OUR MAYFLOWER FOREMOTHERS #9: Elizabeth Tilley 11GGM

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

GloverSmith

Ancestry of 11^th GGM: ELIZABETH TILLEY, 1620 Mayflower Passenger

Wife of John Howland (11^th GGF)

Mother of Desire Howland (10^th GGM)

Daughter of 1620 Mayflower Immigrants,

JOAN (HURST) and JOHN TILLEY (12^th GGParents)

ABOUT JOHN & JOAN (HURST) TILLEY:

The Tilley family were members of the Leiden party that left Holland for America on the ship Speedwell. This “sister” ship was purchased to accompany the Mayflower on its 1620 voyage but sprung leaks upon departure from England and had to be left behind. Some it its passengers were able to squeeze into the Mayflower; others had to wait.

The entire Tilley group were able to secure passage on the Mayflower. They included:

Elizabeth, 13, and her parents John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley; John’s brother Edward and wife Agnes (Cooper) Tilley who brought with them two children: nephew Henry Samson, 16, the son of Agnes’ sister Martha, and niece Humilitie Cooper, the infant daughter of Agnes’ brother Robert. Both Robert and his wife had died prior to this journey, leaving the baby in the care of Agnes and Edward. With the exception of baby Humilitie, who was probably born in Leiden in 1619, all of the Tilley group had been originally from Henlow, in Bedfordshire.

The Mayflower Compact by Ferris

In Mourt’s Relation, we find a number of passages that pertain to our ancestors upon their arrival and first winter in America. Although brothers John and Edward Tilley (and Elizabeth’s future husband, John Howland) are sometimes mentioned by name as signers of the Mayflower Compact and members of expeditions, we can assume that all three were actively engaged in the early exploration, site location, fuel and water gathering, home building, governance and defense up until the Tilley men became too ill to participate.  

Throughout the first part of this eye-witness account of the early days at Cape Cod and their settlement at Plimoth (Plymouth), one fact is reinforced: that the Mayflower passengers arrived just as the harsh New England winter weather commenced. This ill-fated timing would provoke hardships and danger for all, resulting in illness and death for half of the Mayflower’s passengers before spring arrived. The journalist recorded:

 “But the discommodiousness of the harbor did much hinder us for we could neither go to nor come from the shore, but at high water, which was much to our hindrance and hurt, for oftentimes they waded to the middle of the thigh, and oft to the knees, to go and come from land. Some did it necessarily, and some for their own pleasure, but it brought to the most, if not to all, coughs and colds, the weather proving suddenly cold and stormy, which afterwards turned to scurvy, wherof many died.”

“…that now the heart of winter and unseasonable weather was come upon us, so that we could not go upon coasting and discovery without danger of losing men and boat, upon which would follow the overthrow of all, especially considering what variable winds and sudden storms do there arise. Also, cold and wet lodging had so tainted our people, for scarce any of us were free from vehement coughs, as if they should continue long in that estate it would endanger the lives of many, and breed diseases and infection amongst us.”

One early account includes the names of our Tilley and Howland ancestors:

“Wednesday, the 6th of December, it was resolved our discoverers should set forth, for the day before was too foul weather, and so they did, though it was well o'er the day ere all things could be ready. So ten of our men were appointed who were of themselves willing to undertake it, to wit, Captain Standish, Master Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Howland, and three of London, Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins, and Edward Doty, and two of our seamen, John Allerton and Thomas English. Of the ship's company there went two of the master's mates, Master Clarke and Master Coppin, the master gunner, and three sailors.”

Their adventure would be called “The First Encounter.” They set out on Wednesday, December 6^th, in “very cold and hard weather.” Very soon Edward Tilley and another man became ill, and the group briefly halted their expedition. The weather cleared in a couple of days but “it was very cold, for the water froze on our clothes and made them many times like coats of iron.” While sailing along the coastline in search of a suitable place for their settlement and harbor, they discovered a group of ten or twelve native men on shore. Having continued on a league or two, they landed and quickly prepared themselves:

  “…we made us a barricade, and got firewood, and set out our sentinels, and betook us to our lodging, such as it was. We saw the smoke of the fire which the savages made that night, about four or five miles from us.”

Having wandered far in their explorations by foot, the men sought rest that night in their shelter but were alerted at midnight by the chilling sounds of a “hideous cry” that was stilled after musket shots were fired into the night air. In the early morning, as they were preparing to set off by boat, that familiar cry was heard, followed by a barrage of arrows that, fortunately, missed their targets. Their “first encounter” with the Indians would soon lead to more, with more cooperative results.

Mourt’s Relation vividly documented the many adversities our foremothers and forefathers faced once they landed at Cape Cod. Both John and Edward took part in essential work that was done despite the physical hardships, dangers, and soon, illness. Although little is written about the women during that first, uncertain winter, it is clear that conditions placed unimaginable challenges upon them and the children in their care. In addition to their many daily domestic tasks, Joan and Agnes Tilley would have tended to the sick and dying, including their own husbands. Exposed to infection, they, too, sickened and then died. Teen-aged Elizabeth would have assisted in the care of her family, including the baby Humilitie, who survived. So did Henry Samson.  Exposure to harsh weather, exhaustion, deprivation, and disease all contributed to the untimely deaths of forty-five Pilgrims that winter.

Spring would finally arrive to shine its warm light on the mourning and much-reduced settlement called Plimoth Plantation. Now orphaned, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Tilley was taken into the household of the Carvers for whom John Howland worked. Thus began our American Tilley/Howland family history.

ABOUT ELIZABETH TILLEY:

My family tree shows that Henlow, Bedfordshire, in England was the birthplace for generations of both the Tilley and Hurst families. Baptismal records for that parish reveal that Elizabeth was likely born in the summer of 1607. The youngest of five children born to John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley, it is assumed that she was the only child to accompany the Tilley’s to Holland, where they were documented members of the Leiden Separatist congregation along with her uncle Edward Tilley and aunt Agnes, or “Ann.” (Agnes’ brother, Robert Cooper and his young wife died in Holland shortly after baby Humility was born.)

Pilgrim Maiden by Kitson
Brewster Gardens

By 1620, Elizabeth’s siblings were either married or apprenticed in England; at least one died young. So, at the age of thirteen, Elizabeth joined her parents in a second move, this time to America. It was not a straightforward journey by any means and history records how the Leiden “pilgrims” had to overcome a number of challenges before they actually boarded the Mayflower on September 6, 1620 for a voyage of sixty-six days across the Atlantic. They arrived at Cape Cod, many miles north of their original destination, on November 9th. Elizabeth’s first experience on dry land would have been to assist the women with the arduous task of hand-washing a mountain of dirty laundry for the 102 passengers!

As noted above, Elizabeth experienced great loss and uncertainty following the deaths of her parents only a few bitter months later. It seems likely that her uncle Edward died early during that first winter, with Mourt’s Relation noting how he began to sicken in those first few weeks due to exposure. Her parents and aunt likely died by late April. Alone, with her cousins taken in by other families, Elizabeth became part of Governor Carver’s household, along with other wards and servants, one of whom -John Howland- she would marry a few years later.

Together, Elizabeth and John Howland had ten children, all of whom married and had many children of their own. Their first child, Desire, was our ancestor. My family tree is filled with the names of Desire’s eleven children and their children …and so on… making this Mayflower family line the ancestral roots of millions of Mayflower Americans today, including my grandchildren who can call Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland their 13th great-grandmother!

Elizabeth's initials-her "mark"

REFERENCES:
>Arenstam, Kemp, and Grace. Mayflower 1620: A new Look at a Pilgrim Voyage. National Geographic, Washington D.C. 2007. (Category: children’s nonfiction)

>Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Colony. Primary Source: 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

>Winslow, Edward; Bradford, William. Primary Source. Mourt’s Relation: A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England. London, 1622.

[1865 literal reprint by J. K. Wiggin, Boston.] https://factreal.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/heritagepilgrimsmourtsrelationjournalbywinslow.pdf

(modernized version based on facsimile edition found at: http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt1.html)