Week 22, 2026 - A Name With Meaning - John Howland

 

A young man from a modest English farming family, John Howland grew up during a time of strong religious tensions in England. He was one of seven children of Henry and Margaret Howland and second born. Separatist and Puritan groups were breaking away from the Church of England, and many had relocated to Leiden in South Holland in the Netherlands to escape religious persecution. Young John who was born about 1598-1599 in Fenstanton, England became a manservant to John Carver, a wealthy English Separatist who would go on to become the first governor of Plymouth Colony in America.

John Howland became well known because he was swept overboard in a storm while traveling on the Mayflower in 1620 but was able to grab a trailing rope and was pulled back aboard. The incident was recorded by William Bradford in his journals and over the years many books and stories have been written about the incident.

He married Elizabeth Tilly about 1623/1624 in Plymouth Colony. She had come on the Mayflower as a young girl with her parents but both of them died during the first winter making her an orphan. John and Elizabeth had 10 children who survived to adulthood:  Desire, John, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, Joseph, Jabez, Ruth and Isaac. 

John was a signer of the Mayflower Compact and went on to hold many government positions including assessor and deputy to the General Court. He was a large landowner and was also said to be involved with the fur trade as far north as Maine.

Inscription:  Here ended the Pilgrimage of JOHN HOWLAND who died February 23, 1672/3, aged above 80 years. He married Elizabeth daughter of JOHN TILLEY who came with him in the Mayflower Dec. 120. From them are descended a numerous posterity.

Because of their large family they have millions of descendants today, the largest amount of any person who traveled on the Mayflower. 

Daughter Lydia married James Brown, and I descend from their son James Brown.

The line goes: John Howland>Lydia Howland>James Brown>William Brown>Noah Brown>Bethia Brown>Sylvia Bliss>Lois Yaw>Lillian Harris>Pauline (my grandmother)>my mother>me. I was able to prove the line and am a member of the Mayflower Society.

John Howland was my 9x great-grandfather and the name John was handed down through many of those generations. His name is a well-known and meaningful part of my family history.