Wills of John Howland and of Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland of Swansea (1686), transcribed by Pilgrim Hall Museum

Elizabeth’s will begins: “Elizabeth Howland of Swanzey in ye County of Bristoll … being Seventy nine yeares of Age but of good & perfect memory.” She charged her children to “walke in ye Feare of ye Lord, and in Love and peace towards each other.” To her son John, with £5, “my Booke called Mr Tindale’s Workes”; to her son Isaac “my Booke called Willson on ye Romanes” (Thomas Wilson’s commentary on Romans); to her son-in-law James Browne “my great bible”; to her daughter Lidia Browne “my small Bible & my booke of mr Robbinsons Workes called Observations Divine & Morrall” (John Robinson, the Pilgrims’ pastor at Leiden). Four sheep to her granddaughter Desire Cushman; a lot of land with meadow at Duxbury to her grandson Nathaniel Howland; her daughters to share “my wearing clothes linnen and Woollen and all the rest of my Estate.” Executors James Browne and her son Jabez Howland. Proved 10 Jan 1687/8.