• It has been traditionally reported that John Howland was born about 1592, based on his reported age at death in the Plymouth Church Records. However, ages at death were often overstated, and that is clearly the case here. John Howland came as a servant for John Carver, which means he was under 25 years old at the time (i.e. he was born after 1595). William Bradford, in the falling-overboard incident, refers to Howland as a "lusty young man," a term that would not likely have applied to a 28-year old given that Bradford himself was only 30. Bradford did call 21-year old John Alden a "young man" though. Howland's wife Elizabeth was born in 1607: a 32-year old marrying a 17-year old is a relatively unlikely circumstance. Howland's last child was born in 1649: a 57-year old Howland would be an unlikely father. All these taken together demonstrate that Howland's age was likely overstated by at least 5 years. Since he signed the "Mayflower Compact,” we can assume he was probably at least 18 to 21 years old in 1620.2685, p 1

• An original letter from a genealogist in England [Chester, Joseph L., Pedigrees of the Families of Howland of Essex County, England and of Plymouth Mass: London, 1879], in 1879, mentions “the extraordinary fact that I find the surname of Howland in no other county in England than Essex, and originally in no other locality in that county except at Newport and Wicken and their immediate vicinity. Wherever at later periods I have found Howlands in other counties, as Hertfordshire, Surrey, Berks, etc., I have invariably traced them back to Newport and Wicken. It is clear that several families of the name were living there contemporaneously and equally so that they were all in some way connected...at the period of the birth of John Howland of the Mayflower, there were living then no less than five Howlands...” In two of these lines, the Howland name terminated in heiresses, one of whom, Elizabeth by name, bequeathed the Streatham Estates to her husband, the Duke of Bedford, who then acquired the additional title of Baron Howland.
John Howland of the Mayflower was born in 1592, the son of Henry Howland, of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire (near Newport, County Essex). [Howland, William, Editor and Compiler), The Howlands in America: The York Press Co., Govverneur, N. Y., 1939] He had at least four brothers: Arthur, George, Henry, and Humphrey. His brothers Arthur and Henry came to America [Ibid, and Records of Plymouth Colony] about 1623/4 and later joined the Society of Friends. Early records reveal that Arthur, whose home was in Marshfield, was fined many times for “permitting of a Quaker’s meeting in his house.” When he refused to pay the fines, he was sent to jail. Henry was fined for entertaining Quakers, at the Court of March, 1658.
In mid-Atlantic, during a violent storm, John Howland was almost drowned when a mountainous wave swept him overboard. Grasping a halyard which was trailing astern of the Mayflower, although at first he was several fathoms under water, he finally managed to haul himself to the surface. He was then rescued, by means of a boathook along with the rope, etc. [Bradford, William, History of Plimouth Plantation, 1912 ed., Massachusetts Historical Society, page 151.]
By November 11, 1620, he had sufficiently recuperated from his oceanic adventure to be the thirteenth signer of the Mayflower Compact. And a few days later, December 6, he was one of the ten chosen to make the third exploration along the shore. On this occasion, they were attacked by the Indians at Eastham, Cape Cod. In Bradford’s journal, we learn that the mast of the shallop broke during a sudden squall, and the sail was lost overboard. “The weather was very cold, and it froze so hard...the spray of the sea lighting on their coats, they were as if they had been glazed.” [Ibid.]
John Howland was one of Governor Carver’s family. Both Governor Carver and his wife were among the fifty Pilgrims who died during the first few months of the struggle for survival at Plymouth. It is believed that John Howland inherited John Carver’s estate, as the Carvers had no children of their own.
About 1626, John Howland was one of those (including Bradford, Brewster, Standish, etc.) who assumed the Colony’s debt to the Merchant Adventurer, 1800 pounds. At least as early as 1633-35, he was an Assistant or member of the Governor’s Council, and from 1641 to 1670 was frequently a deputy or representative to the General Court. In 1634, he commanded the Pilgrim’s Trading Post at Kennebec (Maine).2526, pp 4-5

• Carver’s family, at the time of the signing of the compact, consisted of eight person; namely, himself, his wife, his daughter Elizabeth, John Howland, the boy Jasper, whom we have no authority to call his son, and three other, unknown persons, who died before the division of cattle, in 1627.2619, p 423

• Passengers in the Mayflower
(* indicates Signers of the Mayflower Compact)
*Mr. John Carver, Katherine his wife, Desire Minter, and two manservants, *John Howland, Roger Wilder.2686, p 441

• mr John Carver. Kathrine his wife. Desire Minter; & 2 man-servants John Howland Roger Wilder. William Latham, a boy. & a maid servant. & a child yt was put to him called, Jasper More.2687

• Boarding the Mayflower with John Carver and his wife Katherine were five servants: Desire Minter, a teen-age girl from the Leiden church whose father was deceased; two servants, John Howland and Roger Wilder; an eleven-year old boy William Latham and another teenage maidservant named Dorothy _____. Desire Minter returned to Europe after a few years. John Howland lived a long life in Plymouth. Roger Wilder died early that first winter. William Latham died of starvation in the 1640s on a desert island in the Bahamas. Dorothy died about 1626.2688, p 3

• The Barnstable family descends from John Howland who came over as a servant or attendant of Gov. Carver. His name is thirteenth on the Covenant made at Cape Cod Nov. 11, 1620. Till the recent discovery of Gov. Bradford’s history, it was a current tradition that he married Elizabeth daughter of Gov. Carver. He married soon after his arrival Elizabeth daughter of John Tilley, an only child, her parents dying in the first sickness.2514, Vol. 2, p 49

• For correction of the long prevalent error, that he m. a d. of Gov. Carver, we are indebted to Bradford’s Hist. formerly part of the N. E. Library of Prince, in the tower of O. S. ch. at Boston, discov. 1855, in the Library of the Bp. of London at Fulham.2689, p 479

• JOHN HOWLAND is the only one of the three brothers who came to this country in the Mayflower in 1620, thereby being one of the original Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock. His was the thirteenth name on the list of forty-one persons who signed the memorable compact in the cabin of the Mayflower in “Cape Cod Harbor” on the 21st of November, 1620. At this time he was 28 years of age. That he possessed sound judgment and business capacity is shown by the active duties which he assumed, and the trust which was reposed in him in all the early labors in establishing a settlement.2674, p 15

• man-servant to John Carver.2618, p xxviii

• Age about 21, manservant for Governor John Carver.2690, p 3

• JOHN AND ELIZABETH (TILLEY) HOWLAND
They were both passengers aboard the Mayflower which arrived in Plymouth Harbor in 1620. John Howland was 28 years of age (1592-1672). His miraculous rescue at sea is recorded in Gov. Wm. Bradford’s History of Plimouth Plantation.
The Howland’s first home was on Summer Street where presumably Hope was born August 30, 1629. The family removed to the finer house which John Howland had built at Rocky Nook and first occupied in 1638.2691, p 2 & 3

• Mayflower Passengers: Classified by Willison into four groups:
1) Saint
2) Stranger
3) Hired hand
4) Servant
Indentured Servants :
There was a fourth and much larger group sharply set off from all the others – the indentured servants. These were not servants in our sense of the word. They were not housemaids, butlers, cooks, valets, or general flunkies to wait upon the personal needs of the Pilgrims. On the contrary, they were brought along to do the heaviest kind of labor. They were to fell trees, hew timbers, build houses, clear fields and plough them, tend crops, gather the harvest, and do whatever their masters ordered. During the period of their indenture, which usually ran for seven years, they were fed, clothed, and housed by their masters, but received no wages, being virtually slaves, and were frequently bought, sold, and hired out as such.
Eleven of the eighteen servants on board were strong young men, a sixth of the adult company. For the most part they belonged to the Leyden group, which suggests that if the Saints were poor, the Strangers were still poorer.
As befitted a man of his wealth, John Carver had four — for his wife, a boy and a maid; for himself, Roger Wilder and John Howland, “a lustie yonge man,” who quickly made a name for himself at Plymouth.
The William Whites had two, as had the Winslows, one being George Soule of Eckington, Worcestershire, who was destined, like Howland, to rise to some prominence after he had served his time.2684, p 134

=====================================================================
Then, suddenly, the weather changed as fierce storms came roaring out of the west. For days at a time it was impossible to carry a yard of sail, the ship drifting under bare poles with the helmsman desperately trying to hold her into the wind as she wallowed through mountainous seas which often had her lying on her beam-ends. The pounding of heavy seas opened up many seams in the deck and superstructure, letting cascades of icy water down upon the ill and frightened passengers curled up in their narrow bunks below.
Unable to endure it any longer in the stuffy hold, John Howland came on deck one day and was immediately swept overboard. The ship happened to be trailing some of the topsail halyards, and Howland managed to get hold of these and hang on ‘though he was sundrie fadomes under water,’ till he was pulled in with a boat hook. He was ‘something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member, both in church and commone wealthe.’2684, p 136

=====================================================================
November 11, 1620
Signing of “The Compact”
The covenant was first signed by those who had the right or had assumed the privilege of using the title of “Mr.” — then pronounced “master” and often written so. Relatively the aristocrats of the company, there were twelve of this group, with Saints and Strangers equally represented.
John Carver, the most substantial and respectable among them, signed first. He was followed by Bradford, Winslow, Brewster, and Allerton. Then came Standish, Alden, Deacon Fuller, Christopher Martin, William Mullins, William White, Richard Warren, and Stephen Hopkins. Next, the “goodmen” were asked to sign. (Note: after these 12 signed, John Howland was the 13th to sign.) Only twenty-seven responded; several either declined or were ailing. Lastly, no doubt with the hope that it might make them take their prescribed loyalty more seriously, a few of the servants were invited or commanded to sign — Edward Dotey, Edward Leister, and two others [George Soule and John Howland]. The women were excluded, of course, for they were not free agents, being the legal chattels and servants of their lords — indentured for life, as it were.2684, p 143

=====================================================================
On December 6th, with Coffin at the tiller, eighteen men pushed off in the shallop to round the bay and have a look at “Thievish Harbor,” or Plymouth, as it had been named by Captain John Smith six years previously. Ten of the Pilgrims had volunteered to go – of the Saints, Edward and John Tilley, Bradford, Winslow, and Governor Carver with his servant, John Howland; of the Strangers, Captain Standish, Richard Warren, and Stephen Hopkins with one of his servants, Edward Dotey. It was bitterly cold, with a stiff breeze blowing, and the spray whipping across the open boat cut like a knife and froze their clothes till they were “like coates of iron.” Many were “sick unto death,” Edward Tilley and the master gunner fainted with the cold, but they held to their course, sailing south past Corn Hill and swinging round a sandy point into what is now Wellfleet Bay.2684, p 153

=====================================================================
The other side of the street was left open for a time and used as part of the Pilgrims' cornfields. But it was later staked off into lots. That at the foot of Fort Hill was given to Captain Standish so that he might quickly get to his post in time of danger. Just below, at the corner of the Street and the Highway, a large tract was reserved for the Governor’s House. On the slope from the Highway to the beach were the plots of Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, and Deacon Samuel Fuller, the last of the edge of a high bank overlooking Plymouth Rock – Cole’s Hill, as it came to be called for the popular owner of the pleasant and often boisterous tavern that long stood there.2684, pp 162-63

=====================================================================
Indian summer [1621] soon came in a blaze of glory, and it was time to bring in the crops. All in all, their first harvest was a disappointment. Their twenty acres of corn, thanks to Squanto, had done well enough. But the Pilgrims failed miserably with more familiar crops. Their six or seven acres of English wheat, barley, and peas came to nothing, and Bradford was certainly on safe ground in attributing this either to “ye badnes of ye seed, or latenes of ye season, or both, or some other defecte.” Still, it was possible to make a substantial increase in the individual weekly food ration which for months had consisted merely of a peck of meal from the stores brought on the Mayflower. This was now doubled by adding a peck of maize a week, and the company decreed a holiday so that all might, “after a more special manner, rejoyce together.”
As the day of the harvest festival approached, four men were sent out to shoot waterfowl, returning with enough to supply the company for a week. Massasoit was invited to attend and shortly arrived – with ninety ravenous braves! The strain on the larder was somewhat eased when some of these went out and bagged five deer. Captain Standish staged a military review, there were games of skill and chance, and for three days Pilgrims and their guests gorged themselves on venison, roast duck, roast goose, clams and other shellfish, succulent eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks and watercress as dessert – all washed down with wine, made of the wild grape, both white and red, which the Pilgrims praised as “very sweete & strong.” At this first Thanksgiving feast in New England the company may have enjoyed, though there is no mention of it in the record, some of the long-legged “Turkies” whose speed of foot in the woods constantly amazed the Pilgrims. And there were cranberries by the bushel in neighboring bogs. It is very doubtful, however, if the Pilgrims had yet contrived a happy use for them. Nor was the table graced with a later and even more felicitous invention – pumpkin pie.
The celebration was a great success, warmly satisfying to body and soul alike, and the Pilgrims held another the next year, repeating it more or less regularly for generations. In time it became traditional throughout New England to enjoy the harvest feast with Pilgrim trimmings, a tradition carried to other parts of the country as restless Yankees moved westward. But it remained a regional or local holiday until 1863 when President Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving, setting aside the last Thursday in November for the purpose, disregarding the centuries-old Pilgrim custom of holding it somewhat earlier, usually in October as on this first occasion.2684, pp 188-90

=====================================================================
As partners the three Undertakers chose William Brewster, Edward Winslow, John Alden, John Howland, and Thomas Prence. All went energetically to work in an effort to promote trade in every possible way. From the fact that the contract ran only for six years, which meant that they hoped to pay the nine installments on the mortgage within that time, it is evident that the Undertakers were in an optimistic mood. Pushing far to the north, they established a trading post along the Kennebec, on the present site of Augusta, Maine. With John Howland in charge, a brisk trade for beaver, otter, and other furs was carried on here with the Abnaki Indians in exchange for “coats, shirts, ruggs, & blankets, biskett, pease, prunes, &c.”2684, pp 263-64

=====================================================================
Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims never hanged a witch, leaving that to the better-schooled but more benighted men of Massachusetts.
The wife of William Holmes, Standish’s lieutenant, was likewise tried on complaint of one Dinah Sylvester.
“What evidence have you of the fact?” the Sylvester woman was asked by the presiding magistrate, John Howland.
“She appeared to me as a witch.”
“In what shape?”
“In the shape of a bear, your honor.”
“How far off was the bear?”
“About a stone’s throw from the highway.”
“What manner of tail did the bear have?”
“I could not tell, your honor, as his head was towards me.”
To discourage such nonsense, Dinah was fined £5 and whipped. And that was the end of witchcraft in the Old Colony, though the law against it long remained on the books.2684, pp 319-20

=====================================================================
Howland, John (1592-1672) - of London
“a plaine-hearted Christian”
Evidently inherited Carver's estate and immediately bought his freedom; married Elizabeth Tilley, c. 1624; Purchaser, 1626; Undertaker, 1627-41; asst. governor, 1633-35, and probably 1629-32; in charge of Kennebec trading post at time of Hocking murder, 1634; apparently held somewhat to blame, for never again entrusted with public office; died Swansea; 9 children.2684, p 443

• ENGLISH RESEARCH
Ever since McClure Meredith Howland discovered in 1937 [Howland Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 3, January, 1937] that Pilgrim John Howland was a son of Henry Howland of Fen Stanton, Huntingdonshire, England, attempts have been made to find out more about the Huntingdonshire Howlands and specifically to ascertain the names of Pilgrim John Howland’s mother and grandparents.
In 1948, Leon Clark Hills [Howland Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1, July, 1949] of Washington, D.C. reported that he had discovered in the parish records of Holy Trinity, Ely, Cambridgeshire, the marriage of a Henry Howland to Alice Ames [should be Ayres] on April 26, 1600 and the subsequent baptism of a son, John, January 16, 1602/3. Mr. Hills stated that further proof should be found before it was accepted that this is the same Henry Howland who lived in Fenstanton.
The year of birth of the John Howland of Ely is 10 years later than the accepted year of birth of John Howland of Plymouth who died “died 23 February 1672 and lived untill hee attained above eighty yeares in the world.” [Mayflower Descendant, 18:49]
The first time it is stated that Henry Howland of Fenstanton and Henry Howland of Ely are one and the same appears to be in Colonel Stoddard’s book [Stoddard, Francis R., Truth About the Pilgrims (1952), page 138], although he is puzzled by the ten year discrepancy in birth dates.
Recently our Society engaged Sir Anthony Wagner, Garter Principal King of Arms, to try to establish the ancestry of Henry Howland of Fenstanton and, also, to determine whether he is the same Henry Howland who married Alice Ayres in Ely. Sir Anthony’s conclusion is that they are two separate families and that Henry Howland of Ely also appears on the Ely records as Henry Howlett.
As far as can be determined at the present time, the Pilgrim John Howland’s family in England is as follows:
Henry Howland, of the Parish of Fenny (sic) Stanton,
Huntingdonshire, yeoman, died at Fenstanton, 17 May 1635.
His wife, Margaret, buried at Fenstanton, 31 July 1629.2692, p 6

• From Gov. Wm. Bradford’s History of Plimoth Plantation:
“In sundrie of these stormes the winds were so feirce, & ye seas so high, as they could not beare a knote of saile, but were forced to hull, for diverce days togither. And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull, in a mighty storme, a lustie yonge man (called John Howland) coming upon some occasion above ye grattings, was, with a seele of ye shipe throwne into (ye) sea; but it pleased God yt he caught hould of ye top-saile halliards, which hunge over board, & rane out at length; yet he held his hould (though he was sundrie fadomes under water) till he was hald up by ye same rope of ye brime of ye water, and then with a boat hooke and other means got into ye shipe againe, and his life was saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church & comone wealthe.”2686, p 59
Source: The Bradford History, pp. 92-3, Comm. of Mass. ed. Wright & Potter, State Printers, Boston 1898; taken from A Chipman Genealogy, Chipman Historics, Norwell, Massachusetts, 1970.

• Still another passenger nearly paid with his life for a “minor” disobedience. A dozen or so days into the storm, John Howland, the servant of John Carver, could no longer stand the stench of the crowded tween-decks. The captain, Elder Brewster, and his own master had each forbade any of them to go topside, but if he didn’t get a breath of fresh air soon... Finally, he decided that he was going to get what he wanted, and so up he climbed and out onto the sea-swept main deck. It was like a nightmare outside! The seas around him were mountainous; he’d never seen anything like it — huge, boiling, gray-green waves lifting and tossing the small ship in their midst, dark clouds roiling the horizon, and the wind shrieking through the rigging — Howland shuddered, and it was not from the icy blast of “fresh air” that hit him.
Just then, the ship seemed to literally drop out from beneath him — it was there, and then it wasn’t — and the next thing he was falling... He hit the water, which was so cold that it was like being smashed between two huge blocks of ice. Instantly stunned, his last conscious act was to blindly reach out — and by God’s grace, the ship at that moment was heeled so far over that the lines from her spars were trailing in the water. One of these happened to snake across his wrist, and he closed on it and instinctively hung on.
According to the U.S. Navy, a man can stand immersion in the North Atlantic in November for about four minutes. There is no telling how long Howland was in the sea, how soon someone spotted him and raised the alarm. When they hauled him aboard he was blue, but he recovered, though he was sick for several days. And he never again stuck his head above deck, until he was invited to do so.2693, pp 117-8

• The identity of this family is proved by the probate records of John’s brother, Humphrey Howland, a draper, who settled in St. Swithin’s Parish in London. Humphrey Howland in his will written in London 28 May 1646 and proved 10 July 1646 by his second wife, Anne, mentioned his brothers, Arthur, John, and Henry, his sister, Margaret, wife of Richard Phillips of Fenstanton, shoemaker, his “nephew,” Simon Howland, and his “niece,” Hannah Howland, Simon’s sister.2410, p 1

• In 1626 John Howland became one of the forty-two colonists who assumed Plymouth Colony’s debt of £1800 owed to the Merchant Adventurers of London. In order to pay off this mortgage, a monopoly in the Colony’s trade was granted to William Bradford, Isaac Allerton and Myles Standish, who chose John Howland as one of their partners, or undertakers, in the project. Later they established a trading post far to the northward, on the Kennebec River, at the present site of Augusta, Maine. John was put in charge of the trading post and a brisk trade developed there in beaver, otter and other furs gathered by the Indians. John’s family may have spent some time with him in Maine, and some of his children may have been born there.2410, p 4

• HOWLAND, JOHN – The son of Henry Howland of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, John came to Plymouth on the 1620 Mayflower as a servant to John Carver. After the death of Carver, he rose rapidly as a leader in the colony. In 1627 he was the head of one of the twelve companies which divided the livestock, and he was one of the eight Plymouth Undertakers who assumed responsibility for the colony’s debt to the Adventurers in return for certain monopoly trade privileges. He was on the 1633 freeman list, and by 1633, if not earlier, was an Assistant, being reelected to this position in 1634 and 1635 (PCR, passim). In 1634 he was in charge of the colony trading outpost on the Kennebec River when Talbot and Hocking were killed (see text). He received a good number of land grants, was elected deputy for Plymouth, served on numerous special committees, and was an important lay leader of the Plymouth Church. The Reverend John Cotton related how at his own ordination as pastor of the church in 1669 “the aged mr John Howland was appointed by the chh to Joyne in imposition of hands” (Ply. Ch. Recs. 1:144). Howland died on 24 February 1672/73 in his eightieth year, and John Cotton noted his passing, “He was a good old disciple, & had bin sometime a magistrate here, a plaine-hearted christian” (Ply. Ch. Recs. 1:147; see also Nathaniel Morton’s eulogy in the text).
John Howland married, probably ca. 1626, Elizabeth Tilley, q. v. In his will, dated 29 May 1672, inventory 3 March 1672/73, he mentioned his wife Elizabeth; oldest son John Howland; sons Jabez and Joseph; youngest son Isaac; daughters Desire Gorham, Hope Chipman, Elizabeth Dickenson, Lydia Browne, Hannah Bosworth, and Ruth Cushman; and granddaughter Elizabeth Howland, daughter of his son John (MD 2:70). His widow Elizabeth, died at the home of her daughter Lydia Browne, wife of James, at Swansea on 21 December 1687, and in her will, dated 17 December 1686, proved 10 January 1687/88, she said she was seventy-nine years old, and mentioned her sons John, Joseph, Jabez, and Isaac’ daughters Lydia Browne, Elizabeth Dickenson, and Hannah Bosworth; son-in-law Mr. James Browne; and grandchildren James Browne, Jabez Browne, Dorothy Browne, Desire Cushman, Elizabeth Bursley, and Nathaniel the son of Joseph Howland (MD 3:54). Franklyn Howland, A Brief Genealogical and Biographical History of Arthur, Henry, and John Howland and their Descendants...(New Bedford, Mass., 1885), contains many errors. It is debatable whether John Howland or John Alden has the greatest number of descendants living today, but certainly the number of both is high. Elizabeth Pearson White, former editor of the Mayflower Quarterly is compiling a comprehensive family history of the first five generations of John Howland’s family.2694, pp 311-2

• John Howland must have been one of the old “standards” who accompanied Edward Winslow to Kennebec on this first trading mission, for he was chosen the following year, in 1626, by William Bradford, Isaac Allerton and Myles Standish, as one of their partners, or undertakers, when they were granted a monopoly of Plimouth Colony’s trade. The purpose of the monopoly was to enable Plymouth Colony to pay off the debt of £1800 which the Colony owed to the Merchant Adventurers of London. In addition to being one of the four partners, John Howland joined the forty-two colonists who assumed that debt in 1626. Isaac Allerton was sent to London to obtain a patent which would give them the legal right to the Kennebec trading post. This was described as being “far to the northward,” on the Kennebec River, which is now the location of Augusta, Maine. Even though official permission had not yet been obtained from London, John Howland was put in charge of the trading post and a brisk trade developed there in beaver, otter and other furs gathered by the Indians. With his demanding responsibilities in Maine, John Howland may have brought his family with him to the Kennebec trading post for short periods of time during these years from 1627 until about 1633, and some of his children may have been born there.2683, p 6

• However, Plymouth Colony was never unaware that their nearby growing neighbor to the north [Massachusetts Bay Colony] held the power, and there was frequently a touch of arrogance on the part of the Bay Colony toward its smaller sister colony. A 1634 incident on the Kennebec River demonstrated the Bay Colony’s assumption of power. The Bradford Patent gave Plymouth the right to settle or trade on the Kennebec River and to seize all persons, ships, and goods that might attempt to trade with the Indians on the Kennebec. Plymouth set up a trading post there under John Howland. A trading ship from the Piscataqua settlement under John Hocking ignored repeated warnings from Howland’s group that it had no right to be there. Howland ordered one of his men to cut the moorings of Hocking’s ship so it would drift down the river. Hocking shot and killed the man, Moses Talbot, and one of Talbot’s companions in turn shot and killed Hocking.2694, p 43

• [excerpts] Apparently Hocking used some strong language and the two exchanged some words not recorded, but the result of the conversation was that Hocking would not leave and Howland would not let him stay.
Howland then sent three of his men -- John Irish, Thomas Savory and William Rennoles (Reynolds?) -- to cut the cables of Hocking’s boat. They severed one but the strong current prevented them from cutting the other cable so Howland called them back and ordered Moses Talbott to go with them.
The four men were able to maneuver their canoe to the other cable, but Hocking was waiting on deck armed with a carbine and a pistol in his hand. He aimed first at Savory and then as the canoe swished about he put his gun almost to Talbott’s head.
Seeing this, Howland called to Hocking not to shoot his man but to “take himself as his mark,” saying his men were only doing what he had ordered them to do. If any wrong was being done it was he that did it, Howland shouted. Howland called again for Hocking to aim at him.
What courage!
Hocking, however, would not even look at Howland and shortly afterwards Hocking shot Talbott in the head and then took up his pistol intending to shoot another of Howland’s men. Bradford continues the story in his history of Plymouth:
Howland’s men were angered and naturally feared for their lives so one of the fellows in the canoe raised his musket and shot Hocking “who fell down dead and never spake word.”2695 See also2674, pp 32-34

• John Howland was a much respected and honored leader in the church at Plymouth. The Rev. John Cotton told how at his ordination as pastor in 1669 “the aged Mr. Howland was appointed by the church to joyne in imposition of hands.”2696

• He is mentioned in will of his brother, Humphrey, 1646.2692, p 6

• “The 23th of February 1672 Mr. John Howland senir of the Town of Plymouth Deceased; hee was a Godly man and an ancient professor in the wayes of Christ; hee lived untill he 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; hee was with honor Intered att the Towne of Plymouth on the 25 of February 1672.”2519, p 34

• His will dated 29 May 1672, probated 5 March 1672 [1672/73].2683, p 11

• After a winter of so many secret burials, they laid their governor to rest with as much pomp and circumstance as they could muster—”with some volleys of shot by all that bore arms.” Carver’s broken-hearted wife followed her husband to the grave five weeks later. Carver’s one surviving male servant, John Howland, was left without a master; in addition to becoming a free man, Howland may have inherited at least a portion of Carver’s estate. The humble servant who had been pulled from the watery abyss a few short months ago was on his way to becoming one of Plymouth’s foremost citizens.2697, p 102

• John Howland and John Alden established a second Pilgrim trading post in Maine on the Kennebec River at modern Augusta. By this time, Howland had married Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, while Alden had married Priscilla Alden. For Howland…Maine provided valuable education in the rough-and-tumble world of international trade in the New World.2697, p 168

• It is debatable whether John Howland or John Alden has the greatest number of descendants living today, but certainly the number of both is high.2694, p 312

• HOWLAND, JOHN, one of the first pilgrims, was elected an assistant of Plymouth Colony from 1633 to 1635, 3 years, d. 23 Feb. 1673, ae about 80, being the “last of those in the town of Plymouth, who came in the May-Flower 1620.”2698, p 152

• In her first volume [Elizabeth Pearson] White argued that John Howland lived for several years in Maine, and that three of his children were born there. Robert S. Wakefield has gathered the evidence that this could not have been the case [MD 42:15-16].2699

• England had known of the North American coast for years. Bartholomew Gosnold had visited Cape Cod in 1602. Martin Pring was the first European to visit the site of Plymouth, spending six weeks exploring the bay of Massachusetts in 1603. Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in 1607, the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Captain John Smith was at Jamestown, but he also explored further north and made a detailed map of the New England coast in 1616. It was probably due to Smith’s writings that the Leiden Separatists knew of the area, and most likely when they sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 they had Captain Smith’s maps with them.
Those who left were not known as Pilgrims at the time. The word was first applied to them by Bradford writing his history many years later. “So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been ther resting place near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest countries, and quieted their spirits.”2694, p 19

• Mayflower Compact [Modern Version]
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.
IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.