Arthur Howland

Notes:

"On 5 March 1666/67, the General Court, presided over by Gov. Thomas Prence, fined Arthur Howland, Jr. £5 for 'inveigling of [Gov. Prence's daughter] Mistris Elizabeth Prence and makeing motion of marriage to her, and procecuting the same contrary to her parrents liking, and without theire consent, and directly contrary to theire mind and will.' He was also ordered to find sureties for his future good behavior, and 'in speciall that hee desist from the use of any meanes to obtaine or retaine her affections as aforsaid.' On 2 July 1667 Arthur Howland, Jr. 'did sollemly and seriously engage before this Court, that he will wholly desist and never apply himself for the future, as formerly he hath done, to Mistris Elizabeth Prence in reference unto marriage.' In spite of his pledge not to speak of marriage to Elizabeth Prence again, on 9 December 1667 Arthur Howland, Jr. married Elizabeth Prence, and thus the governor acquired Quaker in-laws. Many of the other Howlands continued their Quaker ways in the new town of Dartmouth, but Arthur Howland, Jr. remained in Marshfield, and on 5 June 1671 he was made constable of Marshfield, where presumably his duties could have included seeing that Quakers fully complied with the law." [Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691 by Eugene Aubrey Stratton. Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986.]

Arthur married Elizabeth Prence on 9 Dec 1667 in Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Prence, Governor of the Plymouth Colony and Apphia Quick) was born about 1647; died after 1711 in Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]