John Howland & Elizabeth Tilley

John & Elizabeth came over with Elizabeth's parents, John & Joan Tilley on the Mayflower!!!

John Tilley married Joan (Hurst) Rogers on September 20, 1596 at Henlow, Bedfordshire. She was the widow of Thomas Rogers (d. 1594) who she had married on June 18, 1593.

Children of Joan and Thomas Rogers:.

      •Joan, baptized May 20, 1594. She may have died young. No further record.

Children of John Tilley and his wife Joan (all baptized at Henlow, Bedfordshire):.

      •Rose, baptized October 23, 1597. May have died young. No further record.
      •John, baptized August 26, 1599. May have died young. No further record.
      •Rose, baptized February 28, 1601/2. May have died young. No further record.
      •Robert, baptized November 25, 1604. May have died young. No further record.
      •Elizabeth, baptized August 30, 1607. She married John Howland in Plymouth Colony about 1624 and had ten children with him.
On the Mayflower, John Howland had been a manservant to John Carver. Elizabeth died in Swansea on December 22, 1687.


John Howland married Elizabeth Tilley in Plymouth about 1624 and had ten children. He died February 23, 1673 and she died in Swansea on December 22, 1687 at the home of her daughter Lydia.
John Howland was buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth. Elizabeth was buried at Ancient Little Neck Cemetery, E. Providence, RI.
Children of John and Elizabeth Howland

      •Desire was born about 1624 and died in Barnstable October 13, 1683. She married John Gorham in Plymouth by 1644 and had eleven children. She was buried at Cobb’s Hill Cemetery, Barnstable, Mass.
      •John was born in Plymouth on February 24, 1626/7 and died in Barnstable after June 18, 1699. He married Mary Lee in Plymouth on October 26, 1651 and had ten children.
      •Hope was born in Plymouth about 1629 and died in Barnstable on January 8, 1683. She married John Chipman about 1647 and had twelve children. She was buried at Lothrop Hill Cemetery, Barnstable, Mass.
      •Elizabeth was born about 1631 and died in Oyster Bay, New York in October 1683.
        Elizabeth married:
          Ephraim Hicks on September 13, 1649. He died on December 12, 1649.
          John Dickerson in Plymouth on July 10, 1651 and had nine children.
      •Lydia was born about 1633 and died in Swansea January, 1710/11. She married James Brown(e) about 1655 and had four children.
      •Hannah was born about 1637. She married Jonathan Bosworth in Swansea on July 6, 1661 and had nine children.
      •Joseph was born about 1640 and died in Plymouth in January 1703/04. He married Elizabeth Southworth in Plymouth on December 7, 1664 and had nine children.
      •Jabez was born about 1644 and died before February 21, 1711/12. He married Bethiah Thatcher by 1669 and had eleven children.
      •Ruth was born about 1646 and died before October 1679. She married Thomas Cushman in Plymouth on November 17, 1664 and had three children.
      •Isaac was born in Plymouth on November 15, 1649 and died in Middleboro on March 9, 1723/4. He married Elizabeth Vaughn by 1677 and had eight children.
        He was buried at Cemetery At The Green, Middleboro, Mass.

Notable descendants:

Howland and wife, fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley had ten children and 88 grandchildren.
The couple founded one of the three largest Mayflower progenies and their descendants have been "associated largely with both
the 'Boston Brahmins' and Harvard's 'intellectual aristocracy' of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

John and Elizabeth Howland's direct descendants include notable figures such as:

      U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush
      U.S. first ladies Edith Roosevelt and Barbara Bush
      Continental Congress President Nathaniel Gorham
      Former Governors Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Jeb Bush (Florida)
      Poets Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Florence Earle Coates (a 9th generation descendant and a founding member
      (1896) of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (SMDPA))
      Actors/actresses Christopher Lloyd, Humphrey Bogart, Maude Adams, Anthony Perkins, Lillian Russell, Chevy Chase, Ted Danson, Alec Baldwin, and Stephen Baldwin
      Prophet and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement Joseph Smith, Jr., his wife Emma Hale, and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young
      American pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock
      Opera singer and music educator William Howland
      Conductor and pianist Robert Spano
      Colin Tilley, American music video director for Riveting Entertainment
      Canada diplomat Warwick Fielding Chipman

Descendants of John Howland's brother Henry

      U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford
      Comedian Johnny Carson

Descendants of John Howland's brother Arthur

      British prime minister Winston Churchill and Henry (Churchill)

The genealogical society, The Pilgrim John Howland Society, is open for membership to all who can claim Howland as an ancestor. It is based in Plymouth, Massachusetts.


John Howland's Grave