OUR MAYFLOWER FOREMOTHERS #8: Desire Howland 10GGM

SMITH (Post, Dort, Winsor, Secord, Harris, Harris, McCall, Otis, Thacher, Gorham, Howland, Tilley, Hurst)
OUR MAYFLOWER FOREMOTHERS: Story Index

Ancestry of 10^th GGM: DESIRE HOWLAND (1625-1683)

Wife of John Gorham (1620-1676)

Daughter of 1620 Mayflower Immigrants,

JOHN HOWLAND and ELIZABETH TILLEY

ABOUT DESIRE HOWLAND:

“…Desire Howland was one of the first born at Plymouth, a young woman who had been educated in the Puritan faith and who during her long life was a pattern of good works, a kind hearted woman and a Christian in name and spirit, dau. of John Howland and granddau. of John Tilley.” (Lamont-Eldredge family records)

Desire was the first of ten children born to the “Pilgrims” John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. Of the original 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower, Desire’s parents were among the fifty-one who survived the first, tragic winter of 1621 at Plimoth (Plymouth Plantation). Among the dead were Elizabeth’s mother and father (Joan & John Tilley) and uncle and aunt (Edward & Agnes Tilley). Thirteen years old, orphaned, and thousands of miles from home (alone but for two kin through her aunt Agnes’ family, teen-aged Henry Samson and infant Humilitie Cooper), Elizabeth was taken into the household of John Carver, to whom John Howland was either indentured or employed as servant. Upon the deaths of Governor Carver and his wife in the spring of 1621, John Howland stepped up as a householder and valued community member in Plimoth Plantation. When Elizabeth had reached a marriageable age, she became the wife of John Howland and a mother of ten children. They named their firstborn child “Desire” after fellow Mayflower passenger and friend, Desire Minter, who had returned to England.

Desire Howland was namesake to five successive generations -spanning two centuries- of daughters named “Desire.” Our family line, however, is through her daughter Lydia Gorham (1661-1744) who married John Thacher. [See his story here.]

ABOUT DESIRE’S FATHER, JOHN HOWLAND:

May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto ye Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie, &c. Let them therfore praise ye Lord, because he is good, & his mercies endure for ever.”

 (from William Bradford’s journal)

John Howland will forever be remembered as the “lustie younge man” who narrowly escaped death by drowning at sea and who survived the deadly winter of 1621. Although his birthdate is unclear, he was likely considered a young adult in 1620, allowing him to place his signature on the Mayflower Compact. Born at Fenstanton, in the heart of England, John became part of the Leiden group of Separatists that left Holland, destined for America. Soon after the Mayflower had landed in unfamiliar territory, he became a member of the initial exploratory team of ten Mayflower men who, along with eight seamen, were tasked with surveying the region around Cape Cod, in search of resources and a suitable location for their future home. During the long winter months, he helped in the construction of buildings while the sick and dying remained onboard. He buried many of his fellow passengers; his friends.

In 1627, John joined with Governor Bradford and six other principal men of the colony in a bold contract with the London Merchant Adventurers, offering £1800 to the investors for relinquishing the company’s claims on Plymouth. The group also agreed to assume the current debts of the colony at an additional cost of £2400. In return, the investment company would be allowed a monopoly on the Colony’s trade for six years, after which the contract terms would be met.

By this time, two brothers -Arthur and Henry- followed John to Massachusetts where, unlike him, they practiced their faith among the Society of Friends, as Quakers. They would soon find that Massachusetts was almost as disapproving of their religious practices as England had been.

John lived for many years on Leyden Street, Plymouth, on the four-acre plot he received in the 1623 “division of land.” As his family grew, he later moved to Duxbury where he purchased an 80-acre farm. In exchange for three of those acres and a sum of £85, John was able to purchase a place at Rocky Nook (later called Kingston) where he settled by 1640. John and Elizabeth lived at there until his death in 1673. Four of their youngest children were born at Rocky Nook including Jabez, whose house on Sandwich Street in Plymouth is now on the National Register of Historic Places as the only dwelling yet standing in Plymouth where any of the original Pilgrims (in this case, John and Elizabeth Howland) would have visited.

Jabez Howland House

John Howland dedicated his life in service to the New England commonwealth:

-as elected Plymouth Colonial Assistant in government

-as chief manager of the trading post, established on the Kennebec River, Maine, in 1628

-as longtime representative for the town of Plymouth to the General Colonial Court

-as tax-payer, landholder, church member, citizen and pioneer

“Rev. John Cotton said of him, ‘He was a good old disciple & had bin sometime a magistrate here, a plane-hearted Christian.’ (from Mayflower Increasings)

‘The 23 of February 1672 Mr. John Howland senr of the Towne of Plymouth Deceased hee was a Godly man and an ancient professor in the ways of Christ hee lived until hee attained above eighty years 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 ship Called the May Flower that lived in Plymouth hee was with honor Intered att the Towne of Plymouth on the 25 February 1672/3’ (Nathaniel Morton, undersecretary to Gov. Wm. Bradford

References:

>Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Colony. Journal written between 1630-1650. Kindle edition, Portcullis Books. 2016. Harold Paget, ed. (Original lost during Revolutionary War; discovered in London and first reprinted in 1856; returned to Massachusetts in 1897; authorized copy by Massachusetts Historical Society in 1912.) Additional references from photocopies of original documents.

>Cline, Duane A. The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony: 1620. 2016. Retrieved from website: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/index.htm

>Johnson, Caleb. Mayflower History research. Retrieved from website:  http://mayflowerhistory.com/

>Lamont, Belle Eldridge. Lamont-Eldridge Family Records. Albion, NY. 1948.

>Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: a story of courage, community and war. Viking Press, NY. 2006.

>Pilgrim John Howland Society, 2019. Retrieved from website: https://pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/

>Plimoth Plantation, 2019. Retrieved from website: https://mayflower.plimoth.org/; https://www.plimoth.org/what-see-do/17th-century-english-village/faith-pilgrims