John Howland (ca 1599–1672) was one of the settlers who travelled from England to North America on the Mayflower and helped found the Plymouth Colony. Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882) For other uses, see Mayflower (disambiguation). ... The Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 until 1691. ...

Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England. At the age of twenty-one, he was employed by John Carver, a Puritan minister who joined with William Bradford, in bringing his congregation from Leiden, Netherlands to the New World. Howland, formally considered a servant, was in fact Carver's assistant in managing the migration. Fenstanton – in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England – is a village near Hemingford Grey south of St Ives. ... Huntingdonshire (abbreviated Hunts) is a part of England around Huntingdon, which is currently administered as a local government district of Cambridgeshire. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Signing of the Mayflower Compact John Carver, born c. ... A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. ... Bas-relief on Bradford Street in Provincetown depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Pilgrim Hall Museum William Bradford (1590 – May 9, 1657) was a leader of the separatist settlers of the Plymouth Colony in...

Although he had arrived on the Mayflower as a servant to the Carver family, John Howland was a young man determined to make his mark in the new world, arriving as neither a "stranger", nor a "saint" as the Pilgrims termed themselves. The arduous voyage very nearly ended his life as he was thrown overboard, due to turbulent seas, but managed to grab a top sail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard. Pilgrims is the name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony, MA. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled religious persecution in the East Midlands of England for the relative calm of Holland in the Netherlands. ...

The Carver family with whom John lived, survived the terrible sickness of the first winter, during which many Pilgrims died. But 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 coma and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers had no children. For this reason, John Howland is thought to have inherited their estate. It has been said that he immediately "bought his freedom" but no record has survived.

In 1624 Howland married Elizabeth Tilley, by then a young lady of seventeen and the daughter of John Tilley and his wife Joan (Hurst) Rogers. Her parents had died the first winter and she had become the foster daughter of Governor Carver and his wife who were childless. By then he had prospered enough to also bring his brothers Arthur and Edward to the colony as well, solidly establishing the Howland family in the New World. John Tilley (1571–1620 or 1) was one of the settlers who traveled from England to North America on the Mayflower but died shortly after arrival. ...

The following year Howland joined with Edward Winslow exploring the Kennebec River, looking for possible trading sites and natural resources that the colony could exploit. The year after that he was asked to participate in buying out the businessmen who had bankrolled the settlement of Plymouth ("Merchant Adventurers" was the term used at the time) so the colony could pursue its own goals without the pressure to remit profits back to England. Edward Winslow, 1651, by an anonymous artist Edward Winslow (1595–1655) was an American Pilgrim leader on the Mayflower. ... The course of the Kennebec River The Kennebec River is a river, 150 mi (240 km) long, in the state of Maine in the northeastern United States. ...

Then in 1626 the governor, William Bradford selected him to lead a team building a trading station on the Kennebec river and in 1628, Howland was elevated to the post of Assistant Governor. Bas-relief on Bradford Street in Provincetown depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Pilgrim Hall Museum William Bradford (1590 – May 9, 1657) was a leader of the separatist settlers of the Plymouth Colony in...

Finally, in 1633 John Howland, then thirty-four, was admitted as a freeman of Plymouth. He and Elizabeth had by then acquired significant landholdings around Plymouth and after his being declared a freeman they diligently acquired more. Howland served at various times as Assistant Governor, Deputy to the General Court, Selectman, Surveyor of Highways and member of the Fur Committee. Wikisource has original text related to this article: Oath of a Freeman // Freeman The term freeman was generally an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times, which referred to those persons who were not under legal restraint – usually for the payment of an outstanding debt, because of their continual...   Settled: 1620 â€“ Incorporated: 1620 Zip Code(s): 02360 â€“ Area Code(s): 508 / 774 Official website: http://www. ...

John and his wife Elizabeth had ten children, all of whom lived and had descendants. Their four sons were officers of the Plymouth Colony Militia, and served in other capacities.

John Howland died on the 23rd of February 1673, and was "with honour interred". This was accorded only to the leaders of the Colony, and meant that a squad of soldiers fired a volley over his grave. He is described in the records as a "godly man and an ardent professor in the ways of Christ."

Descendants

Howland's direct descendants include notable figures such as U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush; poets Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr.; actor/actresses Humphrey Bogart, Alec Baldwin (as well as the other three "Baldwin Brothers"), Sam Mitchell, Maude Adams, and Lillian Russell; first lady Edith Roosevelt (wife of Theodore Roosevelt); and Florida governor Jeb Bush. Interestingly enough, the Bush and Roosevelt families as well as the Smith family are double cousins through another shared ancestor, Rev. John Lathrop who arrived in the colony some 16 years after the original Mayflower group.^[1].^[2][3] FDR redirects here. ... George Herbert Walker Bush GCB (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States of America serving from 1989 to 1993. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet among whose works were Paul Reveres Ride, A Psalm of Life, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. ... Joseph Smith, Jr. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an iconic American actor of legendary fame who retained his legacy after death. ... Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated, Screen Actors Guild Award-winning, and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Maude Adams (1902) Maude Adams as Peter in an early stage production Maude Adams (born November 11, 1872; died July 17, 1953) was an American stage actress, most noted for her signature role, Peter Pan. ... Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard) (December 4, 1860 - June 6, 1922) was an American actress and singer. ... White House portrait Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948), second wife of Theodore Roosevelt, was First Lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. ... Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, Jr. ... John Ellis Jeb Bush (born February 11, 1953), a Republican, is the forty-third and current Governor of Florida. ... The Reverend John Lathrop was born in Etton, Yorkshire, in 1584, the son of Thomas Lathrop (or Lowthroppe), (1536-1630) and Mary Howell (1540-1588). ...

References

1. ^ . MayflowerHistory.com Mayflower History: Famous Descendents of Mayflower Passengers
2. ^ The Pilgrim John Howland Society: Famous Descendents
3. ^ Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources #55: Notable Descendants of Henry and Margaret (----) Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, Parents of John Howland of the Mayflower, Gary Boyd Roberts