John Howland

Mayflower passenger, 1620, a servant in Governor John Carver’s household, and a signer of the Mayflower Compact (Caleb Johnson, MayflowerHistory.com). His parents are given as Henry and Margaret Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire (WikiTree), and his brothers Henry and Arthur later settled at Marshfield (Wikipedia).

In a storm on the crossing, Bradford wrote, “a lustie yonge man (called John Howland) coming upon some occasion above ye grattings, was, with a seele of the shipe throwne into [ye] sea; but it pleased God yt he caught hould of ye top-saile halliards” and held on “though he was sundrie fadomes under water,” until he was hauled back aboard with a boat hook; “though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church & commone wealthe.” (The quotation is from the 1898 edition of Bradford’s History, Project Gutenberg.)

He was one of the ten men of the exploring party of 6 Dec 1620: “Captaine Standish, Maister Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslowe, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Houland, and three of London, Richard Warren, Steeuen Hopkins, and Edward [Doten]” (Mourt’s Relation, 1622). His wife’s father John Tilley and Richard Warren, both also ancestors, were in the same party, which met the “First Encounter” two days later.

Bradford names him among the partners, with Standish, Brewster, Alden and Allerton, “in a trade of beaver skines & other furrs arising in New-England.” Under 1634 Bradford tells how Hocking, of the Piscataqua plantation, took his bark up the Kennebec above Plymouth’s trading house. The man in charge “sente a cuple in a canow to cutt his cable,” and Hocking shot one of them “in ye head … so he fell downe dead instantly”; then “One of his fellows (that loved him well) could not hold, but with a muskett shot Hocking, who fell downe dead and never speake word.” Bradford does not name the man in charge; Wikipedia and WikiTree identify him as Howland, and the dead Plymouth man as Moses Talbot (compiled).

He was a deputy to the General Court from 1641: 1641-1655 and 1658 by Wikipedia, about thirty years between 1641 and 1667 by WikiTree. About 1651 Bradford wrote that he “maried the doughter of John Tillie, Elizabeth, and they are both now living, and have 10. children, now all living; and their eldest daughter hath 4. children.”

The colony recorded his death on 23 Feb 1672/3: “Hee was a godly man and an ancient professor in the wayes of Christ; hee lived untill hee attained above eighty yeares in the world. Hee was one of the first comers into this land, and proved a usefull instrument of good in his place, & was the last man that was left of those that came over in the shipp called the May flower, that lived in Plymouth” (PCR 8:34, as quoted on WikiTree). He was “with honor Intered” on 25 Feb.

Open questions

• Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Howland volume) has not been checked; it should carry the line down to Lucy (Bennett) Ellis.
• His parents (Henry and Margaret Howland of Fenstanton) are from WikiTree, unverified here.