John Howland
Encyclopedia
John Howland was a passenger on the Mayflower
. He was an indentured servant
who accompanied the separatists, also called the Pilgrims, when they left England
to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He signed the Mayflower Compact
and helped found Plymouth Colony
.
Having outlived John Carver
, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, to whom he was indentured, Howland became freeman in 1621 and perhaps inherited some of Carver's estate. In 1626, Howland was one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony's debt to its investors in England in exchange for a monopoly of the fur trade. He was elected deputy to the General Court
in consecutive years from 1641–1655 and again in 1658.
Howland married fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, and together they had ten children and 88 grandchildren. The couple founded one of the three largest Mayflower progenies and their descendants have been "associated largely with both the 'Boston Brahmins' and Harvard's 'intellectual aristocracy' of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
John Howland died February 23, 1672/3 at the age of 80, having outlived all other male Mayflower passengers except John Cooke, who died in 1695. The location of his grave is unknown, but it presumed that he is buried on Burial Hill
in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Tilley outlived her husband by 15 years. She died December 21, 1681, in the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown, in Swansea, Massachusetts
, and is buried in a section of that town which is now in East Providence, RI.
, Huntingdonshire
, England
around 1591. He was the son of Margaret and Henry Howland, and the brother of Henry and Arthur Howland, who emigrated later from England to Marshfield, Massachusetts
. Although Henry and Arthur Howland were Quakers, John himself was a member of the Orthodox
Puritan
church.
William Bradford
, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony for many years, wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation
, that Howland was a man-servant of John Carver. Carver was the deacon of the separatist church while the group resided in Leiden, Netherlands
. At the time the Leiden congregation left the Netherlands, on the Speedwell
, Carver was in England securing investments, gathering other potential passengers, and chartering the Mayflower for the journey to North America
. John Howland may have accompanied Carver's household from Leiden when the Speedwell left Delfshaven
for Southampton, England, July, 1620. Ansel Ames in Mayflower and Her Log, said that Howland was probably kin of Carver's and that he was more likely a steward or a secretary than a servant.
The separatist planned to travel to the New World
, on the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell proved to be unseaworthy and thus most of the passengers crowded onto the Mayflower. During the voyage there was a turbulent storm during which John Howland fell overboard. He managed to grab a topsail
halyard
that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely.
instead. They had also considered heading for New England, the coast of which was mapped several years earlier by Smith, but were unable to secure a patent, or grant from the king. So they set out for the mouth of the Hudson River
, present day New York
, which was the northern most part of the Virginia Colony.
Having travelled for 65 days against the force of the Gulf Stream
and westerly winds, at an average speed of two miles per hour since leaving England, the crew of the Mayflower first spotted land on November 9, 1620. They were 220 miles north of the Hudson, off the coast of Cape Cod
. With no way of calibrating latitude, the ship's captain had not known how far off course the storms they had encountered had tossed them. When it became apparent where they were, the captain attempted to head south to the Hudson. There was at that time no charts of the course they were attempting to traverse. According to Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War the Pilgrims apparently did not have Smith's charts with them as they would have realized that they were much closer to the mouth of the Charles River
which lay to the north. Locating a river on which to settle was not the only consideration, however, they also needed to land somewhere with a governing patent.
In order to finance the voyage to the New World, the separatist had investors back in England, they also had accepted non-separatists to join them on the journey. These passengers, whom the separatists referred to as "strangers", made up half of those on the Mayflower. When it became apparent that they were going to land in territory for which they had no patent, tension began to arise between the two groups. It was decided that before they set foot on the continent, they had to draw up some type of governing document. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. John Howland was the thirteenth of the 41 "principal men" to sign.
and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children died while they lived in Leiden and it is possible that Howland inherited their estate. Since he no longer owed indenture to Carver, he became a freeman. In 1624 he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household including himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter, and a boy named William Latham.
Until Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation was discovered in 1856, it was presumed that John Howland's wife, Elizabeth Tilley, was the adopted daughter or of Carver's. (Her parents, uncle and aunt that came to the New World died of sickness during the first winter.) This mistake was even recorded on a gravestone that was erected for Howland on Burial Hill, in 1836. However, the Bradford journal revealed that she was, in fact, the daughter of John Tilley
and his wife, Joan (Hurst). Elizabeth Tilley was born in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England
where she was baptized in August, 1607. She and her parents were passengers on the Mayflower. Her parents did not survive the first winter in Plymouth and so she joined the Carver household. In 1623/24, she married John Howland. At that time she was about 16 years of age while he was about 30.
In Plymouth the Howlands lived on the north side of Leyden [Leiden] Street. They lived for a short time in Duxbury and then moved to Kingston
where they had a farm on a piece of land referred to as Rocky Nook. The farm burned down in 1675 during King Philip's War
. By that time, John had died and Elizabeth moved in with her son, Jabez.
Together Elizabeth and John had ten children and 88 grandchildren. They founded one of the three largest progenies of Mayflower decedents. John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, and Richard Warren founded the other two. The Howland's son John married Mary Lee, Oct 26, 1651 and settled in Barnstable as did his sister, Desire Howland Gorum (1623–1683) who married John Gorham abt 1643. Elizabeth Howland Dickerson and her sister Hope also settled in Barnstable. Hope married John Chipman. Jabez married Bethia Thatcher and settled in Bristol, R.I. Isaac married Elizabeth Vaughan and settled in Middleborough. Ruth Howland Cushman and her brother, Joseph settled in Plymouth. He married Elizabeth Southworth in 1664. Hannah married Jonathan Bosworth and settled in Hull. Lydia Howland Browne settled in Swansea. Elizabeth was living with Lydia in Swansea at the time of her death, December 21, 1687.
Before moving to Rhode Island, Jabez Howland owned a home in Plymouth at 33 Sandwich Street. The house was built by Jacob Mitchell about 1667 and was sold to Jabez Howland. John and Elizabeth had wintered in the house, and Elizabeth lived there from 1675, when the Rocky Nook farm was burned down, until Jabez sold it in 1680. It is the only house standing in Plymouth in which Mayflower passengers lived.
, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways, and as member of the fur committee. In 1626, he was asked to participate in assuming the colony's debt to its investors to enable the colony to pursue its own goals without the pressure to remit profits back to England. The "undertakers" paid the investers £1,800 to relinquish their claims on the land, and £2,400 for other debt. In return the group acquired a monopoly on the colony's fur trade for six years.Stone. Pg. 7
Howland accompanied Edward Winslow
in the exploration of Kennebec River
(in current day Maine
), looking for possible fur trading sites and natural resources that the colony could exploit. He also led a team of men that built and operated a fur trading post there. While Howland was in charge of the colony's northerly trading post, an incident occurred there that Bradford described as "one of the saddest things that befell them." A group of traders from Piscataqua
(present day Portsmouth, New Hampshire
) led by a man named John Hocking, encroached on the trading ground granted to Plymouth by a patent, by sailing their bark
up the river beyond their post. Howland warned Hocking to depart, but Hocking, brandishing a pistol and using foul language, refused. Howland ordered his men to approach the bark in a canoe and cut its cables setting it adrift. The Plymouth men managed to cut one cable when Hocking put his pistol to the head of Moses Talbot, one of Howland's men, and shot and killed him. Another of the Howland group shot Hocking to death in response.
Descendants of John Howland's brother Arthur
The genealogical society, The Pilgrim John Howland Society, is open for membership to all who can claim Howland as an ancestor. It is based in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
. He was an indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
who accompanied the separatists, also called the Pilgrims, when they left England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He signed the Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
and helped found Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
.
Having outlived John Carver
John Carver
John Carver was a Pilgrim leader. He was the first governor of Plymouth Colony and his is the first signature on the Mayflower Compact.-Mayflower:...
, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, to whom he was indentured, Howland became freeman in 1621 and perhaps inherited some of Carver's estate. In 1626, Howland was one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony's debt to its investors in England in exchange for a monopoly of the fur trade. He was elected deputy to the General Court
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
in consecutive years from 1641–1655 and again in 1658.
Howland married fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, and together they had ten children and 88 grandchildren. The couple founded one of the three largest Mayflower progenies and their descendants have been "associated largely with both the 'Boston Brahmins' and Harvard's 'intellectual aristocracy' of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
John Howland died February 23, 1672/3 at the age of 80, having outlived all other male Mayflower passengers except John Cooke, who died in 1695. The location of his grave is unknown, but it presumed that he is buried on Burial Hill
Burial Hill
Burial Hill is a hill containing a historic cemetery in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The burial ground is the burial site of several Pilgrims. The cemetery was founded in the 17th century and is located off Leyden Street, the first street in Plymouth.-History:The first Pilgrim burial ground was on...
in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Tilley outlived her husband by 15 years. She died December 21, 1681, in the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown, in Swansea, Massachusetts
Swansea, Massachusetts
Swansea is a town in Bristol County in southeastern Massachusetts.It is located at the mouth of the Taunton River, just west of Fall River, 47 miles south of Boston; and 12 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island....
, and is buried in a section of that town which is now in East Providence, RI.
Early life and voyage
John Howland was born in FenstantonFenstanton
Fenstanton – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Hemingford Grey two miles south of St Ives lying on the south side of the River Ouse....
, Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
around 1591. He was the son of Margaret and Henry Howland, and the brother of Henry and Arthur Howland, who emigrated later from England to Marshfield, Massachusetts
Marshfield, Massachusetts
Marshfield is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on Massachusetts's South Shore. The population was 25,132 at the 2010 census.See also: Green Harbor, Marshfield , Rexhame, Marshfield Hills, and Ocean Bluff and Brant Rock....
. Although Henry and Arthur Howland were Quakers, John himself was a member of the Orthodox
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
church.
William Bradford
William Bradford (1590-1657)
William Bradford was an English leader of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and served as governor for over 30 years after John Carver died. His journal was published as Of Plymouth Plantation...
, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony for many years, wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation
Of Plymouth Plantation
Written over a period of years by the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation is the single most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded...
, that Howland was a man-servant of John Carver. Carver was the deacon of the separatist church while the group resided in Leiden, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. At the time the Leiden congregation left the Netherlands, on the Speedwell
Speedwell (ship)
The Speedwell was a 60-ton ship, the smaller of the two ships intended to carry the Pilgrim Fathers to North America...
, Carver was in England securing investments, gathering other potential passengers, and chartering the Mayflower for the journey to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. John Howland may have accompanied Carver's household from Leiden when the Speedwell left Delfshaven
Delfshaven
Delfshaven is a borough of Rotterdam on the right bank of river Nieuwe Maas, in South Holland, the Netherlands. It was a separate municipality until 1886.The town of Delfshaven grew around the port of the city of Delft...
for Southampton, England, July, 1620. Ansel Ames in Mayflower and Her Log, said that Howland was probably kin of Carver's and that he was more likely a steward or a secretary than a servant.
The separatist planned to travel to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, on the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell proved to be unseaworthy and thus most of the passengers crowded onto the Mayflower. During the voyage there was a turbulent storm during which John Howland fell overboard. He managed to grab a topsail
Topsail
A topsail is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.- Square rig :On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a square sail rigged above the course sail and below the topgallant sail where carried...
halyard
Halyard
In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line that is used to hoist a sail, a flag or a yard. The term halyard comes from the phrase, 'to haul yards'...
that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely.
Signing the Mayflower Compact
The separatist had considered hiring John Smith to provide military leadership in their new settlement, but opted for Myles StandishMyles Standish
Myles Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception...
instead. They had also considered heading for New England, the coast of which was mapped several years earlier by Smith, but were unable to secure a patent, or grant from the king. So they set out for the mouth of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, present day New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, which was the northern most part of the Virginia Colony.
Having travelled for 65 days against the force of the Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
and westerly winds, at an average speed of two miles per hour since leaving England, the crew of the Mayflower first spotted land on November 9, 1620. They were 220 miles north of the Hudson, off the coast of Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
. With no way of calibrating latitude, the ship's captain had not known how far off course the storms they had encountered had tossed them. When it became apparent where they were, the captain attempted to head south to the Hudson. There was at that time no charts of the course they were attempting to traverse. According to Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War the Pilgrims apparently did not have Smith's charts with them as they would have realized that they were much closer to the mouth of the Charles River
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
which lay to the north. Locating a river on which to settle was not the only consideration, however, they also needed to land somewhere with a governing patent.
In order to finance the voyage to the New World, the separatist had investors back in England, they also had accepted non-separatists to join them on the journey. These passengers, whom the separatists referred to as "strangers", made up half of those on the Mayflower. When it became apparent that they were going to land in territory for which they had no patent, tension began to arise between the two groups. It was decided that before they set foot on the continent, they had to draw up some type of governing document. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. John Howland was the thirteenth of the 41 "principal men" to sign.
Elizabeth Tilley
The first winter in North America proved deadly for the Pilgrims as half their number perished. The Carver family with whom John lived, survived the winter of 1620-21. However, the following spring, on an unusually hot day in April, Governor Carver, according to William Bradford, came out of his cornfield feeling ill. He passed into a comaComa
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children died while they lived in Leiden and it is possible that Howland inherited their estate. Since he no longer owed indenture to Carver, he became a freeman. In 1624 he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household including himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter, and a boy named William Latham.
Until Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation was discovered in 1856, it was presumed that John Howland's wife, Elizabeth Tilley, was the adopted daughter or of Carver's. (Her parents, uncle and aunt that came to the New World died of sickness during the first winter.) This mistake was even recorded on a gravestone that was erected for Howland on Burial Hill, in 1836. However, the Bradford journal revealed that she was, in fact, the daughter of John Tilley
John Tilley (Pilgrim)
John Tilley was one of the Pilgrims who traveled from England to North America on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. Tilley died shortly after arrival in New England.-Overview:...
and his wife, Joan (Hurst). Elizabeth Tilley was born in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
where she was baptized in August, 1607. She and her parents were passengers on the Mayflower. Her parents did not survive the first winter in Plymouth and so she joined the Carver household. In 1623/24, she married John Howland. At that time she was about 16 years of age while he was about 30.
Kingston, Massachusetts
Kingston is a coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. According to the 2010 Census, it had a population of 12,629.-History:Before European settlers arrived in Kingston it was within the tribal home to the Wampanoag people...
where they had a farm on a piece of land referred to as Rocky Nook. The farm burned down in 1675 during King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
. By that time, John had died and Elizabeth moved in with her son, Jabez.
Together Elizabeth and John had ten children and 88 grandchildren. They founded one of the three largest progenies of Mayflower decedents. John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, and Richard Warren founded the other two. The Howland's son John married Mary Lee, Oct 26, 1651 and settled in Barnstable as did his sister, Desire Howland Gorum (1623–1683) who married John Gorham abt 1643. Elizabeth Howland Dickerson and her sister Hope also settled in Barnstable. Hope married John Chipman. Jabez married Bethia Thatcher and settled in Bristol, R.I. Isaac married Elizabeth Vaughan and settled in Middleborough. Ruth Howland Cushman and her brother, Joseph settled in Plymouth. He married Elizabeth Southworth in 1664. Hannah married Jonathan Bosworth and settled in Hull. Lydia Howland Browne settled in Swansea. Elizabeth was living with Lydia in Swansea at the time of her death, December 21, 1687.
Before moving to Rhode Island, Jabez Howland owned a home in Plymouth at 33 Sandwich Street. The house was built by Jacob Mitchell about 1667 and was sold to Jabez Howland. John and Elizabeth had wintered in the house, and Elizabeth lived there from 1675, when the Rocky Nook farm was burned down, until Jabez sold it in 1680. It is the only house standing in Plymouth in which Mayflower passengers lived.
Kennebec trading post
With the death of Carver, to whom he was indentured, Howland became a freeman in 1621. Over the next several years, he served at various times as selectmanBoard of selectmen
The board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms.-History:...
, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways, and as member of the fur committee. In 1626, he was asked to participate in assuming the colony's debt to its investors to enable the colony to pursue its own goals without the pressure to remit profits back to England. The "undertakers" paid the investers £1,800 to relinquish their claims on the land, and £2,400 for other debt. In return the group acquired a monopoly on the colony's fur trade for six years.Stone. Pg. 7
Howland accompanied Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow was an English Pilgrim leader on the Mayflower. He served as the governor of Plymouth Colony in 1633, 1636, and finally in 1644...
in the exploration of Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...
(in current day Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
), looking for possible fur trading sites and natural resources that the colony could exploit. He also led a team of men that built and operated a fur trading post there. While Howland was in charge of the colony's northerly trading post, an incident occurred there that Bradford described as "one of the saddest things that befell them." A group of traders from Piscataqua
Piscataqua River
The Piscataqua River, in the northeastern United States, is a long tidal estuary formed by the confluence of the Salmon Falls and Cocheco rivers...
(present day Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...
) led by a man named John Hocking, encroached on the trading ground granted to Plymouth by a patent, by sailing their bark
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
up the river beyond their post. Howland warned Hocking to depart, but Hocking, brandishing a pistol and using foul language, refused. Howland ordered his men to approach the bark in a canoe and cut its cables setting it adrift. The Plymouth men managed to cut one cable when Hocking put his pistol to the head of Moses Talbot, one of Howland's men, and shot and killed him. Another of the Howland group shot Hocking to death in response.
- Actors/actresses Christopher LloydChristopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, Humphrey BogartHumphrey BogartHumphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
, Maude AdamsMaude AdamsMaude Ewing Kiskadden , known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American stage actress who achieved her greatest success as Peter Pan. Adams's personality appealed to a large audience and helped her become the most successful and highest-paid performer of her day, with a yearly income of more...
, Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
, Lillian RussellLillian RussellLillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, and Chevy ChaseChevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
. - Prophet and founder of the Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movementThe Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
Joseph Smith, Jr., his wife Emma Hale, and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham YoungBrigham YoungBrigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah... - Opera singer and music educator William HowlandWilliam Howland (musician)William A. Howland was an American operatic bass, voice teacher, composer, conductor and university administrator. He was the head of the music department at the University of Michigan from 1900-1914...
- Colin TilleyColin TilleyColin Tilley is an award winning music video director for Riveting Entertainment who has written and directed music videos for artists including Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Diddy, Usher, Melanie Fiona, Keri Hilson, Wiz Khalifa and U.K. rapper Chipmunk among others. His most...
, American music video director for Riveting Entertainment - Canada diplomatDiplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
Warwick Fielding Chipman
Descendants of John Howland's brother Arthur
- U.S. presidents Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and Gerald FordGerald FordGerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974... - British prime minister Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and Henry (Churchill).
The genealogical society, The Pilgrim John Howland Society, is open for membership to all who can claim Howland as an ancestor. It is based in Plymouth, Massachusetts.