7.Addenda - Bellsouthpwp.net

Rich and Famous Howlands
Pilgrim John Howland
Almost Fell off the Mayflower
His Descendants Founded a Shipping Dynasty
(7 th great-grand uncle of Norman W. Pettys, Sr.)
Page 361
John Howland was the brother of Henry (from whom we are descended) and Arthur, and reached the New World ahead
of them - on the Mayflower. He was the 13 th signer of the “Mayflower Compact.” That he reached the New World at
all is remarkable. He nearly drowned. Gov. Bradford wrote:
“In sundrie of these storms the winds were so feirce and ye seas so high as they could not beare
a knot of saile, but were forced to hull for diverce days togither. And in one of them, as they lay thus
at hull, in a mightie 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, and rane out at length; yet he hild
his hould (though he was sundrie fadomes under water) till he was hald up by ye same rope to ye
brime of yet water, and then with a boat hooke and other means got into ye ship againe, and his life
was saved; and though he was some thing ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a
profitable member both in church and commone wealth.” - [Source: “Genealogy of the Howland Family of
America,” Franklyn Howland, 1885]
Hubert Kinney Shaw, author of Families of the Pilgrims: John Howland, published 1955 by the Massachusetts Society
of Mayflower Descendants, puts the story in modern English:
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.
Shaw also tells us that:
John Howland was one of Governor Carver's family. 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 married Elizabeth Tilley, a girl of eighteen. She had come on the
Mayflower with her parents who, like the Carvers, were victims of “the sickness” during the first
winter. She d. 21 Dec. 1687 at Swansea.
According to Shaw, John Howland was born in 1592, the son of Henry Howland, of Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire (near
Newport, County Essex, England) and died 23 Feb. 1672 in Plymouth, Mass. Throughout his life, John remained a
Puritan. His brothers Henry and Arthur were Quakers. It may be that John indentured himself to Carver to pay the cost
of his voyage, a common practice of the day. The source for this is the web page of the Society of Mayflower
Descendants in the Commonwealth of Virginia (http://www.sail1620.org/m2k/kids/trades.htm), which states: