the Plymouth church records. However, ages at death were often overstated, and that is clearly the case here. John Howland came as a servant for John Carver, which means he was under 25 years old at the time (i.e. he was born after 1595). William Bradford, in the falling-overboard incident, refers to Howland as a 'lusty young man,' a term that would not likely have applied to a 28-year old given that Bradford himself was only 30. Bradford did call 21-year old John Alden a 'young man' though. Howland's wife Elizabeth was born in 1607: a 32-year old marrying a 17-year old is a relatively unlikely circumstance. Howland's last child was born in 1649: a 57-year old Howland would be an unlikely father. All these taken together demonstrate that Howland's age was likely overstated by at least 5 years. Since he signed the Mayflower Compact, we can assume he was probably at least 18 to 21 years old in 1620." [Caleb Johnson]

      It's worth noting that the entries for John Howland in Anderson's The Great Migration Begins (1995) and The Pilgrim Migration (2004) give John Howland's birth as about 1592, but in 2020's The Mayflower Migration Anderson shifts it to "by 1599".

      Some of the notable descendants of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley listed in The Mayflower 500 by Gary Boyd Roberts (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020):

      Louis Auchincloss
      Humphrey Bogart
      William Jennings Bryan
      The Bush presidents
      Chevy Chase
      Glenn Close
      William Sloane Coffin
      Cecil B. DeMille
      Ralph Waldo Emerson
      Sam Ervin
      Timothy Geithner
      John Lithgow
      Christopher Lloyd
      The Henry Cabot Lodges
      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
      Alice Roosevelt Longworth
      Seth Low
      William H. Macy
      Harriet Monroe
      Sarah Palin
      George Plimpton
      Ezra Pound
      Franklin Delano Roosevelt
      James S. Sherman
      Joseph Smith
      Benjamin Spock
      James Taylor
      Lowell Weicker
      Bill Weld

      Not listed, but a descendant through daughter Desire Howland's marriage to Capt. John Gorham: Benjamin Butler, Union general (1818-1893).

      John Howland (~1599-1673) = Elizabeth Tilley (1607-1687)
      John Howland (1627-1699) = Mary Lee (1630-1693)
      Hannah Howland (1661-1710) = Jonathan Crocker (1662-~1746)
      Hannah Crocker (1688-1751) = Shubael Fuller (1684-1748)
      Lydia Fuller (1709-1778) = Daniel Gates (1706-1776)
      Lydia Gates (1732-1817) = Solomon Mack (1732-1820)
      Lucy Mack (1775-1856) = Joseph Smith (1771-1840)
      Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844)

  • Sources 
    1. [S4384] George Eldridge, Hydrographer, and Eliza Jane His Wife: Their Ancestors and Their Descendants by Henry James Young. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: 1982.

    2. [S4249] The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020.

    3. [S494] MayflowerHistory.com, by Caleb Johnson.

    4. [S940] The Ancestry of Annis Spear, 1775-1858, of Litchfield, Maine by Walter Goodwin Davis. Portland, Maine: The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1945., date only.

    5. [S1647] The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New York Historic Genealogical Society, 2004.

    6. [S3254] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 23, Part 1, John Howland: The First Four Generations of his Children Lydia, Hannah, Joseph, Jabez, Ruth, and Isaac by Ann Smith Lainhart and Robert S. Wakefield. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006.

    7. [S5881] Ancestral Lines, Fourth Edition: 232 Families in England, Wales, the Netherlands, Germany, New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2015.

    8. [S212] The Slovak Yankee, by Martin Hollick.

    9. [S3254] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 23, Part 1, John Howland: The First Four Generations of his Children Lydia, Hannah, Joseph, Jabez, Ruth, and Isaac by Ann Smith Lainhart and Robert S. Wakefield. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006., says "before 25 Mar 1624".

    10. [S5881] Ancestral Lines, Fourth Edition: 232 Families in England, Wales, the Netherlands, Germany, New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2015., says "in 1623".